Healthy parents should be eating low-fat diets, but that can be difficult when preparing family meals - because the standard nutritional advice has been that children, especially those under the age of three, should not have their fat intake restricted. The latest advice is that we needn't have worried.

Contrary to concerns that a low-fat diet might impede children's growth and development, a study published in the journal of the American Medical Association has found that in children on low-fat diets, mental development is "at least as good" as children in the control group.

By limiting children's fat intake to 30-35 per cent of daily energy, parents may be able to help prevent heart disease in their children in later life. With childhood obesity on the increase, it's also a relief to know that children at risk can benefit from avoiding high-fat foods like biscuits and cakes, while enjoying low-fat meals and dairy products.

There's also bad news for parents in all this, however. There's no longer an excuse to make deep-fried chips "for the kids" when you're secretly planning to steal a few of them for yourself.