How
Schools Help to Market ill Health
by Kath Dalmeny, Campaigns and Research
Officer, The Food Commission
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| Where
do children get their information about food? It’s clear
that there isn’t a simple answer to this question, but
we do know that a variety of influences will shape children’s
understanding of food, nutrition and health.
Food
and nutrition teaching in schools is one of the few places
where a child can hope to receive accurate information about
the effects of food on health, and what constitutes a healthy
diet. Schools and parents are the joint guardians of children’s
health. At least, that’s what we might hope.
However,
many educational and health organisations have over the past
few years become increasingly concerned that food education
materials supplied to schools are frequently biased, sometimes
inaccurate, often present only partial information, and may
exploit children’s relative lack of knowledge about
good nutrition.
In
large part, this is due to the increasing use of materials
produced by commercial companies – advertisements for
food products thinly disguised as ‘educational’
resources. Most food trade associations produce educational
materials, to help promote their members’ products.
Many individual manufacturers also produce educational materials
to ensure that children become aware of their food brands.
Other
commercial activities in schools are also on the increase.
Many secondary schools now raise money by having commercial
vending machines in their school hallways.
Thousands
of schools encourage children to collect tokens from crisp
packets and snacks to exchange for books, computers or sports
equipment. During the Walkers Crisps ‘Books for Schools’
promotion in 2001, one headmaster wrote to parents saying:
“So, it’s crisps for breakfast, dinner, lunch
and tea…”
Schools
are, after all, a perfect opportunity for food manufacturers
to reach a large group of children in one go, in an environment
in which they are particularly receptive to information
and promotional messages. These messages are often given
the added weight of being delivered by the school itself.
That’s if the school agrees to allow this to happen.
The
problem with commercial promotions of food products to children
is that almost without exception, the foods and drinks marketed
through schools contain high levels of fat and/or salt and/or
sugar. These are the very products that a child is likely
to be told in health lessons to eat less of. Some examples
are described below, all reported by parents and teachers
from around the UK over the past few months.Many schools,
especially those taking an active interest in health promotion,
report that they are disturbed by the kinds of promotions
and materials creeping into the education system. Some say
that without vigilance by teachers, these commercial messages
may skew children’s understanding of food and nutrition.
Others say that they don’t understand why these commercial
promotions of food are allowed in schools at all. The government’s
response is that it’s up to individual schools to make
their own decisions.
Let’s
be in no doubt that what children eat, and the understanding
they develop of what constitutes a healthy diet, is crucial
for their future health. At present, as government and other
research
shows: |
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•
Some schools allow food vans to come into the playground
at lunchtime. Whilst this stops children leaving the
school grounds, the vans usually sell only pies, chips,
chocolate and fizzy drinks. •
In some areas, school breakfast clubs are sponsored
by Burger King.
•
Secondary school vending machines routinely sell only
sugary fizzy drinks, chocolate bars, salty crisps
and chewy sweets.
•
Educational materials from commercial organisations
may exclude information that would help to balance
a child’s understanding of the healthiness (or
otherwise) of a food product. Two examples are described
below.
The
Flour Advisory Bureau, for instance, in its
educational materials on bread, gives excellent
information on some of the benefits of bread
consumption (http://www.flourandgrain.com/grain_and_flour_facts.htm/bread).
But it fails to mention that cereal products
like bread are also the main source (40%) of
salt in children’s diets (see Annexes
to the Scientific Advisory Committee’s
2002 report on salt: www.doh.gov.uk/sacn). Salt
is not mentioned in the educational materials.
Another
example of how the information left out can
be as important as the information put in is
illustrated by promotions for Kentucky Fried
Chicken. Its educational materials inform children,
quite rightly, that chicken is a low-fat food.
KFC, however, fails to mention that its own
chicken products have fat added back in by the
frying process |
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•
British children eat less than half the recommended
portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
• The majority of British children have
intakes of saturated fat, sugar and salt that exceed the
maximum adult recommendations.
• About 9% of boys and 13.5% of
girls in England are overweight.
• Between 1984 and 1994, the prevalence
of obesity in English primary school children increased
by 140%.
• More than half of 4 to 18 year
olds have some dental decay.
• A diet high in fatty, sugary
and/or salty foods, and low in foods containing useful
nutrients and dietary fibre, may increase the risk of
developing coronary heart disease, some cancers, hypertension,
diabetes and numerous other health disorders.
• Poor diets may affect concentration,
performance and behaviour in the classroom. |
With these compelling facts in mind, many teaching unions, educational
groups and health organisations came together in a meeting this
year to say: What’s going on? How can we ensure
that consistent healthy eating messages are presented in schools,
free from promotion of fatty, salty and sugary foods? |
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This meeting, initiated by the charity
Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming, is now
working to assess the nature and extent of commercial food
promotions in schools.
At
present, schools make their decisions individually about what
is acceptable, and what level of commercialisation they will
allow. But they lack the national picture of what is going
on, the context within which their decisions are being made,
and an analysis of how their decisions will affect children’s
health and understanding of nutrition.
The
meeting decided that there was a need to assess how big the
problem is, and whether individual schools have developed
progressive or healthy ways of dealing with this issue.
Any responses submitted will be treated in strictest confidence.
While it is the intention that information received will be
used to put together a report, your personal details, and
the names of individual schools will not be included unless
permission has been granted. We’d also be pleased to
hear from anyone who’d like to be kept informed on the
progress of this research. |
Can
you help? The group
is collecting information about the kinds of commercial food
promotions taking place in schools throughout the UK. If you
are able to respond to any or all of the following questions,
you will help schools to develop a valuable national picture
of what’s going on around the UK.
1. Does
the school you work for, or which your child attends, use
educational materials sponsored by food companies? E.g. Food-company
sponsored posters, exercise books, worksheets, information
booklets, etc. Can you describe examples?
2. What drinks and snacks are on sale from
the school’s vending machines and/or tuck shops? E.g.
crisps, chocolate bars, muesli bars, fruit, sugary fizzy drinks,
plain bottled water, chewy sweets.
3. Has the school taken part in a ‘tokens
for goods’ scheme run by a food company, e.g. Walkers
Crisps ‘Books for Schools’? Which scheme(s)?
4. Is there a good or bad story you’d
like to share about food promotions and food education in
the school? |
Please send your responses by email to School Food –
schoolfood@foodcomm.org.uk. The
data is being collected and collated by The Food Commission,
94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF. Tel: 020 7837 2250. |
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