When Sunna Van Kampen became a father, he started turning his attention to children’s diets and was shocked at what he found. “Almost 60 per cent of the UK diet comes from ultra processed foods (UPF), but when we look at kids’ lunchboxes, this rises to 82 per cent,” he says.
His social media posts, where he forensically measures and compares UPF and sugar content in supermarket foods, are now watched by millions. “Parents are duped into buying unhealthy foods because checking labels takes time – and can be impractical with children in tow,” says Van Kampen, the author of The Good, the Bad and the Healthy, host of the podcast The Unprocessed Truth, and founder of vitamin brand Tonic.
He is concerned by the lack of nutrition in the average UK diet, which some dieticians believe is contributing to the UK’s short children – five-year-olds are up to seven centimetres shorter than children of the same age living in mainland Europe.
Shorts
While most of us know that cooking from scratch is best for our children, it’s not always practical. So here is Sunna’s advice on picking better quick, supermarket food – and what to avoid.
