Now parents need lessons in packing kids’ lunchbox
SCHOOLS are teaching parents how to pack lunches, after research found just one in 60 boxes are healthy.
A study that monitored 76 schools over a decade revealed that pupils are munching jam sandwiches, salami sticks, chocolate and sausage rolls.
Only one in five lunchboxes contain a vegetable, while just half include a piece of fruit, according to a team from Leeds University.
The results have inspired a charity to work with more than 100 schools, many of which took up their offer of workshops for mums and dads.
Barriers
Mandatory rules on nutritional quality for school dinners were introduced in 2006 in England, but no law covers lunches brought from home.
Stephanie Slater, chief executive of School Food Matters said: “We’re supporting schools to put together a packed lunch policy [so] staff don’t have to become ‘packed lunch police’.
“But the very best way to ensure that children get the variety of nutrition they need to thrive is to encourage them to eat a hot school meal.”
Professor Jason Halford, president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, warned that poor diet is tied up with wealth inequality.
He said: “Helping families pack
healthy lunches is obviously something that should be supported. But we need to understand the barriers families face, particularly with the rising prices of perishable foods.
“We also need to ensure we don’t stigmatise families by shaming either.
“Food insecurity and obesity in
families are actually related issues.” The findings, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht, suggest most lunchbox sandwiches are made with white bread, while ham – linked to bowel cancer by experts – is the most common filling, followed by jam or Marmite. More than half of the boxes come with crisps or
other savoury snacks, while a chocolate biscuit is added to a third and about four in 10 have a sugary drink.
Home-made lunches have become less healthy over 10 years, with the boxes meeting nutritional standards falling from 1.6 to 1.1 per cent.
Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, urged Boris Johnson to ban packed lunches, saying he “can put the lid on the box and ensure all British children eat well once a day”.
NHS figures for England show in the past year, obesity in five-year-olds has risen 45 per cent, and children obese before starting school rose from 9.9 per cent to 14.4 per cent.