Children's diets
Article Type: Food facts From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 39, Issue 2.
A new survey about children's eating and lifestyle habits reveals that many of today's kids are eating fairly healthily but there's still a long way to go before all children have a sufficiently healthy diet.
For instance, 87 per cent of the parents surveyed* claimed their child eats breakfast every day. However, the survey, commissioned by PowerFruits, reveals that girls are far more likely to skip breakfast than boys only 50 per cent of parents said their daughters never skips breakfast, compared to 70 per cent of parents with sons. Teenagers are also the most likely to go without breakfast,with just 41per cent of parents of 14-year-olds and 22 per cent of parents of 15-year-olds claiming their child never misses the first meal of the day.
Where junk food is concerned, only two per cent of all parents give their kids take-away foods such as pizza, Chinese, Indian, McDonalds or KFC two or three times a week the most likely to do so are those from Yorks & Humber(12 per cent). The majority of parents, however, treat their kids to a take-away meal just once a month (35 per cent), with 23 per cent buying take-aways once a week. Only 17 per cent of parents said they rarely or never gave their kids take-aways (parents from the East Midlands and Wales were the most likely to never buy take-aways).
As for eating five portions of fruit and vegetable a day, only 58 per cent of parents said they make sure their kids have the recommended daily amount. Regional analysis, however, shows that the highest number of parents who serve up five portions of fruit and vegetable a day to their kids are those in the South West (84 per cent), with the least number of parents making sure their children get five a day are those from the North East (33 per cent).
According to the survey, 29 per cent of children eat two different kinds of fruit a day, with 25 per cent eating three. Only 10 per cent eat four and five per cent eat five different fruits a day (the most likely being kids from East Anglia), with eight per cent eating no fruit at all. The area where the most children eat no fruit is the North East (25 per cent of children).
What's in their lunchbox?
Sixty-three per cent of parents surveyed give their child a packed lunch to take to school. Fifty-five per cent said they include an apple, banana or other fruit, with 29 per cent including carrot sticks or other healthy nibbles. However, 25 per cent of parents put crisps other salted snacks in their children's lunchboxes, while 17 per cent include chocolate or sweets. Encouragingly, however, only two per cent give their children fizzy, sugary drinks.
Parents from the South West are the most likely to give their children fruit in their lunchbox (84 per cent), while parents from the North East are the least likely to dish out fruit for school (17 per cent). Meanwhile, parents from Yorks& Humber are the most likely to put chocolate or sweets in their children's lunchboxes (24 per cent), with 40 per cent of West Midlands lunchboxes contain crisps or other salted snacks. Parents from Yorks & Humber are also the most likely to include fizzy, sugary drinks in their kids' lunchboxes (12 per cent).
Natural sugar boost
There is, however, an easy and tasty way to top up children's intake of fruit whether at home as a snack or in their lunchbox. PowerFruit Fruit Supplement bars are rich in vitamins and natural sugars.
The PowerFruits Parents' Survey 2008 included 200 parents (54 dads and 146 mums) whose children (equal number of girls and boys) were aged between 6 and 15 years old. The age of the parents ranged from 16 to 60 , with the majority being in the 30-44 age group. The families come from all areas of England, plus Scotland and Wales, and are spread throughout the AB, C1, C2 and DE socio-economic groups.
