Reducing fat, salt and sugar – how will our children react?

[18 November 2011 - 17h10]

Salt, sugar and fat are three commonly used flavour enhancers. Too common in fact … But if their use is reduced how will our children react? Scientists at the French National Agronomic Research Institute (INRA) have been looking into this issue and have reached a number of conclusions.

The salt, sugar and fat content in foods served to children varies from meal to meal. Pasta and green beans showed variations in salt and butter, and stewed fruit varied in sugar content.

The results showed that removing salt led to a reduction in the consumption of green beans. By contrast, increased use of salt on pasta made it more popular. However, changing the fat content had no impact on eating habits. Nor did reducing sugar content in stewed fruit. This shows that it is entirely possible to reduce sugar or fat content in children’s food without having any negative effect on their consumption of these foods.

In the case of salt, on the other hand, the results are more alarming. To reduce our children’s salt consumption is more difficult, particularly when it comes to the foods that they enjoy least, such as vegetables for example. So a few little tricks may be needed, such as gradually reducing salt content, the way the food is cooked, or the recipe used … there are plenty of things you can try. And of course you can always replace sodium chloride with other condiments such as pepper, coriander, curry powder or even cinnamon.

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