Good eating habits start young

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 11

Good eating habits start young

Teach your children well! Adult heart disease can be delayed. But preventive steps must start from the earliest possible age. More health teaching in schools and educationmotivational campaigns on health and fitness means that authoritative bodies have made a stand on preventive health issues.

Those planning programmes aimed at young people have good foundation for policies directed at preventing heart disease. More and more evidence supporting early measures is being published in the medical journals. Here are the facts: (1) The narrowed arteries of atherosclerosis are. the end-stage of a process that starts in childhood. Heart disease takes years to develop. Men in their early twenties already have narrowing of the arteries leading to the heart. The beginnings of artherosclerosis have been found in children less than 15 years old. (2) Studies of children show the most definitive benefits of diet. Preventive measures will have greatest effect if started before detrimental lifestyles, or other health problems like high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, or artery disease become established. Studies have not been in progress long enough to prove that children living a healthy lifestyle pattern will have less heart attacks and strokes; but there is evidence that blood cholesterol levels can be lowered. Other than diet, risk factors for heart disease such as smoking, drinking excessive alcohol, being grossly overweight, inadequate physical activity, stress, hypertension and high blood pressure are usually absent in children. However, dietary patterns are established early in childhood as a result of family influences. These patterns are only modified later in response to peer and social pressures. Studies published in the journal “Atherosclerosis” in 1980 showed that in 16 countries the blood cholesterol levels of seven and eight year old boys ranged from 2.6-5.2 mmol per litre of blood. These results suggested that a Western-type diet (rich with animal products and saturated fatty acids and

poor in starchy, fibre-in-tact, carbohydrate-rich plant foods) is responsible for the higher cholesterol levels found in the boys of the more developed countries. In further studies in Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, the Philippines, and Ghana higher levels of blood cholesterol were found in boys from countries with the highest percentage of calorie intakes from saturated fatty acids, and the lowest percentage of calories as carbohydrate (starches and sugars). Recent reports in “The Medical Journal of Australia” (April 6 and August 3) also show the association between diet and blood cholesterol in children. Finland has the highest

heart disease rate in the world. Compared with Australian children (from Adelaide) children from Finland aged eight and nine years old, have higher blood cholesterol levels (about 5 mmol per litre of oiood) whereas Australian children have levels of just over 4 mmol per litre. Intakes of total fat, saturated fatty acids, and dietary cholesterol are higher for Finnish children. (3) The dietary fat content of children’s diets can be lowered. The Australian report shows that food energy (calorie) intake of Adelaide children is now about 10 per cent less throughout childhood than in previous decades. This is achieved by less eating of fat which is now less than 35 per cent of calories, as recommended by heart associations round the world. However, the international recommendations of the F.A.0./W.H.0./ U.N.O. for infants’ dietary energy intakes have now been reduced. For the first year of life, the recommendations are 10 to 15 per cent lower than they were a decade ago. After the first or second year of life fat should be restricted to less than 35 per cent of calories. Some overseas recommendations are for 30 per cent fat diets, which is the same as the diet proposed for adults in this series. There is no evidence that this level of fat is a health risk for young children, provided they eat adequate calories for normal growth and physical activity. Dietary cholesterol is not a concern for children, except if they have a high blood cholesterol caused by inherited disorder. There may be special benefits from eating fish regularly throughout a lifetime; and children should be encouraged to eat the different varieties

of fish. (4) “A major goal is to develop in children a desire to be physically active that will persist through adolescence and adult years.” This statement from the American Heart Association includes a warning: “Pressure,. stress, and competition can cause enjoyable activities to become disastrous experiences that discourage continued physical activity.” Team sports and swimming, cycling, very short distance running and hiking are the activities it recommends for presecondary school sports. It is not until later teens that the ends of the long bones are sufficiently developed to allow serious training for competitive sports and heavy contact

sports to be safe. Growth may be delayed if children undertake long distance training when they are too young. Fibre and low-fat diets Concerns that children may eat too much fibre have arisen because of diets with large amounts of unprocessed bran, or the incorporation of too many raw and difficult-to-chew foods which displace more nourishing foods. Children should eat bread and cereals with their normal component of fibre. It should be finely ground for younger children who can not chew it well enough. They will be well nourished if they also eat plenty of cooked starchy vegetables, green vege-

tables, fruits, dairy products, and some meat or fish. The difference between refined white bread and wholemeal or brown bread becomes more significant when children eat very little meat. Less meat means less iron, zinc, and vitamin 86, all of which are found in wholegrain breads and cereal products. Sugar is not an essential ingredient of children’s diets so long as they eat plenty of other foods. It is unnecessary to add salt to children’s food. Low-fat dairy products are suitable for children once a good, mixed diet is established. The vitamin A and riboflavin, important nutrients in whole milk, are also plentiful in highly-coloured fruits and vegetables. Non-fat and low-fat milk is only unsuitable for infants because milk is their major nutrient supply.

It is time that fish and chips were ousted from their position as a regular Friday night takeaway family meal. This meal can well equal the total amount of saturated fat as having lean meat on all the other six nights of the week.

Developing a lasting desire in children to be physically active.