Healthy habits start at school

While one out of every five South African children is undernourished, nearly as many SA kids are overweight or obese. And the fare available in school tuck shops is very much to blame, reports ELMIEN WOLVAARDT.

It's the bad eating habits we learn in childhood that lead to obesity, heart disease, adult-onset diabetes and high blood pressure, say researchers.

No surprise there - which explains why the Department of Education saw fit to include the principles of good nutrition in the new school curriculum. As early as Grade 1, children are now being taught about the differences between healthy and unhealthy foods.

But is this enough?
Research conducted by MRC scientist Dr Nelia Steyn and her collaborators in the USA says no: ' Overall, we found that children know which foods are healthier choices, yet it did not affect their buying behavior,' says Dr Steyn. ' And the foods available to them at school does nothing to improve the situation.'

In short, what children learn in the classroom is difficult, if not impossible, to apply when they go to the tuck shop.

Although one may argue that children prefer unhealthy foods over healthy foods, the evidence says no: a study carried out in a high school cafeteria in the USA showed that, when the prices of fruit, carrots and salads were halved, this resulted in a four-fold increase in sales of fruit, a two-fold increase for carrots, and a slight increase for salads.

Unfortunately, in SA tuck shops, these foods are largely not available . The research team investigated the eating habits of nearly five hundred school children, mostly from Grades 7 and 10, attending a total of 14 schools in and around Cape Town. The schools were selected to represent the different levels of socio-economic status in these areas.

The following important results were obtained

• Only about half of the children studied brought food to school, forcing them to rely on what is available in their tuck shop.
• Nearly 80% of the students in the present study ate at school during the recorded time, with the majority purchasing this food at school.
• Contrary to expectations, a large percentage of the students did not bring healthy items from home. Whether this is due to poor nutrition knowledge or specific preferences of the mothers and students is not known.
• Students attending schools of high socio-economic status were twice as likely to bring food to school and scored higher marks on the quiz of healthy/ unhealthy foods, but were no more likely to purchase healthy food.
• Unhealthy foods outnumbered healthy ones by a ratio of two to one. White bread was brought by 25.4% while only 10.5% had brown bread. Whereas candy and potato chips ( crisps) were brought by 25.0% and 23.9%, respectively, fruit was brought by 16.8%.