Mums are on a secret mission to help their children eat healthier
British mums are on a secret mission to help their families eat healthier according to a new survey.
The poll of 1,000 mums found 80 per cent admitted they’d covertly made family meals healthier without their partners or children knowing.
Supermarket Morrisons commissioned the survey with Netmums to better understand how mums think about healthier food for its NuMe range.
Half of those questioned by website Netmums admitted they’d hidden vegetables in recipes to disguise the goodness, while a quarter had pretended a healthy meal was something different to avoid putting off family members.
When mums took a break from taking charge of home-cooking, their partners had made some interesting and bizarre meal choices.
Some of the mealtime mistakes that Dads had made according to the Morrisons NuMe and Netmums survey included:
- Making cucumber and jam sandwiches for packed lunches
- Grating cheese over cereal for children’s breakfast
- Emptying last night’s Chinese takeaway into a child’s lunchbox
- Burning an omelette so badly a neighbour called the fire brigade
- Giving children chicken nuggets with chocolate dips
- Using gravy as a pasta sauce
- Giving into a child’s bizarre request for ice cream and peas
Thankfully, over half of the mums questioned felt that - despite the good intentions of their partners - introducing simple switches to mealtimes had helped, with 54 per cent saying they were confident their children got all the vitamins and nutrients they needed.
Siobhan Freegard, founder of Netmums, said: “It’s surprising to see that mums have concerns about the eating habits of their partners. It isn’t uncommon for mums to admit to bribing their children with treats or hide vegetables in meals, to encourage eating a healthy meal. Perhaps we’ll see the tables turn on dads in the near future.”
Nazli Dag, nutritionist for Morrisons NuMe, said the findings painted a picture of modern mums as a “MumTritionists”, responsible for keeping the entire family healthy 24/7, she said:
“It’s a concern that quite so many mums have had to resort to secretive measures to introduce healthy eating to family mealtimes.
“We know being a mum can be a tough and time consuming job, so hearing how they make time to prepare healthy meals that suit everyone’s tastes in their daily lives has been an eye opener!
“That’s why we’re using many of these mum’s tips and suggestions to help develop our NuMe range, which offers healthier, yet tasty versions of families favourite foods with less saturated fats and added nutritional benefits.”
Morrisons Executive Chef and Head of Innovation, Neil Nugent, offers mums these tips when it comes to preparing healthier hassle free mealtimes:
Tagged in Nutrition Diet Healthy eating Healthy Food