£17 MILLION BIG LOTTERY FUND GRANT WILL ENSURE 180 SCHOOLS ACROSS ENGLAND BECOME BEACONS OF GOOD FOOD CULTURE

SNACK ATTACK: POSITIVE RESULTS FROM RESEARCH INTO CHILDREN’S SNACKING HABITS

FOOD IN SCHOOLS GOVERNMENT ACTION – A CURATE’S EGG!

HEALTH EDUCATION TRUST’S RESPONSE TO THE NEW FOOD STANDARDS FOR SCHOOLS

HEALTHY SCHOOL VENDING – WHERE ARE WE NOW?

HET CALLS FOR GOVERNMENT TO REMAIN RESOLUTE NOW THAT IT HAS DEVELOPED SOUND RECOMMENDATIONS

GOVERNMENT REFORMS ARE TO THE TASTE OF THE HEALTH EDUCATION TRUST

HET WELCOMES THE DFES ANNOUNCEMENT ON TRANSFORMING SCHOOL MEALS

GOVERNMENT GOOD MOVE ON RAISING THE STANDARD ON SCHOOL MEALS

Good food, cooking skills, farm visits and food growing will form the basis of the Food for Life Partnership scheme, designed to radically transform the diets and life chances of 150,000 people across the country. The positive impacts will go much further, getting schoolchildren and parents across the country cooking, re-skilling dinner ladies, and offering farmers secure markets for local, seasonal and sustainably-produced food.

Led by the Soil Association, The Food for Life Partnership consists of the Focus on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the Health Education Trust, bringing together unique experience of successful practical work in schools, revolutionising school meals and giving children the chance to grow and cook food, and visit organic farms.

Joe Harvey - Director of the Health Education Trust, said: “The Health Education Trust is delighted to be a partner in the 'Food for Life’ project which has been been awarded this very substantial grant by the Big Lottery. HET will be working closely with schools and local communities to help develop holistic school food and nutrition policies which will encompass the principles and objectives of the Food for Life project. HET is particularly pleased to be working with partners with experience and expertise which will blend well, and help deliver challenging and important outcomes at a time when the state of our children’s health is a major public health concern.”

Click here to read the Food For Life Partnership press release.

Click here to read the Big Lottery Fund press release: ‘Lottery dishes up £24.9 million to tackle childhood obesity and improve healthy eating.’

Recent research carried out across secondary schools in England, shows a very positive response by children to new tastes and healthy products. The belief that getting the rubbish out of snacking and vending in our schools would clear the decks for healthier products to be drawn in appears to be strongly supported by this report and is to be heartily welcomed.

The research, conducted by the American Peanut Council and the California Prune Board, shows that children are willing to try new healthy snacks and be involved in the decision making surrounding the transformation of school food. HET would like to encourage schools to take this opportunity and start to make changes now ahead of the legal deadlines for school foods other than lunch. Getting kids involved with taste testing new products is the key to this positive research and should be carried out within the framework of a Whole School Approach.

Click here to read the full press release.

Confused about which products will meet the new School Food Standards? HET’s Real Choice approved operators and products have all been individually evaluated to ensure products meet the guidelines for food in schools, and contribute positively to a child’s diet. Click here for details on the Real Choice scheme.

The new package of funding announced by Government to support new food standards and regulations for food in schools is very welcome. It backs up the determination shown last year by Ruth Kelly, (former Sec of State for Education), to reverse the disastrous state of both the food service and the taught curriculum in our schools. Particularly important is the commitment to extending the funding of the School Food Trust to 2011 allowing them a five year term of operation, and to bring Local Authorities back into the picture, recognising the importance of local monitoring and delivery of services for children.

On the debit side it is very unfortunate that the Government has reneged on the crucially important promise by Ruth Kelly to review Key Stage 3 curriculum in Food Technology to ensure all children left school with a basic ability to purchase, prepare and cook and handle food safely.

The Ofsted inspector’s report in 2005 rightly blasted the confusion and tension caused in schools by ‘teaching about food to develop skills for living and using food as a means to teach the objectives of Design and Technology’!

Cookery clubs run outside school are not a viable or acceptable alternative to embedding such courses in the core curriculum, and sadly but predictably, it is more than likely that the children most in need will be the ones who do not attend. Children are the next generation of parents and how do we expect them to prepare and serve healthy food for their kids if we continue to fail to equip them with the necessary basic skills?

