Teen-agers eating well

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 7

Teen-agers eating well

Christchurch teen-agers seem to eat less “junk food” than their American or British counterparts, says a visiting American nutritionist. Dr Katharine Curry, dean of the faculty of health sciences and professor of dietetics and nutrition at Florida International University, in Miami, is in Christchurch during a five-week study of the eating habits of youngsters aged 13 and 14. She is visiting high schools in New Zealand, Britain, and the United States, to compare teen-agers’ eating habits. On Thursday, Dr Curry visited Rangi Ruru School and Linwood High School. At

Rangi Ruru, she viewed the kitchen, saw what the school boarders had for lunch, and visited the school tuck . shop. At Linwood, she also visited the tuck shop, and got members of a fourth form class to fill in her survey questionnaire about their eating habits. She hopes to visit another Christchurch State school before she leaves for Auckland, next week. As well as asking the children what they ate the day before for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in-be-tween, the questionnaire asks what food they like to eat while on holiday or when they are not feeling well, what sort of food they dislike

or refuse to eat, what they regard as high-status food, and what sort of culturally or ethnically traditional food they eat. They are also asked who cooks and shops for food in their household. Dr Curry said that she had not checked many of the completed questionnaires, but from what she had seen of them, and of the school tuck shop, she believed that most of the pupils had a well-balanced diet. “A lot of them were eating potato crisps, ice-cream, and sweets, but they were also eating plenty of fruit, brown bread, and flavoured milk,” she said.

New Zealand children seemed to eat mainly sandwiches and fruit for lunch, although some also ate chips and sweets. "In Britain, at least half the children I surveyed ate baked beans and chips for lunch, they chose it specially from the school menu,” said Dr Curry. “In the United States, teenagers would usually eat hamburgers at lunchtime,” she said. New Zealand teen-agers would probably eat as much confectionery, ice-cream, and chips as their British and American counterparts, but they did not seem to consume as much pastry, biscuits, and high-fat foods, such as fish and chips and hamburgers. “There are more hamburger and junk food outlets in the United States and Britain, and I have not seen as many sweet shops in New Zealand as in the other countries,” said Dr Curry.