Junk food puts kids at high health risk

For a working mother like Krithika, planning her five-year-old son’s breakfast and lunch for the next day is a Herculean task. She says, “He leaves for school at 7 am and barely manages to finish a glass of milk. I pack a sandwich, a box of rice or some idlis for lunch, but most of the time he brings them back untouched.” 

She guiltily confesses, “Being a working mother, it is hard for me to think of variety. So, I pack chips or French fries so that he eats a handful from the rice I give him for lunch. He is fond of potatoes in any form.” 

Homemakers like Barathi Karthik and Pavithra Santhosh do have a little leeway since they have time to plan their child’s food for the day. They have devised ways to get past their daughters’ picky food preferences. 

“I ensure she has porridge and starts eating solids through group lunches and dinners,” says Barathi. Whether working mothers or homemakers, a common worry that binds them is the question — ‘what should I do to make my child eat an adequate amount of food?’

They are what they eat:  

Dr Sudha Rathna Prabhu, paediatrician, says that most of her patients have lifestyle diseases. “It is not so much about infections as much as it is about eating habits. High blood pressure and childhood obesity are about the bad choices of food that parents make. Most of these children snack on chips, which are high on salt, and aerated drinks. 

Parents don’t ensure that they eat vegetables or fruit,” she says. She adds that one of the most common mistakes parents do is packing two to three boxes of rice or noodles for lunch. “Children begin to dislike food due to this. They can innovate with a few staple food items like dosa, adding vegetables or greens to them. 

Make food attractive for them. If their child likes potatoes, stuff it with other vegetables. They can have pizzas and pastas once in a while, moderation is the important factor here. Let them feel hungry and ask for food,” she says.

Soumya Binu, dietician, says that nowadays, the common predicament among parents is to meet the nutrient requirements of their children. “Most of these children leave for school by 7 am and they end up having just a glass of milk. They have inadequate or no breakfast. They don’t get the required nutrition important for their growth and development milestones. They end up being dull and sleepy the rest of the day,” she says. Soumya adds that from starving in the morning to stuffing for dinner, the entire food routine is disturbed in most cases. “Dinner can be wholesome, with vegetables, a little rice or chapattis, along with fruit,” she says.

As part of a national initiative, the MV Hospital for Diabetes, Royapuram, conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the Comprehensive School Health Manual among school children through the Training of Trainers Programme (TOT) for CBSE school teachers.  

An earlier study by the hospital revealed that among 1,193 school children, 22 per cent of girls and 13.5 per cent of boys in Chennai schools were overweight. Dr Vijay Viswanathan, head and chief diabetologist of the hospital, says that a heavy dinner and excessive snacking add to the list of woes for children. “That is why school plays an important role because teachers can control what their students eat. After the implementation of the health manual, we saw that there were changes in the food in the canteen, with junk food exiting the menu, and teachers could ensure that students had a healthy lunch and breakfast,” he says.