Children's Diets

Reprinted from Sydney Morning Herald

CHILDREN'S diets are so salt-laden that even foods not usually categorised as "junk" are tipping sodium levels over the safe limit.

Yet the "hidden factor" in the childhood obesity epidemic is slipping off most parents' radars, a visiting British cardiovascular specialist has warned.

Graham MacGregor, of London's St George's Hospital Medical School, said encouraging children to eat healthy home- cooked meals was difficult because their taste receptors were adapting to processed foods, particularly salty snacks.

Even a common child's intake of cereal for breakfast, savoury biscuits for morning tea and a processed cheese and ham sandwich for lunch meant a pre-schooler had already consumed more than two times the recommended daily intake of salt.

Food manufacturers are coming under pressure to reduce the salt, sugar and saturated fat in products targeted at children.

In the first year after Kellogg decided to change the ingredients in 12 of its products, 235 tonnes of salt was removed from its foods. Yet only five products got the Heart Foundation's tick of approval.

Encourage your children from an early age to eat fresh foods, particularly fruit and vegetables. When juiced in the right combinations, fruit and vegetables can be very sweet and tasty.