Page 697 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 28 March 2006
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5,000 primary school children. Among the results, Dr Gill found that over a quarter of the children who skipped breakfast were overweight.
It is in findings such as these that a growing link has been shown to exist between obesity and malnutrition in our children. By malnutrition, we refer to the fact that our children are not eating enough of the right foods at the right times for healthy development. Nearly three-quarters of the ACT population do not eat anywhere near the amount of fruit and vegetables needed for a healthy diet, and more than 45 per cent of Canberrans eat either no fruit or less than one serve a day. Studies, again from the New South Wales Centre for Public Health Nutrition, have identified that only 12 per cent of five-to 12-year-olds consume the recommended daily serve of vegetables. At the same time, too many children are consuming too much junk food. These figures clearly show that our children are not eating enough of the right foods.
It may be all well and good to discuss the problems that surface from the nutritional deficiencies in our children’s diets. Perhaps more importantly, however, we must begin to question why our children are failing to achieve a balanced diet and what can be done to ensure they do.
Naturally, children draw influence from relational webs throughout our community. From the family home, the school playground, the sporting field, library, shopping centre and television, children are repeatedly being exposed to signs, symbols and behaviours that have the capacity to either inhibit or encourage good dietary habits. Significantly, the implications of this are that many children lack healthy dietary knowledge and, further, are raised in an environment without a structure that encourages this behaviour.
Many studies have shown that children are now less willing to try new foods, especially vegetables. They have less concern with the nutritional qualities of food but place importance on taste, texture, shape and fun. When you consider that many adults who know about the poor nutritional value of some foods continue to be overcome by these influences, it is no wonder that children are confused and are less willing to try new foods as a result of this bombardment of advertising.
It is difficult to lay blame for this attitude in any one sector of childhood influence. It is even more difficult to try to somehow apportion this blame. Nevertheless, the influence of parents and caregivers on a child’s eating habits cannot be ignored. In this sense, the parental role in providing adequate exposure to and consumption of a wide range of fruit and vegetables is crucial.
Many families now stick to limited and familiar meals. They increasingly eat in front of the television and find it more and more difficult to find time to cook a meal. But we cannot expect a return to the 1950s household where a cooked family meal was the norm. As a result, it is important to acknowledge the pressures that face the modern family. Many families, for example, are pressed for time in the afternoons, and some are often short of money and therefore have little room for experimentation with new fruit and vegetables at 7.30 pm after a long day at work when payday is not until the following Thursday.
This government has a clear commitment to implement programs that encourage healthy and active children in the ACT and has put in place a package of initiatives to promote
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