Becoming a parent involves embracing a degree of heinous hypocrisy. When it comes to kids, it is very much a case of “do as I say, not as I do”. This is never truer than when it comes to food.

With the very best of intentions, we assemble each lunchbox for maximum nutrition, vitamins and energy, knowing full well all the kids want is a Vegemite sandwich and a chocolate chip cookie. Instead we cajole them with carrot sticks, sultanas, an apple, and the variety of virtuous brown rice crackers we know have the taste and consistency of cardboard, with perhaps just a hint of rice. Yet should we have a yearning for a Vegemite sanga ourselves… Well, why not?

Despite this hypocrisy, the temptation is always there to occasionally gift our children with some of the culinary treats that captivated our tastebuds during our own childhoods. So we sneak in the odd trip to the fast food franchises we remember so fondly.

However, the food of yore is not the food of now, and it is critical to educate ourselves about how certain foods have evolved (or devolved, depending on your perspective) over time.

Cereals are a terrific example. The bowls of puffed rice we plundered during battles for the toy at the bottom of the box are far removed from the puffed rice the big breakfast cereal syndicates are spruiking today. Twenty years ago, a spoonful of puffed rice was just that: puffed rice, perhaps with the addition of whole milk and a sprinkle of sugar. Now the sugar is not an optional extra. It is practically the key ingredient – not that manufacturers like to admit it.

Enjoying the odd French fry as part of a balanced diet 30 years ago was no great cause for concern. The combination of potato, salt and oil was not exactly quinoa, but it was afar cry from the monstrosity marketed to our children now. With some 19 ingredients, only a handful of which could be found in nature (but so is uranium, and I am not spreading that on my toast any time soon) the modern fry – the lynchpin of many a fast food outlet – would be more at home in a laboratory than on a menu, let alone in our children’s bellies. This particular delight is now more Franken-fry than French.

The amount of sugar we consume has long been cause for concern. Yes, our bodies crave it, but that elemental addiction is a hangover from our hunter-gather heritage, when the sweet stuff was seasonal, and in short supply at that. Our ancestors would glut themselves on ripe fruit through summer, to last them the long winter to come. Now sugar is available anywhere and everywhere, increasingly in many foods we would never suspect. We could gorge on it all day, everyday, and our basest, Neanderthal instincts tell us to do just that, despite the fact we simply do not need it.

Just to add to the confusion, different sweeteners have different effects on our systems, and no two calories are alike. Natural, simple sugars found in fruit, veggies and honey are just as calorific as their processed counterparts, but come with some advantages such a vitamins, antioxidants and fibre. Given the ratio of sugar to other ingredients such as water in whole foods, it is actually difficult to indulge dangerously on such sweeteners due to sheer volume.

“The White Death,” as standard granulated table sugar has aptly come to be called, along with brown, raw and all their relatives, are merely empty calories, extracted from sugar cane via processing. High fructose corn syrup, meanwhile, a sweetener found predominantly in American products but stealthily making its way onto our shores and into our foods, is a highly processed corn derivative. HFCS comprises glucose and fructose, blended together using water to create a viscous, easy to hide and very easy to digest sweetener. You can’t buy it on a supermarket shelf, but you will find it slipped in to products as innocuous as bread, soup and sauces.

Suddenly, meals we once made slowly from scratch using whole foods are arriving conveniently packaged on store shelves, packed with preservatives, colours and sugars to recreate flavours only possible from good produce, time and love. The more processed a foodstuff is, the more likely it is to be filled with nasties. But in an age where we are all time-poor and less willing to slave over stoves, the draw of packaged food is undeniable. And with significant rises in allergies and allergy awareness, processed foods in their hygienically sealed packages with full ingredient lists printed on the side are understandably attractive.

The marketers of highly processed, packaged foods, and their fast food cousins, have much to answer for. We all want to eat a balanced, nutritious diet, and to safeguard the health of our family. But it isn’t a fair and even playing field when labels like “healthy,” “nutritious” and even “organic” are bandied about on foods that are still high in sugar and unhealthy fats, and are highly processed.

The convenience of processed, packages and pre-prepared products is just that: convenience. A little extra effort comes with greater rewards. Teach your kids to celebrate food as it was designed to be, in its whole state, and you will set them up for a lifetime of good health and good eating habits. Nothing tastes better than a warm, summer stone fruit, plucked straight from the tree. Nothing has a more satisfying crunch than a carrot, pulled straight from the soil. Sad strawberries served up in winter; tasteless, watery tomatoes in June; or a packet of “fruit snacks” that bear no resemblance whatsoever to their source, but contain the same amount of fructose in one packet as eight bananas – these things should not even be on our radar, let alone part of our children’s’ diets.

The simplest rule of thumb is to eat mostly foods that are as close to their natural form as possible. Eat seasonally and close to the source and your family will experience fruit, vegetables, proteins, nuts, grains and legumes at their very best. It takes time, effort and a willingness to learn, but the benefits far outweigh the cost.

At some point we need to acknowledge that joyful memories of the spoils of childhood are just that: memories. Lovely to reminisce on, but, with increased tampering with basic foodstuffs, virtually impossible to relive.

We certainly cannot trust big business to recreate them for us. But with a little work, patience and perseverance, we can help our children create their own treasured food memories by celebrating produce that is sustainable, local, good for them and good for the planet. If we can achieve this, these will be memories they can relive for many, many years to come.