Breaking the obesity cycle
Type 2 diabetes amongst children, once almost unheard of, is on the increase according to a report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. They found that more than 600 children and young people under 25 were treated for Type 2 diabetes in 2015/16 in England and Wales, including some aged between five and nine. 78% of the young people in the audit were also categorised as obese, a strong contributing factor in the development of Type 2 diabetes along with unhealthy diets.
According to government figures, around one in five children starting primary school now is overweight or obese and the figure rises to one in three by the time they leave. That’s one in three children who have an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in later life and facing the possibility of associated health problems like amputations, blindness, heart attacks and strokes if they don’t learn how to manage their weight and eating habits effectively.
The cost of this to the NHS, and therefore to us all, is going to be horrifying if nothing is done to reverse the trend. The government has responded by launching a new initiative to get food manufacturers to reduce the calories in some of the most popular products like ready meals, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and savoury snacks. This initiative follows the push to reduce salt and then sugar which evolved into the Change 4 Life Sugar Smart app. Public Health England will be setting targets aimed at reducing calories in meals, snacks and drinks from supermarkets, restaurants and takeaways and, although these will be voluntary, they could be followed by legislation if the industry does not respond.
The trouble is, that we’ve been here before and nothing changes. When products are labelled as “healthy” because they are low fat, we then discover that the sugar or salt content has been doubled to compensate for the lack of flavour and preservative property of the fat. Salt, sugar and fat are what makes ready meals and takeaways so addictive and our taste buds have been trained to want more and more. Ready meals, snacks and sugary drinks are inherently unhealthy and many contain long lists of unappetising ingredients which really cannot lead to a healthy diet. Check out the ingredients in this popular food item and see if you can guess what it is:
Soybean Oil (Antioxidant (330)), Water, Relish [ Pickles, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Distilled Vinegar, Preservative (202), Thickener (415), Flavourings], Mustard [Water, Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Salt, Sugar, Colours (150d, 100), Spice], Salted Egg Yolks, Distilled Vinegar, Onion, Thickeners (1442, 415, 405), Spices, Sugar, Salt, Hydrolysed Protein (Corn Gluten, Soy, Wheat Gluten), Preservative (211), Colours (160c, 150d, 100), Emulsifier (433), Garlic, Antioxidant (385).
Sounds delicious doesn’t it? These are the ingredients in the special sauce on a MacDonalds big mac apparently. It doesn’t take a genius to see that a diet so full of articial “food” is never going to be a healthy option.
I don’t think we should leave our health and that of our children at the mercy of big food manufacturers at all. Let’s give our children back the power to control their own health by reducing their reliance on convenience foods. The importance of all aspects of our food and health, including growing, cooking from scratch, eating more fruit and vegetables and cutting down on meat (especially hormone and antibiotic-pumped, mass-produced meat) and taking regular exercise should be taught far more rigorously in schools or children will never have the skills to break this cycle of ill-health.
As Snapdragons parents, you can rest assured that your children are eating food that is always made from scratch so we know exactly what goes into their meals. We do not add salt and colourings and all our puddings use lower sugar recipes. We don’t use ready-made sauces (one of the worst culprits for high salt and sugar). If you see yoghurt on the menu it’s natural, unflavoured and the fruit purees served with it are simply blended fruit with no added sugar. We add extra vegetables, beans and pulses to stews, casseroles and even sausage rolls, to make sure that the children hit their five a day too.
Please ask us if you ever have any questions about how we make the food and we will be happy to tell you and don’t forget that some of our recipes are shared on the website and in our magazine.
Broadly Speaking
I love broad beans; in fact I think they are one of the tastiest and most versatile vegetables going.
They’re delicious raw when they’re young and sweet, great pureed and mixed with mint, lemon and a splash of oil for a quick and easy dip; crushed and paired with goat’s cheese for an easy crostini topping; added into casseroles and risottos; lightly blanched and scattered into a mixed salad, or – my favourite – combined with other early summer vegetables like tender stemmed broccoli, peas, asparagus, artichoke hearts and spring onions all lightly steamed and tossed with a lemony dressing, a sprinkle of parsley and maybe some chilli flakes while still warm.
Imagine, then, my greed and excitement when I visited the Keynsham garden and saw a bumper crop of fresh green broad bean pods nestling amongst their leaves, swollen with the promise of the sweet, juicy beans inside. Who remembers from their school days that quirky celebration of harvest that is the “Cauliflowers Fluffy” song with the memorable chorus: “The apples are ripe and the plums are red, The broad beans are sleeping in their blankety bed”? Not me obviously, I’m far too old, but I did learn to love it when my children were at school. Splitting a ripe pod and gently prising it open to reveal a neat row of bright green beans nestling snugly in their downy white bed tends to bring on an “isn’t nature great” moment for me!