So good in parts ‘Curate’ Alan Johnson, now get the courage to finish the job. Don't be scared to review Food Technology in Key Stage 3 as was guaranteed by your predecessor - put cooking and food safety back in the core curriculum. If you are serious about changing children's eating behaviour at home as well as at school, it must be part of every child's education and quickly!

To visit the DfES press release click here.

There are four key elements to the regulations, (1) nutrient based standards for lunches, (2) tough food standards to clear away the rubbish from the service and (3) a requirement that all schools review their present position and create a whole school food and nutrition policy, (4) the promise of a review of the curriculum at Key Stage 3 to introduce cooking skills and basic food hygiene as core study for all.. They are excellent foundations to underpin the much needed revolution in raising both the quality and importance of food in schools, not just in nutritional terms but as part of the broad pastoral care and welfare obligation that schools owe to their children. We are tasked with preparing children for life, not just for exams and today’s school children will soon become the next generation of parents. They will be rather better equipped to be successful parents if they possess good eating habits, have the ability to purchase, prepare and cook food and have a sound knowledge of basic food hygiene.

The Health Education Trust is particularly delighted with the radical reform of vending and snacking, an area we have campaigned on for many years and have managed all the recent significant research. The fantastic opportunity now on offer to school, caterers, vending operators and producers is the creation of a whole new infrastructure which will completely change the perception and reputation of vending in schools.

The growing health concerns in the public and media over confectionary and soft drinks vending, which resulted recently in all vending being thrown out of French schools and an increasing reduction of machines in UK schools, will be a thing of the past. Healthy vending will be welcomed into schools as a positive force for good and a first class visual aid for sound nutritional behaviours. Healthy drinks vending will offer schools and operators a sound commercial return, while food vending will increasingly be seen as an integral part of the whole school food service throughout the day.

Concerns

There are a number and some we list below:

• Clearly there are worries that the funding for this ambitious program falls short of the realistic figure required – we agree and more needs to be found.
• It is unfortunate that the government has turned its face against the need to increase the number of families eligible for free school meals as there is no doubt the price of meals will increase and some will be caught in a poverty trap.
• That there are massive challenges to overcome in training and resourcing school caterers is true, that some parents and children may find the changes difficult we understand.
• We shall continue to vigorously oppose the apparent window offered for the use of artificial, intense sweeteners in flavoured milks and yogurts, because of the unnecessary sweetness they impart to drinks.

These concerns provide no reason why we can’t support the package while working to improve it. These reforms are only so tough now because the neglect has been so profound for so long and we must roll up our collective sleeves and make them work!

Joe Harvey Director – Health Education Trust

The Health Education Trust website offers a significant resource to those wanting to deliver healthy vending into schools. We will continue to highlight information on best practice ideas and products and look forward to hearing from vending operators and companies who would like to work with us to bring about the new infrastructure now required as quickly and painlessly as possible. For more information visit http://www.healthedtrust.com/pages/Vendingnews1.html

The Health Education Trust (HET) welcomes today’s report from the School Food Trust on school foods other than lunch and the clear and comprehensive way it addresses the issues.

Joe Harvey, Director of the HET says, “We are delighted that the report reflects the very high level of commitment given last year by the Secretary of State for Health, Ruth Kelly to radically reform the whole school food service throughout the day”.

The importance of these food standards cannot be underestimated as they underpin the nutrient based standards being introduced for school lunches and ‘clear the decks’ of those foods and drinks which take lots of money from a child but give little or no nutritional benefit in return. Choices there will be – all of them good!

Perhaps the most contentious areas have been around snacking and vending, so it is unsurprising that traditional vending industries have lobbied fiercely to prevent the tough recommendations of the SFT being pursued. It is to the considerable credit of the SFT that it has stayed resolute in its determination to deliver recommendations that give the best chance for school food services to improve the health and welfare of children in the future.

This is also an area where HET has taken the lead in pushing for major reform by managing research programmes for FSA, DH and the Welsh Assembly which have removed the mythology surrounding vending in schools. It is now clear that healthy school vending can be commercially viable and enthusiastically adopted by pupils and staff.

