One in three kids rarely eat veggies

One in three children find home-cooked meals ‘old-fashioned’ with little variety, too many vegetables and not as tasty as outside food accounting for the main reasons.

This was one of the many observations made by researchers who carried out a study of eating habits and perceptions in 24 schools in four cities including six Pune schools.

Researchers observed that partly due to the influence of fast foods, 43% of children reported asking for ‘add-ons’ such as sauces, pickles, butter or papad when eating at home.

When asked about their food preferences, most children reported consuming cereal foods, rice and chapatis most frequently. Shockingly, of the one-third of children who infrequently consumed vegetables, about 10% said they didn’t eat any vegetables at all. At the same time, 39% of the children were high consumers of chocolates and 59% drank aerated beverages one to three times a week.

Around 36.9 % of older children said home-cooked meals were ‘old-fashioned’ offering little variety, too many vegetables and not being as tasty as outside food. And 43% of the children needed ‘add-ons’ such as sauces, pickles, butter or papad when eating at home.

“An important finding of the study is that 34.3% and 47.5% of the children respectively consumed their lunch and dinner in front of the television. There is a decline in family-centered meals, which helps in maintenance of healthy eating behaviours. When children eat in front of the TV, neither do they pay attention to what they eat nor portions, but if a person eats with the family, the meals are generally healthier with higher intake of fruits, vegetables and measured portions,” said the study’s lead researcher Dr Seema Gulati from Delhi’s National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation.

Meanwhile, as far as mothers went, 64.8% were found to be overweight or obese. While most of the mothers were housewives, 16.2% were working full time.

It was also observed that as the total family income and level of education of parents increased, so did the risk of obesity. Families where total monthly income was more than Rs50,000, high level of obesity was seen in kids.

Even as the study said that working mothers felt guilty about their children being obese, admitting that they had little time to cook and relied on processed foods, Dr Geeta Dharmatti, president of Pune chapter of Indian Dietetics Association (IDA) said that this is true. “Kids stay alone at home with ample access to fried snacks and junk food, which parents stack in case kids feel hungry. There is no one to monitor their food-taking habits,” she said.

Also mothers surveyed had little knowledge on the link between diet and diseases like heart disease (52%) and 81% regarding the link between diet and cancer.

“Most mothers believed that an ‘unhealthy diet’ is an ‘unhygienic diet’. Therefore, any food or food preparation was considered healthy if it was hygienically prepared. Thus, when asked about the consequences of unhealthy eating, mothers generally mentioned stomach upset and fever and not lifesyle diseases,” said Gulati.

Some findings of the survey
19.2% males and 18.1% female children of 1,800 studied were overweight/obese.

64.8% of mothers were overweight/obese.

71% kids lived in nuclear families, 27.6% lived with extended family.

71.8% mothers were housewives, while 16.2% worked full time,

79.2% mothers believe ghee is good for health with 82.5% using it daily.

50.6% older kids found home-cooked meals old-fashioned.

43% children needed ‘add-ons’ like sauces, pickles, butter and papad with home food.

39% children consumed chocolate regularly while 10% children never ate vegetables.

47.5% children ate dinner in front of the television.

64.1% children simply ate the meals served to them at home.