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Our columnist Julie McKeen wonders whether they’ll ever eat up their quinoa
As we rapidly
approach the
month where the
battle of advent
chocolate before
or after breakfast
is something
everyone relishes
on a daily basis,
and we prepare
the stuffing of turkeys and ourselves, food
becomes omnipresent in our lives. Keeping
a healthy balance with your kids’ nutrition
between fun and, well, health, is more
challenging than ever.
There has nary been a time when
considering what to eat myself, that the
phrase ‘you can never have too much
quinoa’ has sprung to mind. Try as I might,
I simply cannot make a beetroot and leaf
salad taste as good as a spicy meat pizza.
So I’m not sure why – and I appear to
be in good company here – I find myself
so obsessed with convincing my children
to eat complicated dishes I probably would
have found challenging well into my teens.
I remember vividly the day when aged
seven, I was forced by two dinner ladies to
eat cheese flan in the dining hall at school.
I had two mouthfuls and was actually sick,
sPEAKsOUT
having worked myself up into a state akin
to ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’.
So when it comes to feeding my two
boys, do I go easy on them? Do I hell. I
negotiate, “One carrot, one bit of broccoli
and you can have your dessert.” But the
resolve so frequently slips... “OK, just
the flowery bit of the broccoli then,” as I
can feel my lifeblood ebbing away and it’s
almost wine o’clock... “I’m not sure just
placing it in your mouth then spitting it out
counts, but it’s Friday so why not.”
When we were children, food
preservation was having its heyday: tin
cans ‘locked in the goodness’ (really?), then
‘freshly frozen’ took over as industrial-scale
agriculture and farming – along with more
mothers working and TV dinners – made
their mark on our family eating habits.
Fish fingers, oven chips, Brevilles and
Arctic rolls never really did us much harm
in the long run.
But in 2013, we have gone full circle to
the 1950s in middle-class neighbourhoods.
It appears that in order to keep up with
the Joneses one ought to be seen to be
sourcing local, organic, fresh produce to
cook up for a kids’ after-school tea.
There are good, solid reasons for this if
viewed through the lens of health. Fresh
vegetables and organic meat will no doubt
be packed full of goodness for our little
ones, and the speed of getting them from
soil to plate will surely help.
However, the prospect of having the
time – and the not inconsiderable budget –
to wake up in the morning, plan that day’s
meals from scratch, then pootle around the
local fishmonger and farmer’s market to
source the ingredients seems like a life only
available to the privileged few.
And like all good middle-class mothers, I
too have spent hard earned dosh on organic
baby biscuits and snacks to assuage the guilt
of my knowledge that they are still, frankly,
crisps and biscuits.
Perhaps the flaunting of quinoa and
kale are to today what a suntan and lilo
were to the 70s: as much an outer-directed
validation of one’s financial success as they
are an enjoyment to the owner.
For my part, if I can upgrade the fish
finger to Jamie Oliver, and get three colours
of vegetables past their lips even briefly,
I shall consider tonight’s dinner a success
worth opening a bottle for. To your very
good health.
✽ Julie McKeen is co-founder of
breastfeeding fashion label, Peaks of
London. www.peaksoflondon.com