Over the last year many schools have begun to transform their snacking and vending provision and whilst change may not be easy, the benefits are enormous. Schools commitment to put the health of their students first is often accompanied by reports of better performance and improved behaviour. HET looks forward to the outcome of research to formally establish the increasing amount of anecdotal evidence pointing this way!

Within the framework of a whole school approach to food and nutrition first argued for by HET in the early 90’s, we are now beginning to see a healthy vending infrastructure appearing. We are delighted with this report and with the SFT and the government in their efforts to ensure a high quality, healthy food service for every child.

But Joe Harvey, Director of HET, stresses, “This opportunity to improve the general health of young people through improved food services and better education is the best we’ve had for 25 years. You can be absolutely certain that the soft drinks and confectionary industry will not stay silent and so it is essential that all relevant public health organisations use the opportunity of the consultation process to respond positively to these recommendations so that the Government’s resolve is strengthened. The major multinationals in snacking and vending are in the business of delivering profits for their companies and dividends to shareholders. Those of us in education and health are in the business of giving children the best possible nutrition for their long term health and wellbeing. It’s a simple divide and we must be as active and engaged as they are.”

Visit www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk for further details.

HET established the Real Choice scheme in 2005 as a gold standard for vending practices in schools, to help cut through the confused messages surrounding what is and what is not healthy or suitable for school vending. For more details on this scheme click here.

Back in November of last year HET, along with the Department of Health East Region, were joint organisers of a Conference which aimed to encourage the development of Healthy School Vending. We took seriously the principles of the Ruth Kelly announcements on banning junk food from schools, and sought to provide both schools and caterers with solutions which give children a chance to select healthy options. The conference was a great success with over 250 delegates and 17 exhibitors, the latter all displaying products that HET had analysed and judged to be suitable for meeting the implied new standards. (Conference highlights will be added to our website shortly).

There is already much confusion as regards what is and is not ‘healthy’ for school vending, but while the new standards are being developed, children should not be subjected to a further year of vending options in schools dominated by soft drinks and high salt/ fat/sugar snacks. In the face of massive industry marketing, HET decided to help market and deliver an alternative, healthy infrastructure for vending which would seek to combat the stranglehold of industry influence. The launch of our new ‘kite mark’ scheme is helping those schools and vending operators who are looking for guidance on healthy alternatives that can be successfully vended in our secondary schools right now! The HET Real Choice initiative is an independent scheme, based on the lessons learnt from the vending research carried out by HET over recent years and aims to act as a gold standard for improving vending in schools, while remaining commercially viable and making a profit for the school. HET offers product evaluation and nutritional analysis to manufacturers and vending distributors. This service requires experienced professional staff so the Real Choice scheme has to be self-financing. All monies earned go back into driving the programme, the objective for which is to improve children’s health & welfare.

Details of the Real Choice scheme can be found at www.healthedtrust.com/pages/realchoice.html

Vending research in the past and present operational practice shows clearly that children will drink water, fruit juices and milks in sufficient quantities to make profits for the school. The Governments proposal to ban soft drinks in schools will therefore help to encourage all children to grow accustomed to a healthier range of drinks. It’s not sufficient however to just replace sugar-laden drinks with low calorie, artificially sweetened soft drinks. Allowing sweeteners in school drinks may habituate children’s taste for sweet drinks. Ask yourselves the question: ‘What will children choose if offered a choice between a wide array of highly flavoured, artificially sweetened soft drinks, or plain water for hydration? Don’t be fooled by the assumption that diet drinks must be ‘good for health’.’ – Click here to find out why.

What is more important for us to achieve, ‘healthy children’ or ‘healthy profits’? The pastoral responsibility of every school is to provide both an education and an environment that supports the health, care and welfare of each child. The prime responsibility of the soft drinks, confectionary and major snack manufacturers is to provide their companies with profits and their shareholders with dividends – remember that when listening to their arguments.

The argument often used is that we should offer full and free choice in schools, especially for vending. Lets be honest, if we don’t get the formula right in school, some children may never get to sample the healthier options – if they aren’t having these things outside school, why would they self-select them in school whilst their familiar options were still available? Education is about giving all children a better chance.

