Banning snacks at school can help healthy eating

It might seem glaringly obvious, but the powers that be have gone and announced it anyway. Prohibiting snacks in schools could help to curb unhealthy eating habits within the nation’s kids.

A study at Cardiff University found that this was the easiest method to get kids onto healthier diets. It also discovered that peer pressure is fundamentally important in the way that youngsters choose to eat.

In the year-long scheme, children aged 9-11 from 43 primary schools in deprived areas across South Wales and South West England were analysed.

Nearly half of the schools involved were asked to ban junk food items such as packets of crisps and sugary sweets from their tuck shops. Instead, they stocked up on a variety of fruit.

In the schools where fruit was sold alongside more appealing crisps and sweets, the impact of the healthy scheme was negligable.

However, in the restricted schools were only fruit was allowed, kids ate 0.37 percent more fruit than the free choice children.

Professor Laurence Moore, from the Cardiff Institute, said: “Our results suggest that children are more willing to use fruit tuck shops and eat fruit as a snack at school if they and their friends are not allow to take in unhealthy snacks.”

It seems obvious, really. But teaching associations are not so impressed with the scheme. Chris Howard, the vice president of the NAHT, said that he did not support solutions that imposed restrictions on the kids.

However, with the rising levels of obesity amongst our young children, free choice might become a thing of the past.

Source: BBC News