Children's diet worse than in post-war period
leading to poor childhood nutrition. Some experts have warned that
children are more unhealthy today than they were during post-war
rationing,
Health experts are warning that children are more unhealthy today than they were during post-war rationing, reports BBC Online.
The report claims that there is evidence to suggest that youngsters could be making themselves "pre-ill" with a diet dependent on junk food.
Claims that the snack culture of the twenty-first century is creating a whole generation which is eating itself sick were heard at a conference at the Royal College of Paediatrics in London this week.
Experts revealed that more than two thirds of pre-school children in Britain eat a diet of white bread, chips and sweets. A quarter of these are overweight and 5 per cent are not getting enough vitamin D, the BBC report claimed. Some children are even developing rickets.
Other worrying statistics show that over half five to 18 year olds eat no leafy green vegetables, relying instead on junk food saturated with fat and salt.
Some experts predict that by 2030, half of all adults will be obese and plagued by associated illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and strokes.
The conference aimed to address issues such as why children are leading such unhealthy lifestyles and where the dependence on junk food stems from.
They also discussed possible measures to ensure that illness would not occur in adulthood as a result of the children's bad diets.
However, Cath MacDonald, nutritionist for the Federation of Bakers, dismissed the notion that white bread was bad for children.
She said: "We should all be increasing the amount of starchy carbohydrate that we eat in place of fatty foods. All types of bread contain a wealth of nutrients. Brown and wholegrain breads provide plenty of fibre whereas white bread contains valuable calcium."
