Marguerite Patten talks to allaboutyou

All About You online 20.03.2008

She was the first TV cook, she's spent over 60 years advising people on how to eat, and she's written over 170 books. Here she talks to Adrienne Wyper about what really constitutes healthy eating habits

Marguerite Patten, the first TV cook At the age of 92, Marguerite has seen lots of changes in how we eat, many of them to our detriment. One of these changes is that, 'Over the years, for one reason and another, families have stopped eating together.' She believes that this is a habit we all need to get back into for several reasons.

Keeping an eye on what children are eating is one good reason for sitting down together, explains Marguerite. 'If children and young adults eat separately, how do you know they're eating well? I'm sure you've seen in the paper a report on someone who finds her young daughter has become anorexic, and says, "I didn't know." But mothers and fathers should know and notice these things. So if people eat together there's a very good chance you will se who is eating properly.'

Talk while you eat
Developing children's conversational skills and staying informed with what's going on in children's lives is another key reason. 'Mealtimes don't consist just of eating,' says Marguerite. 'They consist of conversation, exchanging views, listening, not only mums and dads but the children too. That's how they learn to communicate.'

Marguerite recognises that with today's busy lifestyles, we can't be expected to eat together at every meal. 'It may be difficult to do it every day. Being realistic, if you can't do it during the week, eat together on Saturday or Sunday. Then you can say can we make a point of doing this every Sunday, because we've all enjoyed it very much and we'd love to do that, make it our special get-together day.'

How did we start eating apart?
Marguerite has several theories on how we began to eat separately. 'Our obsession with TV must take its share of the blame,' she says. 'It wasn't really popular until the Coronation in 1953. And everyone wanted television then. People wouldn't go out on certain nights because their favourite serial was on.' And she jokingly refers to her own culpability: 'I think cookery writers like Marguerite Patten devised snacks for people to eat on a tray, so we played a part!'.

The introduction of what were known as 'labour-saving devices' and convenience food also made it easier for family members to eat at different times: 'We had the coming of freezers,' recalls Marguerite. 'Not only could you freeze fresh food, but you could go out and buy frozen food. And then microwaves became very important and that's when manufacturers thought, "Ooh, people can store my product in the freezer and put it in the microwave", and so convenience food had a very big effect.' But Marguerite is resolute in her belief that 'all of those shouldn't stop people buying fresh food.'

The rise in women working outside the home also plays a part in disjointed mealtimes, agrees Marguerite. But, she points out, she was brought up by a working mother and they ate well. 'My mother became a widow when I was 12, my brother was nine and my sister was four. She came from a generation that never worked after they were married. She was a trained teacher and because she had to earn money she went back to teaching. That didn't stop us having good meals.'

As we all know, obesity in children is on the increase, and separate eating times - often separate menus - don't help. As you'd expect, Marguerite has a take on this: 'There are far too many children who are overweight, because they eat such a lot of rubbish, and it's rubbish between meals. If a child nibbles between breakfast and lunch, or - even worse - doesn't have a breakfast they are starving hungry by break time, and start to stuff crisps and sweets and a fizzy drink. How can this child be expected to eat a good midday meal?'

Marguerite feels strongly that children should eat a good breakfast: 'It's quite easy with modern cereals - or yogurt is better - then they won't be hungry in the middle of the morning and they'll be ready for lunch.'

Eating habits in the past
However, Marguerite does concede that it was easier to get kids to eat more healthily in the past, when there was less choice and special children's foods. 'When I was at the Ministry of Food in the war, there were no snacks or temptation. Temptation is everywhere now.

'In 2003 as an experiment I did two weeks of wartime school dinners for a class of 30 eight-year-olds. It was wintertime so we had to use root vegetables, and not one of those children had ever seen a parsnip before - or a turnip or a swede - let alone eaten one. They had seen cabbage and were determined they weren't going to eat it. By the end of the fortnight, because they weren't given any choice, they were all eating dishes like Irish stew, shepherd's pie - with all the vegetables - and enjoying it. I think it's a question of re-educating children's palates when they're not used to healthy food.'

How to eat better
Eating more healthily needn't be complicated; it just requires a little more planning. 'If you look carefully you'll find there are cheaper things you can buy,' says Marguerite. 'You can buy cheaper cuts of meat and let them stew gently in the evening, then get them out, let them cool and put them in the refrigerator. You do have to think more carefully, but what you're paying for is real food. You may have to compromise a little but keep as your basis real fresh food.'

Marguerite is a great believer in the virtues of oily fish, and its nutritional benefits for children. 'Omega 3, and the vitamins that go with it, are absolutely essential for growth, and growth isn't just arms and legs in children, it's their brains too. Fish oil supplements for children nowadays - like Haliborange Omega-3 - taste so much better than the spoonfuls of fish oil 60 years ago!'

Marguerite also believes that seasonal, locally produced food is better - and cheaper. 'If people want to buy foods out of season, where have they come from? How long have they travelled, are they worth eating? I would say no, because they're out of season. So if you look for seasonal foods you will find by and large they are cheaper.'

'I think organic foods are very good but for people on a limited income I think they've got to assess that. Basically, if the food is fresh and if it's locally grown it's going to be good for you. It's almost better to buy frozen vegetables than tired vegetables. Most are frozen within a very short time of being picked. They haven't got the same flavour as really fresh ones but they're better than tired ones.'

It's a paradox of society today that we're all interested in food, but spend less time cooking from scratch. Marguerite agrees that people are more interested in food and cookery programmes, even though they may not cook from scratch very often themselves. 'People love watching it. Cooking is a fascinating thing. Children are fascinated when they start cooking. You look at their faces, you look at their pride. It doesn't have to be dry and dreary, it's fun. And that I think is what mealtimes should be: fun, enjoyable and healthy.'