HET Under Attack It has been interesting, but not surprising, to find ourselves under attack for our position on vending and snacking in schools. At different times in the last 6 months we have been the subject of a critical adjournment debate in the House of Commons by MP’s seeking to protect food industry interests, the three research projects we have conducted for the FSA, DH, and the Welsh Assembly over the last four years have suddenly been questioned, though they form the basis of accepted national policy guidance in England and Wales, and previous partners have been persuaded to ‘drop us’. It seems we must be getting something right if we attract this much attention so suddenly!! Parts of the food industry are obviously concerned about losing what they seem to regard as their God- given territory in our secondary schools - this is a time for Government to show courage in the face of their intense lobbying. This brave and long overdue reformation of the school food service has as its aim the future health and welfare, not just of the children in school now, but of generations ahead. Today’s children are the parents of tomorrow and we must ensure they have easy access to a healthy diet and the basic skills to purchase, prepare, and cook simple dishes. If we achieve that much will have managed a considerable feat!  HET will remain an independent charity with it’s aims clearly about pushing forward to protect children’s health. As always, HET is comfortable working with health professionals, Government agencies and industry alike.

So, where are we now? The Union of European Beverages Associations’ (UNESDA) new code pledges that the soft drinks industry will stop advertising soft drinks to children, but this is only where audiences are made up of more than 50% under 12s, so where does this leave secondary schools? It declares it will not place vending in primary schools – it never has anyway so nothing new there! It also promises to launch more low-calorie drinks as alternatives to sugary soft drinks, after mounting pressure amid global obesity concerns – and where is the positive nutritional benefit of that to a child? Let’s hope and expect that all our children will be given the chance to sample and enjoy unsweetened, free water whilst they are in school as part of their education, and where there are vending machines, may they be filled with products which make a positive contribution to their health and future welfare – that is ‘real choice’, and one they have never had up until now.

The Health Education Trust welcomes the recommendations from the School Meals Review Panel and is delighted by their acceptance by Ruth Kelly – Secretary of State for Education.

This is a long overdue root and branch reform of a Cinderella service that has been neglected for too long and sadly under funded. The government has shown great political courage and leadership but the hard work now lies ahead and the challenge of ensuring implementation is down to all of us.

The Health Education Trust was responsible for introducing the concept of, and necessity for, ‘whole school food and nutrition policies’ in schools. By placing the delivery of such policy development into all our schools alongside the removal of junk food, confectionary and soft drinks, within the first 12 months of the timetable, the Secretary of State demonstrates their critical importance in bringing about change.

HET WELCOMES THE DFES ANNOUNCEMENT ON TRANSFORMING SCHOOL MEALS

HET welcomes the DfES announcement on transforming school meals by committing to increase the spend on school food ingredients to 50p and 60p per child in primary and secondary schools respectively. HET, along with a number of other organisations, has been campaigning for better school food for many years and acknowledges the crucial role the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has had to play to provide the right level of pressure, via the media, to deliver the right level of action by the Government.

The Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly has, in addition, committed to tough minimum nutrition standards, mandatory from Sept 2006 and HET commends the revised Caroline Walker Trust Guidelines as ideal for this purpose, having already been effectively tried and tested in Scotland. HET is well aware however that for any nutrition standards to be effective a ‘whole school approach’ is a must for all schools and as the original inspiration for this concept, we are delighted that the Department of Health has also launched it’s Food in Schools programme, with ‘whole school approach’ as its basis.

School vending is a serious aspect of the transformation of school food and HET continues to play a lead role in addressing this. We welcome the Food in Schools toolkit, which includes vending and following on from our work on this project, we are developing guidelines for schools to assist them in making appropriate vending decisions that will enhance their food and nutrition policies. A National School Vending Conference, jointly organised by HET and the Department of Health is scheduled for 30th June, 2005.

There is a need to maintain momentum in the coming months and HET will continue to monitor the changes proposed to ensure rigorous implementation of all aspects. In addition HET will continue campaigning to ensure that a review of the core curriculum will include the preparation and cooking of food, together with food hygiene as basic life skill requirements for every child.

For more information;

DfES Press release: Healthy Food in Schools- Transforming School Meals, 30March, 2005
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/

Caroline Walker Trust Eating Well at School will be available to order once published via their website:
http://www.cwt.org.uk

HET/ Department of Health National Conference on Healthy Vending in Schools in the UK.

