Don't give under-fives
too much fruit and
vegetables or their
growth could be
stunted. That is the
view of food expert
Sarah Almond. Sam
Underwood reports.
"Eat your greens" has
been the standard nutritional
advice from
parents for decades.
But could these so-called
superfoods actually be doing
children harm?
Yes, according to the
Nippers' Nutrition study carried
out by leading expert
Sarah Almond, a paediatric
dietician and guest lecturer
on child health at the University
of Brighton.
Asked to look into the
nutritional needs of underfives
by East Sussex Trading
Standards, she set about
investigating the food on
offer in nursery schools.
Her results were startling
and proved that too much of
a good thing can be bad for
you.
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Looking closely at what
foods the ten nurseries
which agreed to take part
in the survey were serving,
she found that in trying to
offer super-healthy food,
the nurseries were actually
not providing enough nutrition.
Unlike school meals, Government
regulations do not
cover the food eaten by
toddlers.
Only 30% were providing
meals with a high enough
calorific value and some
were doing more harm than
good by serving what they
believed to be healthy
snacks.
She said: "At this time in
their lives, young children
have far higher nutritional
requirements compared with
their size than at any other
time.
"They just need small
quantities of very nutritionally-
dense foods in order to
grow."
Ms Almond found that eating
too much fruit and
vegetables can lead to vitamin
deficiencies for young
children and stunt their
growth because they are not
nourished enough.
She said: "We were very
surprised because we were
expecting the nurseries to
serve foods which were high
in calories and fat that would
be unhealthy but we actually
found that they were serving
foods with too little
nutrition.
"It was these foods, which
were too low in calories, fat
and saturated fat which were
unhealthy."
As well as providing
nutritionally-balanced
meals, Ms Almond advocated
serving young children
nourishing snacks instead of
ones that are healthy for
adults.
So cucumber slices, cherry
tomatoes and carrot sticks
should be replaced with hot
cross buns, crumpets and
biscuits.
She said eating too much
fibre-rich fruit and vegetables
could stop children's
bodies from absorbing other
key nutrients such as vitamins
and minerals.
She also said fibre filled
children up quickly and
could stop them from
taking in enough calories to
grow.
Ms Almond put her
findings together in a booklet
which trading standards has
forwarded to nurseries.
It gives advice about how
to prepare balanced meals for
the children to meet their
nutritional needs and help
ensure they grow up healthy
and strong.
Brian Johnson, head of
trading standards, welcomed
the study and its findings.
He said: "We were surprised
by the findings.
"We assumed that everything
was going to be
OK but wanted to look
in detail at nutrition for
under-fives as there are no
regulations around to cover
them.
"The most surprising
finding was the fact that
applying older children's
nutritional requirements
to younger children was
incorrect."
The report's results have
been sent to various agencies
including the Foods Standards
Agency and the Office
for Standards in Education
and have been circulated to
nutritionists and nurseries
around the world via the
internet.
Mr Johnson said: "We can
now talk to the nurseries
with some confidence based
on Sarah's findings because
we have scientific findings to
base our advice on."
A graduate from Leeds
Metropolitan University's
nutrition and dietetics
degree course, Ms Almond
has studied at the Royal
London Hospital in East
London.
Her current studies
include research for her PhD
in nutrition for children with
severe disabilities.
She said: "The main thing
to know is that children have
very specific nutritional
needs.
i agree with some of what has been said here, however to even think that swapping fruit and veg with biscuits and cakes is PURE LUNARCY! before all these packaged foods were around adults AND children were more healthy, balance is key yes, and too much fibre is not good, agreed, that is even the case with adults, too much fibre is ineffecient, for example wholegrains and foods of the sort were near enough undigestable by our cave dwelling ancestors. foods containing high amounts of fibre tend to be relativley cheap, hence the increase most likely, its cheap and healthy, no onehas been told the recommended amounts for children, one bowl a day of high fibre cereal is enough, what has been said in this article is dangerous and the lack of information provided is irresponsible, no wonder there is an obesity time bomb awaiting the youth of the U.K, when articles like this are written. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH FRUIT, THIS IS NATURES NATURAL "SWEETS" and as long as there is variety, not just the old apple and banana which are both high in fibre, berries plums, oranges lemons, grapes, melons etc are all HIGH IN A VARIETY OF VITMAMINS. more natural healthy VARIETY IS KEY, not this nonsense about junk food is ok.
i agree with some of what has been said here, however to even think that swapping fruit and veg with biscuits and cakes is PURE LUNARCY! before all these packaged foods were around adults AND children were more healthy, balance is key yes, and too much fibre is not good, agreed, that is even the case with adults, too much fibre is ineffecient, for example wholegrains and foods of the sort were near enough undigestable by our cave dwelling ancestors. foods containing high amounts of fibre tend to be relativley cheap, hence the increase most likely, its cheap and healthy, no onehas been told the recommended amounts for children, one bowl a day of high fibre cereal is enough, what has been said in this article is dangerous and the lack of information provided is irresponsible, no wonder there is an obesity time bomb awaiting the youth of the U.K, when articles like this are written. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH FRUIT, THIS IS NATURES NATURAL "SWEETS" and as long as there is variety, not just the old apple and banana which are both high in fibre, berries plums, oranges lemons, grapes, melons etc are all HIGH IN A VARIETY OF VITMAMINS. more natural healthy VARIETY IS KEY, not this nonsense about junk food is ok.
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