300,000 Irish children overweight

Take-away fast food is replacing family meals for many children, fuelling an obesity epidemic, writes Mary Regan.

CHILDREN from disadvantaged families are more likely to have fast-food dinners and suffer the resulting problems with their future health, a report into child obesity has found.

The report, called The Voice of Young People, on attitudes to food and nutrition among 10 to 14 year olds, found many young people are having three take-away dinners a week.

A new trend of “take-away days” has also emerged, when parents take a night off cooking and order the family dinner from a nearby eatery.

Experts have warned that this habit, along with eating dinner in front of the television or computer, is leading to an erosion in family meal times and a rise in childhood obesity which has now reached “epidemic proportions”.

It found that more than 300,000 Irish children are overweight or obese, one of the highest levels in Europe. The figure is rising by about 10,000 a year. The report said a third of children routinely eat their evening meal in front of the television, and this rises to almost half (45%) at weekends.

It said: “The concept of family set meal times, or a specific time for dinner, whereby all the family sit down together, appears less common than heretofore. In almost all groups a number of children pointed to the fact that very often, owing to work commitments, a father or mother will eat dinner at a later time to the rest of the family.”

Nutritionist, Paula Mee, said: “The findings show the erosion of the family meal time, when children are going into their room to eat alone in front of the TV. We are missing a huge opportunity to teach children about what is in food. Irish children’s knowledge of nutrition is very limited compared to in Britain.”

The report, published by Pfizer Healthcare, said Irish children have a “limited daily consumption of fruit and vegetables” with just 19% of children eating fruit more than once a day, while 40% eat sweets daily.

The report quoted previous findings that just one in five children eat the recommended daily amount of vegetables.

“Moreover, for many children fruit or vegetables do not appear to be present in their everyday lunch boxes.

Also, a considerable number of children reported eating sweets or chocolate every day, particularly at break time or at the weekends,” it said.

In one school visited by the authors of the report, the majority of children regularly had the ready-made snack, Pot Noodle, for their lunch. None of these children consumed the supplementary vegetables made available for a nutritional boost, and usually ended up throwing the vegetables at each other.

A fifth of children were found to be “under-active” or “severely under-active”, meaning they have less than two hours of exercise a week, or none at all. This figure is much lower than previous studies, which found that up to a half of children do not engage in recommended levels of exercise.

The report said the majority of children eat cereal for breakfast, with those from poorer families tending to eat brands with a higher sugar content. It said 14% of children do not have anything to eat until lunchtime.