Change for life - distributed by DUK

[IanD]

With my "Balance" magazine came the latest "Change for Life" booklet "Smart Swaps". The emphasis is, of course to minimise the twin evils, fat & sugar, in our diet.

Children under 2 are allowed full cream milk, 2-5 semi-skimmed & over 5 skimmed or 1% fat milk.

Vegetables are recommended as the "main event" but what vegetables? And how do you pack vegetables into their lunch box? Children need their calories, & chocolate provides about 10 times the energy of carrots, wt/wt.

I'm into grandchildren now, but when I was a child, "proper food" was provided with the encouragement to eat the fat. What chance have today's children got of learning good eating habits (apart from avoiding sweets) and so avoiding the obesity, with all its problems, that they see as an epidemic?

I quote from a contributor to Dr Briffa:

I help in a secondary school and was dismayed to be in a year 8 science lesson where they are learning about ‘healthy eating’. The advice given to these impressionable young people is to eat ‘mostly carbohydrates’ as shown on a pyramid similar to this:

http://www.sanandres.esc.edu.ar/oli...dCampaign/5a/Group2/AF_Food_Pyramid_52939.jpg

The illustration in their text book showed white bread, white pasta, potatoes, white rice at the base of the pyramid…..and the fat and protein, as in the above picture link was near the top of the pyramid, so that the proportion of protein was about 1/4 of the carbs, and likewise with the dairy. Fat was at the top along with cakes, sweets etc that you shouldn’t have much of.

There’s little I can do in school other than go along with what is taught, as they are following the National Curriculum……so how is this message ever going to get out when the next generation are being brainwashed in this way of eating?