Healthy eating

The assistant head of Marsascala primary school is to be commended for the initiative taken in teaching parents and children about the importance of healthy eating, breakfast in particular (November 19).

Eating a healthy and nutritious breakfast is important both for the attention and behaviour of children and to avoid childhood obesity and its associated psychological and physical health problems.

However, the article was worrying because the food apparently recommended by the nutritionist from the Health Promotion Department included a well known brand of sugar coated cereal. Sugar coated cereals are one of the many "nutritional disaster" foods marketed with children in mind.

They are almost completely without nutritional value (I have heard it said that the cardboard packet was more nutritious than the cereal) and are very high in sugar and salt.

It is recommended that pre-school children have minimal salt intake and that children over five years should eat less than 4g of salt a day. One serving of sugar coated cereal contains 1.5g of salt - more than a serving of pizza.

Processed foods which are high in salt, fat and sugar are the main cause for the huge rise in child and adult obesity. The Health Promotion Department should be recommending avoidance of these foods and instead should be teaching parents about real healthy foods, such as unrefined cereals, nuts, seeds, fruit, fresh juices, wholegrain bread... and water.