Dietary change comes not from forcing someone to eat what they do not like, but in helping them to discover their own passions.

It may not feel like it, but you never lost your potential to change how you eat. The wonderful secret of being an omnivore is that we can adjust our desires, even late in the game. It won’t happen on the first bite.

There is a deep resistance to the idea of dietary change, at both a cultural and an individual level. And yet, you accept the premise that eating is a learned behaviour, it follows that changing eating habits must be - if not likely and certainly not easy - at least possible.

Flavour principles change. Diets change. And the people eating these diets also change.

With our own personal diets, we often convince ourselves that there is something vital within us that prevents us from ever eating differently.

It turns out that wherever we are from, people are capable of altering not just what they eat but what they want to eat and their behaviour when eating.

It is possible for children to learn and improve their eating skills in ways that will automatically lead them to a healthier diet.

In contrast to all the other things we work on in life that are far less likely to increase our wellbeing - including dieting - it is astonishing how little effort we put into changing our eating preferences for the better.

Avoid ‘distracting’ meals such as TV dinners and computer lunches. replace the biscuit jar with a fruit bowl. Repackage food into smaller containers. Order half-size portions in restaurants. Replace short wide glasses with tall narrow ones. And get smaller plates.