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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Need to improve children's nutrition, reveals survey

Need to improve children's nutrition, reveals survey

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published Published on Apr 25, 2011   modified Modified on Apr 25, 2011
Children prefer snacking on chips, burgers, noodles, pasta, samosas and other junk foods being sold in schools canteens, leading to lifestyle diseases, an ASSOCHAM survey has found.

Releasing the survey, “Rise in consumption pattern of junk food in school”, ASSOCHAM Health Committee chairman Dr. B. K. Rao said there was a need to improve children's nutrition by setting health standards for snacks and beverages sold in school canteens.

The survey was conducted in 25 private and public school canteens in Delhi and the National Capital Region among 5,000 children.

It found that kids preferred junk food like pizzas, burgers, chowmein, samosas, pasta which are heavy in fats, salt and sugar.

Due to this, many children develop lifestyle diseases.

“Not just parents but the school management should urge canteens to sell healthy snacks instead of junk foods as children spend more time in school,” said Dr. Rao.

The survey found that children buy food from the canteen at least four times a week.

Half the children surveyed said they eat eggs, pulses and nuts only once a week.

Most of the children said they feel extremely tired by the end of the day and can only jog for 10 minutes at a stretch.

“Certain unexplored aspects like the need for school canteen guidelines and the impact of advertisements on children's eating habits needs to be debated. Health intervention at school is the need of the hour,” stressed Dr. Rao.

Seventy-seven per cent of children wanted to opt for fruit juice and 60 per cent wanted flavoured milk. Nevertheless, samosas, chips and patties sold the most in canteens.

The survey also indicates that 75 per cent of the canteen operators approached were interested in providing healthier food options but profit making was their primary goal.

Home-cooked food

About 80 per cent parents liked their children to carry home-cooked food to school on all six days, though 39 per cent of them also give Rs.20-40 to their children to buy canteen food.

Also, around 56 per cent children spend Rs.50 every day at the canteen with burgers and noodles selling the most, 45 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Schools also agreed that the eating habits of children need urgent attention as cases of obesity and cardio-vascular diseases at an early age are rising.

However, some schools have started healthy practices like daily fruit breaks where children and teacher together eat fruits.

“Healthy food needs to be considered normal not boring. Getting rid of packaged foods is a great thing to do health-wise and environmentally. Parents need to remember that kids consume 30 per cent of their daily kilojoules at school so they should be carefully monitoring what is put in the lunch box or ordered from the canteen,” added Dr. Rao.

Consuming nutritious food and adopting a healthy lifestyle will enable students to grow and develop to their optimum potential, leading to improved educational performance.

Dr. Rao also mentioned that “a healthy diet also plays a preventative role in relation to nutrition-related conditions such as overweight, obesity and dental disease, and, in later life, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus.”

The Hindu, 25 April, 2011, http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/25/stories/2011042564030400.htm


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