Book your place here:
http://www.healthedtrust.com/pages/events.htm

The Health Education Trust welcomes the announcement by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on improving the quality and management of the school meals service.
Our joint press release with the Caroline Walker Trust (CWT) and the National Heart Forum (NHF) reflects our general view that while the Secretary of State is making this intervention, it is just a start – long awaited - to addressing what needs to be a programme of major reform. We hope this will form the basis of an ongoing discussion with Government that will begin to address the most serious issues:-

• the lack of investment in kitchen and dining room infrastructure
• a considerable increase and fixing of minimal value for free school meals
• a review of the delegation of meals budgets to primary schools
• proper monitoring, evaluation and data gathering of the service as a whole
• a determination to revise the curriculum to allow for the inclusion of food preparation and cooking as part of the core.

For details of the DfES plans see http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/

A recent article in the Daily Telegraph outlined an interesting publication by The Guide Association about young adults with poor cooking skills. Many students (at college and university) are unaware of the ease of cooking and opt for takeaways and fast food. It has also been suggested that some students do not even own the equipment needed to cook, e.g. saucepans, plates and cutlery. The Guide Association revealed that nearly half of schoolgirls had never even cooked, and Cambridge University is considering providing their students with cookery lessons because they are so worried about their student’s dietary patterns.

This is worrying, and is thought to stem from childhood, as parents are working long hours and are unable to teach their children how to cook. It is assumed that this skill will be taught in school, which unfortunately is no longer the case.

Children who are involved in cooking/preparing foods from an early age will have a life skill that becomes second nature as a tool that can be utilised to help them follow a healthier diet throughout their lifetime. Start with simple things such as washing fruit for snacks or pudding, peeling and chopping carrots and other fresh vegetables. Also teach them how easy it is to boil fresh, tinned or frozen vegetables in the same pan as rice, pasta or potatoes – it saves washing up! Prepare and cook some, if not all of a meal from scratch, using plenty of fruits and vegetables. Encourage the use of frozen vegetables with readymade meals, it won’t take any longer to cook the meal!

Today’s youth need our help to teach them how to prepare foods so that they can consume a healthy diet to maximise their lifelong health.

Students eat poorly due to lack of cooking skills’ – 24/07/04. The article can be downloaded free of charge from:
http://www.rssl.com/OurServices/FoodENews/Newsletter.aspx?ENewsletterID=48#3

Recent concerns have arisen about the role advertising plays in children’s diets, with manufactures becoming under pressure to alter their advertising policies. It has been suggested that advertising may persuade children to choose one food item over another and this may contribute to the rising levels of childhood obesity.

The public have become increasingly aware of the level of childhood obesity, and are blaming a variety of sources for this increase, including food advertising. So the publics’ awareness of a possible link between food advertising and childhood obesity has bought about changes to food and drinks manufacturers advertising policies.

It will no longer be acceptable to encourage or condone excess intake; sensible portion sizes should be suggested; and health claims must have the correct scientific backing. These changes to advertising may help minimise or reduce the growth in childhood obesity, but must be combined with other dietary and activity changes to maximise benefits and encourage lifelong dietary changes.

Food and drink firms asked to go further on kids advertising - 16/07/04. The article can be downloaded free of charge from: http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=53554v

Parents play a major role in the lifelong dietary patterns of their children. Eating habits developed during childhood will continue into adulthood, with parents eating behaviours having a big influence on this. Recent research suggests that some of the methods used by parents to influence their children’s eating habits for the better, may in fact have the opposite effect!¹

• Limiting ‘unhealthy’ food consumption, and supplying ‘unhealthy’ food as a ‘reward’ for behaviour may actually increase a child’s intake of these foods.
• Bribing children to eat more fruit and vegetables may be useful in the short term, but may reduce the variety of foods eaten in the future.
• Restricting a child’s snack intake will make the restricted food seem more attractive, so when free access is available to these foods (i.e. from teens onwards), individuals will over indulge.
• Controlling a child’s snack intake has not been shown to change the choice of snack, and may result in children overeating.
• Children learn from others, watching closely to see what is acceptable and are cautious at trying new foods. So, it is important to expose children to a large variety of foods at an early age and so avoid faddy behaviours in later life.
  

