From the chapter ‘The early years‘
Mark Cuddigan, CEO of Ella’s Kitchen
Fruit and vegetables are at the heart of healthy relationships with food. Diets rich in them are linked to a lower risk of heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer.[i] Yet currently only 18 per cent of children aged 5 to 15 eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day,[ii] and 29 per cent of those aged 5 to 10 eat less than one portion per day.[iii]
As with so many of these types of statistics, for those children from less affluent backgrounds, the picture is far worse. Little ones who come from less affluent backgrounds consume almost 30 per cent less fruit and vegetables than their peers from the top 20 per cent income bracket,[iv] and are most at risk of diet-related illnesses.[v]
When my eldest daughter, Mimi, started school, the number of children in the UK living with overweight or obesity at her age was a shocking 21 per cent.[vi] Alarmingly, seven years later, as she enters her second year of secondary school, there has been no improvement in these figures. In fact, the issue has got worse, with almost one in four children starting primary school now overweight or obese.[vii] What this tells me is that government policy on childhood nutrition, including the obesity strategy,[viii] has failed to address the issue.
I have to be honest; I’m personally not as interested in the cost this will have on our GDP, or the massive cost it will have on the National Health Service and society in general – although, of course, we know that this will be absolutely huge. I’m more concerned about the cost it will have on our children. None of these children has chosen to be in this position – and we cannot deliver a better future for our children (and everyone else!) if so many have had their health compromised at such a young age.
It is clear we must act urgently to protect our young children and keep them happy and healthy, and we know that we must start as early as possible.
The early years, from birth to age five, is a crucial period of development where learned behaviours have an especially important effect on outcomes later in life. It’s in this period of childhood that children develop crucial habits, cognitive and social skills, and their learning and physical development progresses faster than at any other stage of life. Despite this, policy interventions tend to focus on children from school age onwards – ignoring this critical window of opportunity to set healthy habits for life.
Research shows that simply telling a child what to eat or educating them about why they should either eat or stay away from certain foods isn’t effective.[ix] Children need more intuitive, creative interventions to help them fall in love with fruit and vegetables! That’s why harnessing the power of play is so powerful.
In the early years, imaginative and explorative play is one of the most important ways that children learn, especially when it stimulates all their senses. In fact, play is so important to a child’s healthy development that it has been enshrined as a right under Article 31 of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.[x]
So it makes sense that learning about food, and being introduced to fruit and vegetables through guided play, also known as sensory food play, helps children build a curiosity and acceptance for new, healthy foods.
This type of play helps build nerve connections in the brain that aids familiarisation with new objects (including food) and develops a child’s language and motor skills, while also allowing them to learn through exploration and problem-solving.
This is an area that Ella’s Kitchen has been involved with for many years. As part of our mission, we have worked with some of the UK’s leading developmental psychologists, nutritionists and early years education experts to examine what we can do to help children eat more fruit and vegetables. Time and again, this has led us to the benefits of sensory food play.
Most recently we have supported Professor Marian Hetherington and Dr Nick Wilkinson of the University of Leeds to undertake a full systematic review of the evidence surrounding sensory food play in the early years.
The initial findings from this are that sensory food play can help improve a child’s willingness to try new food they otherwise might not. This could be especially helpful for picky eaters. Not only does it help to expand the range of vegetables and fruit children know and like (which is the first step to increasing the variety and intake of healthy foods), but it’s also remedial, meaning it’s likely to provide the most benefit for those children who have either not had access to, or are less accepting of, fruit and vegetables.
With the cost of living crisis putting an increased strain on household finances, this intervention holds real promise as a low-cost, educational tool that can increase a child’s liking of, and willingness to try, new fruit and vegetables.
Given the vital role of the early years in brain development, this can help to set healthy food habits that can last a lifetime. That’s why we are asking the government to ensure that every child has access to sensory food play in early years settings, such as creches and nurseries.
In our new Eat, Play, Love policy paper,[xi] we have laid out three key asks to government:
- Update the Early Years Foundation Stage (the equivalent of the National Curriculum for the early years), so that sensory food play is included.
- Ensure the Department for Education issues age-appropriate guidance to early years educators to help them to deliver sensory food play in their settings.
- Provide funding for the least affluent early years providers, because these settings are under huge pressure, and this is where the biggest impact can be had.
However, we’re not just waiting for government to act. As Paul Polman and Andrew Winston argue in their book, Net Positive,[xii] governments cannot combat the enormous global challenges we face alone; businesses must step up and become ‘net positive’, and give more to the world than they take. As one of the UK’s first B Corporations, which puts environmental and social considerations on an equal footing to profit, Ella’s Kitchen has long been committed to step up by not just calling for, but also helping deliver, this positive change.
As part of our campaign to encourage government to act, we are working with sensory food education experts Flavour School and the Early Years Alliance to fund pilots of sensory food play in a diverse range of early years settings. This will help evaluate best practice, develop lesson plans and resources that can be shared among educators, and ultimately provide evidence to the Department for Education to deliver the guidance that we’re calling for.
We’ll also be taking sensory food play on the road as our Eat, Play, Love truck visits early years settings across the country to deliver lessons, training and leave-behind resources so that settings can continue to deliver sensory food education for the long term, as well as passing on their knowledge so other educators, and children, can benefit.
Ensuring access to sensory food play won’t solve all our problems, but it can be a part of a wider movement, one that places children’s wellbeing at the fore, and nurtures healthy, happy children who will grow up and assume stewardship of our ever-changing world. In this government, business and each of us individuals has a role to play.
Notes
[i] British Nutrition Foundation (no date) ‘A healthy, balanced diet’, www.nutrition.org.uk/healthy-sustainable-diets/healthy-and-sustainable-diets/a-healthy-balanced-diet/?level=Consumer
[ii] NHS Digital (2019) Health Survey for England, 2018: Children’s health, https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/health-survey-for-england/2018
[iii] The Food Foundation (2021) Veg Facts 2021, https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/veg-facts-2021, p 6.
[iv] National Food Strategy (2021) The Plan, www.nationalfoodstrategy.org, p 58.
[v] National Food Strategy (2021) The Plan, www.nationalfoodstrategy.org, p 58.
[vi] National Food Strategy (2021) The Plan, www.nationalfoodstrategy.org, p 58.
[vii] NHS Digital (2022) National Child Measurement Programme, England, 2021/22 School Year, https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/national-child-measurement-programme/2021-22-school-year
[viii] DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) (2020) Tackling Obesity: Empowering Adults and Children to Live Healthier Lives, July, www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-obesity-government-strategy
[ix] Coulthard, H. (2022) Personal communication, 18 October, Churchill Room, Houses of Parliament.
[x] UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) (1989) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, www.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/UNCRC_united_nations_convention_on_the_rights_of_the_child.pdf
[xi] Ella’s Kitchen (2022) Eat. Play. Love, https://files.ellaskitchen.co.uk/generic/eat-play-love-policy-paper-2022.pdf
[xii] Polman, P. and Winsvaton, A. (2021) Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, Brighton, MA: Harvard Business Press Review.