Many parents, especially those who themselves struggle with their weight, believe that a child is incapable of self-control when it comes to eating.

The fact that millions of children every year can learn to like chilli offers hope to us all; that our next bite can be different from the first.

Eat soup.

If it’s not a mealtime and you are wondering which of two ‘healthy snacks’ you should buy, the answer is probably neither.

If you want your children to eat better, don’t tell them what to do; eat better yourself.

Most of our approaches to feeding children are too short term. We worry about the next five minutes when we should worry about the next five years.

Girls eat better when food stops being something forbidden.

Boys eat better when their parents continue to expect them to eat vegetables and include them in home-cooked meals as they get older. Or - better still - get them to prepare the home-cooked meals themselves.

Japan has somehow managed to achieve the ideal attitude to eating: an obsession with culinary pleasure that is actually conductive to health.