Doctor shares three simple tricks to teach children about healthy eating

Maira Butt
Updated ·2-min read

TV doctor and bestselling author, Dr Chris van Tulleken, has revealed three simple ways to teach young children about healthy eating.

The 46-year-old writer of Ultra-Processed People, first rose to fame for presenting the BBC One documentary, The Doctor Who Gave up Drugs in 2018.

While Dr van Tulleken has strong beliefs about the importance of healthy eating, even comparing food to tobacco, he advises some small steps to ensuring that children can pick up good habits from a young age.

As a father of three young daughters, Dr van Tulleken expressed alarm at rising obesity levels in children, in an interview with The Times. According to recent numbers, 12 per cent of children aged two to ten are obese.

Firstly, he explained that he had gotten rid of a bowl of sweets and chocolates in his house that he used to offer to guests.

“The kids were eating quite a lot of it and so we’ve got rid of most of it. I do think that it’s very important for children to have a normal life,” he explained.

However, he also added that the key was to balance out healthy habits with some freedom and normality.

“When they go to a party they eat the same food that everyone else does,” he said. “They’re allowed to eat anything but we don’t have much of [the unhealthy stuff] in the house.”

Doctor van Tulleken revealed some simple ways to help children eat healthily (Getty Images)
Doctor van Tulleken revealed some simple ways to help children eat healthily (Getty Images)

In addition to getting rid of sweets and chocolates and allowing his children to eat the same food as everyone else at parties, he added one final tip.

“There is one thing that experts on eating disorders agree on,” he said.

“If you want your kids to develop good eating habits, sit down with them at meals and role-model good eating. Eat off china plates with cutlery, eat real food and do it yourself in front of them. I’ve taken that quite seriously.”

Dr van Tulleken acknowledged the difficulty in adopting healthier lifestyles, admitting that it can be a bit “weird” to care so much.

“A lot of people may recognise that unless you have a slightly obsessional approach to food, it’s really hard to eat in what the evidence says is a healthy way,” he said.

“If you’re concerned about your health and you live in an [otherwise] sort of normal way in modern Britain, then you have to be a little bit almost weird about your food.”

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