Anyway, Tim introduced the children to the joys of a broad bean as soon as he spotted that they were ready for picking in the Keynsham garden. They loved hunting for ripe pods and opening them to discover the treasure inside. As I said, baby broad beans need no additions so are perfect for a children’s garden. Easy to grow, fun to harvest and delicious eaten straight from the pod to introduce the children to the joy of growing their own vegetables and eating them at their freshest, still warm from the summer sun and bursting with flavour and vitamins.
We wanted to use some of the beans in this month’s Nursery Kitchen video and, in honour of a visit from the Norland Japanese summer school students, we decided to make our own sushi using the beans and some other seasonal vegetables. It’s certainly not complicated to do and it’s something children can easily get to grips with using their own choice of fillings. Ours were vegetarian but smoked mackerel makes a tasty addition and works wonderfully with the beetroot one. Apologies to our Japanese visitors for any lack of authenticity!
Continued growth
After last month's grandparents' growing day at Keynsham, the planting has continued apace across all the nurseries: borders and planters are being filled up with fresh compost and a smorgasbord of seed and bean varieties to delight the children.
At Keynsham the unusual organic herb varieties we sourced from Jekka's Herb Farm In South Gloucestershire are settling in well with the help of some diligent watering. We've already put two of the mint varieties to use with a refreshing lemon, apple, mint and elderflower infusion made by the children after a busy planting session. At this time of year the plants seem almost to grow as you watch them and the cartwheel vegetable beds are already yielding some tasty salad leaves which look too delicious to miss. Unfortunately, that's what our resident rabbits think too, so we've had to do some careful netting and an assault course of bamboo canes to try and fend them off. As one of the children said, "Mr McGregor has Peter Rabbit and he tried to catch him because he ate his lettuces".
This week Tim and the children planted some exotic "Painted Mountain' sweetcorn which will produce multi-coloured cobs of yellow, red, black and purply brown and some white 'Czar' runner beans which we are hoping will form a bean archway over our rambling nasturtium wall.
With all these plants to tempt us we couldn't resist getting started with some simple recipes starting with a fresh and zesty salad. When Tim was on hand to guide them, some of the children picked a selection of leaves to make a mixed leaf, herb and radish salad with three different lettuce varieties - little gem, lamb's and butterhead - chives, fat hen, radish, parsley and edible ground ivy flowers. Ground ivy, despite the name, is actually a member of the mint family and completely safe to eat. Whenever we pick plants we repeat the important instructions about which plants are safe and remind the children to ask before eating anything they've grown!
As promised, the latest Nursery Kitchen video features some of the produce from the garden - we used chives, parsley and marjoram to flavour some hand made "pici" pasta but any selection of your favourite herbs would work.
The Kitchen Garden
Whether or not you're a gardener you'll have noticed in the last couple of weeks that nature is waking up and springing into action after a long, dark winter. In the nurseries the grass that has been trampled into oblivion by hundreds of mini wellies over the wet winter is beginning to recover and is already looking more green than brown.
Flower borders littered with clumps of brown, rotted leaves and dry-looking twigs are suddenly reminding us of their potential as they push up fresh green growth. Spring has sprung!
In our vegetable growing areas we are starting to plan which edible plants to grow. We're looking for plants that will inspire the children with incredible colours, smells and textures. We want to instil in them a love of fresh food in all its glory. There's nothing more guaranteed to encourage children to try new tastes and textures of fruit and vegetables than helping to grow them.
At Snapdragons Keynsham, Tim "don't-fence-me-in" Graham, our Leader of Outdoor Learning (#LOL), has been hard at work plotting out the vegetable patch and we're excited to reap the rewards. We have focussed on growing a variety of edible plants that are packed with sensory benefits - plants that smell amazing, look great, feel interesting and taste wonderful. On top of that, we've looked for plants that attract bees and other native wildlife to encourage a diverse and sustainable environment. We invited the Keynsham grandparents to help us plant up the kitchen garden and they didn't disappoint, sharing their love of growing with their grandchildren and helping to inspire the next generation of horticulturalists.
Over the next few weeks, we'll be watching the progress of our nursery gardens and looking to use the produce in our new Nursery Kitchen video feature. So if you've been inspired to get planting, we hope to give you some ideas of how to use your home-grown food. Let's get cooking!