Schools teaching parents what to put in their children's lunch to cut obesity
dailystar.co.ukhealthy and nutritious.The research, which was published in the BMJ Open journal and presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht, revealed that four in five lunch boxes didn’t include a vegetable, while half of them didn’t have fruit.READ MORE: Health experts speak out on dangers of new calorie menus in UK restaurantsAround two-thirds of the lunches contained too much sugar, while many parents also packed items like sausage rolls, crisps, biscuits, white bread, ham, jam and Nutella.Stephanie Slater, founder and chief executive of School Food Matters, said: “The Leeds study has shown that packed lunches rarely meet the school food standards and in our work in schools we regularly see lunch boxes filled with crisps, chocolate and fizzy drinks.“We’re supporting schools to put together a packed lunch policy and workshops for parents so they know what to include in their child’s lunchbox.“With a clear policy in place, school staff don’t have to become ‘packed lunch police’ which creates tensions between schools and families.“But the very best way to ensure that children get the variety and the nutrition they need to thrive is to encourage them to eat a hot school meal.”The Leeds University study tracked the habits of 1,148 pupils at 76 schools in England from 2006, while 323 pupils from 18 schools took part in a follow-up study in 2016.In 2006, only 1.1 percent of packed lunches met nutritional standards, with only an improvement of 0.5 percent witnessed a decade later, taking the figure up to 1.6 percent.Mandatory rules on nutritional quality for school dinners were introduced in 2006 in England but no law covers packed lunches.
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