Should you judge parents for feeding their children ultra-processed foods?

When we were kids, my cousin and I were often so bothered by a craving for sugar that we would climb on top of his fridge and eat up to eight soluble vitamin C tablets, straight from the tube, all at once, because they were the closest we could get to sweets. I still remember the tart citrus burst of the tablet as it rested on my tongue; the strange, thick layer of orange foam that was accumulating at the corners of my mouth; the top as we swayed in chairs, inches from the ceiling, nailing those poor excuses for treats.

I offer you this small glimpse of life in an unglamorous hippie family of the 1990s because the question of processed foods is, as always, topical. According to a report for First Steps Nutrition Trust, ultra-processed foods now account for 61% of the total average energy intake of children aged two to five in the UK. This is higher than in the United States and Australia. What are ultra-processed foods, exactly? Well, basically any food to which a manufacturer has added chemicals, colorings, sweeteners and preservatives in order to make that food more appealing, longer lasting, shinier, stickier, crispier, etc. Things like mass-produced bread, cookies, and cakes. Things that are a little less obvious like cereals, juices and sausages. Ready meals and meal packets.

Reading the report I immediately thought of the time when on a train home from Liverpool, when my son was less than a year old, I sat down and ate an entire packet of his little puffs corn. I was hungover from drinking just one glass of white wine the night before, and I put the amazing taste of those melty, greasy snacks to it. And yet now I wonder if the deliciousness was less the result of my alcohol-induced dehydration and more of the fact that they were probably stuffed to the gills with a whole periodic table of additives and chemicals.

Due to my hippie upbringing, you might assume that I fed my child entirely broccoli and brown rice from the moment I unplugged him from my nipple, and he’s been growing like hogweed ever since. Well no. Of course, I bought him little puffs of corn. And of course, I bought him some sweet rice cakes with some kind of purple dust. And of course I fed him from time to time with sachets, sachets and tubes. Have you ever tried to feed a kid roasted sweet potatoes on bus number 253? Have you ever seen a child physically turn away from anything green for a week? Have you ever tried blowing your own carrots?