Obesity-proofing our children 171 Not unreasonably, people often ask me what do my wife and I do with our children – offer them unlimited amounts of sweet food? No. Basically we have a pretty simple approach. Our children are allowed less healthy, fattening foods only after they eat good serves of healthy food. Perhaps the most difficult balance is with highly refined carbohydrates and sugar as found in sweets and soft drinks. But even with these foods( using the word very loosely) we are conscious not to‘ deprive’ them of the experience. Soft drinks are a major problem in the causation of childhood obesity. A number of studies have singled them out to target because of their high energy density, their ready availability and the ease with which large amounts can be drunk quickly. To deal with soft drinks we keep their favorite juices at home and allow them to make smoothies( based on milk) and frappés( based on juice) as they like. As these are fundamentally more interesting tasting drinks than soft drink when we go out they will preferentially have a smoothie or a frappés and only have soft drink when these options are not available. On these occasions, however, we will limit them to only one glass of soft drink and then it is on to water. Sweets are allowed once or twice a week – usually purchased with hoarded tuck-shop money. It is very gratifying now( at the time of writing they are aged 15 and 12) to see that when we sit down in a café our daughter asks if they do milkshakes made on real milk, while our son asks if they make frappes based on real fruit – indoctrination complete! The reality is that depriving a child of a particular food gives that food enormous power. Deprivation sends the message this food is special. Then, when the child sees other children eating it the follow-on message is,‘ What about me!’ I was quietly pleased the other day when I saw my daughter turn down some chocolate truffles that my wife had pulled out of the pantry because they were not fresh. I, on the other hand, felt they were not that bad and could not be let go to waste.( As you know, I also grew up in a family where chocolates were a rare treat.)