Modifying children food preferences

In experimental research repeated exposure of an unfamiliar, rejected vegetable during eight sessions over a period of 2 weeks has been shown to increase the consumption and liking of a previously rejected food². Therefore encourage children to sample a wide variety of foods, persevere, repeated exposure will eventually result in consumption.

Family dinner and diet quality

Eating with family members on a regular basis has been shown to be an important factor in relation to diet, social and educational factors. Some of the findings are listed below³:

• As children get older, the likelihood of eating meals with their parents is reduced.
• Eating with family members improve school and psychological performance.
• Eating with family increases discussion and conversation, which can improve social skills. An increase in knowledge may also been seen, and so this maybe a useful source of nutrition education.
• Increasing the frequency of meals eaten with the family has been shown in one study to alter a variety of nutritional factors in a beneficial way:-

• Increase the likelihood of eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables daily.
• Reduce the amount of fried food consumed by 30%.
• Reduce the consumption of ‘fizzy’ type drinks by 30%.
• Reduce the consumption of ready made meals, which would have decrease the nutritional quality of the diet.
• Reduce the glycaemic load, which means an individual is consuming a higher proportion of the ‘better’ types of carbohydrates.
• Increase the consumption of a variety of vitamins and minerals including; dietary fibre, calcium, iron, vitamin B6, B12, C and E.
• A beneficial reduction in saturated and trans fat is seen.
• No increase in the consumption of red meats, processed meats, whole dairy foods or snack foods is seen.

Market research data has suggested that children today eat far fewer meals with the family than a generation ago- 81% of today’s parents consumed meals on a regular basis with their parents, compared to just over 30% of today’s children. This reduction of family meals consumptions is suggested as a further contributory factor effecting childhood obesity levels⁴.

The increase in numbers of children eating separately from parents is a consequence of our busy lifestyles, specifically the large number of hours parents work a week and the increase in the proportion of women who work. This reduces the amount of time available to prepare ‘balanced meals’, which has helped to drive the increase in consumption of convenience foods that have a relatively low nutrient value. This has also led to an increase in the number of children eating alone, where they are more likely to consume high fat, low fibre convenience foods.

Therefore the importance of eating regularly in a social setting is important, both for nutrient intake and social skills. Perhaps switching the TV off during mealtimes may help to bring the conversation around to the food on the plate and hence improve interest and awareness in food.

Good guidance on what to feed children from an early age is essential, so good eating patterns can be established early, to foster a lifelong healthy approach to food. It’s never too late to change eating habits for the better, even if children in a household have already adopted unhealthy eating patterns. If parents focus on changing their own diet, and family eating is adopted as the norm (even if only on certain days of the week), eventually at least some healthy habits will be reflected in their children’s eating patterns!

Reference:

(1) Brown R, Ogden J (2004) Children’s eating attitudes and behaviour: a study of the modelling and control theories of parental influences. Health education research. 19; 261-271.
The abstract can be downloaded free of charge from:
http://her.oupjournals.org/....

(2) Wardle J, Herrera M-L, Cooke L, Gibson EL (2003) Modifying children’s food preferences: the effects of exposure and reward on acceptance of an unfamiliar vegetable. European journal of clinical nutrition. 57; 341-348.
The abstract can be downloaded free of charge from:
http://www.nature.com/

(3) Gillman MW, Rifas-Shiman SL, Frazier AL, Rockett RH, Camargo CA, Field AE, Berkey CS, Colditz GA (2000) Family dinner and diet quality among older children and adolescents. Arch Fam Med. 9; 235-240.
The article can be downloaded free of charge from:
http://archfami.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/9/3/235.pdf

(4) Parent power – the rise of childhood obesity. 19/12/04.
The article can be downloaded free of charge from:
http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=48658

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Carbonated drinks intake, are they a public health concern?

The Government’s National Diet & Nutrition Survey of 4-18 year olds¹, published in 2000, revealed that the intake of non-milk extrinsic sugars contributed to 16.7% of young people’s energy intake, which is well above the recommended upper limit of 11%. Carbonated drinks were the main source. This high value has prompted interest in studies investigating the health consequences of fizzy drink consumption. To date the number of such studies has been fairly small, so limited conclusions can be drawn.

