Skip to main content

Food Commission UK publishes new guide to children's food

hildren deserve the best food and drink we can provide, but research shows that most children are eating a dangerously unbalanced diet, high in saturated fats, sugar and salt, and low in fruit and vegetables.

More than one in five children are now overweight, and one in three children have tooth decay before they even begin primary school. A poor diet can mean poor concentration at school, and increases the risk of heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes in later life.

The Food Commission Guide to Children's Food is designed to help parents and carers distinguish which children's foods are genuinely healthy, and to spot the unhealthy ingredients which lurk in many popular children's foods and drinks.

The guide, published in poster format, explains that simply reading food labels and looking for added vitamins is not enough to protect children's health. Many food products are poorly labelled, and advertisers are happy to promote high fat, high sugar and high salt products as 'healthy' and 'nutritious'.

The poster provides a wealth of information for those who want to improve children's nutrition and health, and costs only 2.50 inclusive of postage and packing. The Food Commission is a not-for-profit organisation and all profits from sales are used to continue the campaign for healthier, safer food in the UK.

Copies are available from The Food Commission, Freepost KE 7564, London N1 9BR and can be ordered from this website by clicking on this link: http://www.foodcomm.org.uk/books.htm

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is too much soy bad for men?

While soy may be beneficial to women in a variety of ways, research in monkeys suggests that it could have an adverse effect on the behavior of men, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Reporting in the current issue of the scientific journal Hormones and Behavior, the researchers found that in male monkeys, "long-term consumption of a diet rich in soy isoflavones can have marked influences on patterns of aggression and social behavior." Isoflavones are a naturally occurring plant estrogen in soy protein. "Although considerable attention has been directed at the potentially beneficial effects of isoflavones in reducing the risk of various cancers, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and postmenopausal symptoms, less effort has been invested in characterizing neurobehavioral effects," according to the study.

Myths stop women breastfeeding their babies

A survey published today by The UK Department of Health for National Breastfeeding Awareness Week (9 - 15 May) shows that serious misunderstandings may be stopping women, particularly young women, from breastfeeding. (1) Although the benefits of breastfeeding are well known (2), the UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe. Almost a third of women (29%) in England and Wales (3) never try to breastfeed compared to 2% in Sweden.(4) Younger women in particular are less likely to breastfeed with over 40% of mothers under 24 never trying. (3) The new survey of 1000 women shows: Myth: Over a third (34%) of women believe that modern infant formula milks are very similar or the same as breast milk Fact: Infant formula milk does not contain the antibodies, living cells, enzymes or hormones present in breastmilk. Breastmilk is designed for each individual baby and changes over time whereas infant formula milk is designed for every baby. -- Myth: A fifth (20%) of young women ...

Iron supplements help only certain women who are not anemic

Among women who are not anemic, only those with tissue-iron deficiencies can benefit from taking iron supplements, concludes a new study by Cornell University nutritionists. "Supplementation makes no difference in exercise-training improvements in women with low iron storage who are not yet tissue-iron deficient or anemic," says Thomas Brownlie, the first author of the study and a Cornell doctoral candidate in nutritional sciences. Women with low body iron, but who are not anemic, may not experience any improvements following training if their tissues are low in iron. Whereas women who have low iron storage in their liver only, and who are not anemic, appear to have no functional impairments. The study, published in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2004; 79:437-43), is the first to show differences between the physical abilities of nonanemic women with low-liver vs. low-tissue iron. The researchers are also the first to show that low iron without anemia does h...