Nutritionist Catherine Jeans gives the Nevin family valuable tips on sugar intake and how to eat a healthy family meal when time is short
To celebrate Aldi’s partnership with Team GB for the Rio Olympics, the Telegraph has joined forces with the supermarket to provide nutritional, fitness and well-being advice to families so they can grow their own champions. Here the nutritionist Catherine Jeans shares her advice for stress-free healthy family eating.
The family
The Nevin family are from south-east London. Rob, 38, is a social media director and Rachel, 37, is head of development for a TV production company. They have a two-year-old daughter, Ailbhe, and are expecting another baby in May.
How can we cut down on sugar as a family?
Rachel says: “I wanted to ask about sugar, especially for Ailbhe, given stories in the news about children eating too much. I also worry Rob and I have too much sugar as it’s so easy to end up eating sweets and biscuits when we’re tired from juggling work and kids.”
Catherine says: “Rob and Rachel worry about setting Ailbhe up with bad habits, leaving her at risk of obesity or type 2 diabetes, and about her teeth. Yet they know they’re far from perfect themselves, too often reaching for the biscuits and ready meals. Families need to be aware of the health implications of our typically high-sugar diets, but life is about balance. It’s about giving ourselves the best possible basis for a healthy diet. Don’t ban sugar and treats but work by a rule of, ‘don’t eat sugar if you’re hungry’.
“It’s easy to assume fruit is a healthy alternative, but we aren’t designed to eat a lot of it. A smoothie might contain five pieces of fruit – which is very concentrated sugar – and a toddler would struggle to eat five whole pieces of fruit in its original form. Instead, opt for a protein-based food, which will help balance things out so blood sugar levels don’t spike so high. Add nuts and seeds to cakes and biscuits, replace some of the flour with ground almonds, use wholemeal flour or a mix of wholemeal and white flour, and use fruit in cooking instead.”
Catherine also suggests using maple syrup or honey to sweeten cakes. The Nevins love Aldi’s maple syrup, and its bags of ground linseeds, which can add nutritious fatty acids to a range of home-cooked foods.
Simple swap
Rob says: “We take it in turns to collect Ailbhe from childcare, and it’s always a rush to get some food ready and eaten before bedtime. How can we avoid the fish fingers and pasta rut?”
Catherine says: “For the busiest days, try the picnic approach. When children have already had a big, hot meal at lunch, they don’t necessarily need another in the evening. Divide a small plate in half – on one half, add salad, apple and cucumber or carrot and celery sticks. On the other half of the plate, divide it in two again, adding wholegrain carbohydrates like a slice of wholemeal toast to one part.
“On the other part, add a protein-rich food – some mackerel, a boiled egg, chicken, hummus or a dollop of cream cheese for dipping. Aldi is fantastic for great value, fresh, good quality fruit and vegetables, it has fab smoked mackerel fillets and its canned chickpeas and black-eyed beans are an easy way to add flavour and texture to a salad.”
This weekend we're
“... taking Ailbhe to a balance-bike session at the local velodrome in Herne Hill. It’s aimed at under-fives, they hire adjustable bikes to the kids and there are balance bikes too for the parents, so we can zoom around together. It’s about getting kids excited about and mobile on bikes from an early age.’’
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