It would be too easy to blame this high profile part of the diet for the increase in obesity levels, especially in the younger population, so we must keep this in perspective. How do fizzy drinks affect our health? Is there a compound within drinks that may affect our health (e.g. phosphoric acid that alters calcium absorption)? Or are we substituting other nutritious foods/drinks with carbonated drinks and hence missing out on the valuable nutrients they provide (e.g. milk as a source of calcium)?

Whatever the science may be, pointing blame in any one direction is of no immediate help to our youngsters. There’s plenty we can and should be doing to improve the situation whilst we wait for the science to unfold. It’s a matter of striking the right balance in practical terms. The occasional fizzy drink will do little harm if an individual is consuming a variety of beverages as part of a well balanced diet. Clearly the balance is currently tipping in the wrong direction and it needs to be addressed. Easy access to a variety of drinks will encourage children to vary their intake of fluids. This approach has proven effective where schools include ‘healthier drinks vending’ alongside their existing machines. See the Vending page on this website for further details
http://www.healthedtrust.com/..../Vendingnews1.html

Nutrition education may help reduce carbonated drink intake:
A recent study carried out within Primary schools in the Dorset area² focused on carbonated drink intake in relation to obesity. Half the children were given simple nutrition advice regarding a healthy balanced diet and how the avoidance of sugar would improve wellbeing and improve dental health*. The other half, the control group were not given this information. Physical measurements were taken at various points, and children wrote a 3 day drink diary at either end of the year long programme to quantify their drink consumption.

Results showed that children who were given nutrition advice reduced their daily intake of carbonated drinks by 0.6 glasses, and the control group increased their intake but 0.2 glasses. This reduction in intake had an effect on bodyweight, reducing the prevalence of overweight children by 0.2% but the percent of children overweight in the control group actually increased the by 7.5%.

Although this was a small study, results suggest that a simple school based education programme can reduce the consumption of carbonated drinks and may help prevent weight gain throughout childhood and adolescence. Drinking patterns can be altered through simple nutrition education, which should be carried out at an early age to establish lifelong drinking patterns.

Potential health consequences of fizzy drinks:
Another recent study³ also suggested a significant association between carbonated drink consumption of more than 3 glasses a day with a higher Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is the quantitative measurement of body weight, a high value (>25) corresponds with being overweight (BMI=kg/m²). Interestingly this study also found a significant association between BMI and watching more than 2hrs TV per night. It remains to be seen which is the more significant factor contributing to overweight- the excess energy intake, or the inadequate energy expended to maintain good health.

A third study on 12-15 year olds⁴ showed that high intakes of diet and non-cola drinks resulted in lower bone mineral density, which is a measure of bone strength, and may predispose an individual to fractures in later life. This finding was limited to females, and maybe due to the displacement by soft drinks of milk based drinks (hence reducing their calcium intake). However other studies investigating this issue are limited and have found inconsistent results, making it premature to draw any firm conclusions.

Whilst researchers continue to unravel details of the impact our diet and lifestyle may have on our health, the rate of obesity in childhood rapidly increases, with potentially disastrous consequences for long term health. Schools have a crucial role to play in helping to combat this obesity epidemic by providing a healthy balance of nutrient dense foods and low sugar drinks within their catering system.

References used in this text
(1) Gregory J et al. (2000) National Diet and Nutrition Survey: young people aged 4 to 18 years. Volume 1: Findings. London: The Stationery Office.

(2) James J, Thomas P, Cavan D and Kerr D (2004) Preventing childhood obesity by reducing consumption of carbonated drinks: cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 328; 1237.
To access the full article online:
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/.....

(3) Giammattei J, Blix G, Hopp Marshak H, Okada Wollitzer A and Pettitt D (2003) Television watching and soft drink consumption associations with obesity in 11- to 13- year old schoolchildren. Archives of Paediatric Adolescent Medicine. 157; 882-886.
To access the abstract online:
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/....

(4) C McGartland, PJ Robson, L Murray, G Cran, MJ Savage, D Watkins, M Rooney and C Boreham (2003) Carbonated Soft Drink Consumption and Bone Mineral Density in Adolescence: The Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project. Journal of bone and mineral research. 18; 1663-1569.
To access the abstract online:
http://www.jbmr-online.org/....

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Fast Food Related to Obesity

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Government takes children’s diets seriously

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School Lunchboxes Too High in Fat, Salt and Sugar

New Salt Maximum Targets for Children

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New Aid for Achieving 5 A DAY