The dangers of over-indulging this holiday season:

Think before you binge

by Carol Aloysius

School holidays are a time when most children tend to indulge in eating food they like most- junk food. The tendency to over indulge in such foods is common especially during festive celebrations such as Christmas and the New Year, when rich cakes and other sweets are served in almost every Christian home.

What they don’t realise is that indulging in such unhealthy foods even for a short period can be deadly in the long run due to their adverse health implications..

Here Community Physician, Schools Nutrition Unit, Family Health Bureau, Ministry of Health, Dr Charanthika Vithana, discusses the dangers of over indulgence and how to minimise the dangers during a festive celebration.

Excerpts…

Q: School holidays are the time when most children prefer to forget the healthy diets they had in school under their teachers’ supervision, and indulge in eating the food they enjoy most- junk food. What are the health implications of this change in their daily diet?

A: There are several health indicators. As you said, they tend to take junk foods such as potato chips, sweet desserts, toffees, products of potato starch and carbonated and sweetened beverages. Such junk foods contain high calories but are low in vitamins and minerals. Further, they are popular due to their great taste. They are made so tasty by lavish usage of oils and salts. Diet containing junk food will lead to the increase risk for non-communicable diseases such as cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes and cancer in adult hood.

Scientific evidence says unhealthy lifestyles such as wrong diet, low physical activity, alcohol and tobacco consumption account for seventy five percent of such diseases.

Q: Since this is the Christmas and New Year season, certain foods in particular are consumed more than at any other time of the year. Could you list some of these foods according to their sugar, fat, salt content?

A: 1. Sugary foods- Cakes, chocolate and other sweets

2. More frequent eating of starchy foods –Biscuits and other snacks

3. High fat foods- Sausages, red meat, processed meat, deep fried foods, pastries, Chinese rolls

4. Snack in the market containing high salt or sugar

5. Carbonated drinks

Q: What are the negative outcomes of ingesting these foods even for a short period?

A: Taking food more frequently during vacation than recommended will provide body with extra calories.

Those will be deposited as fat and lead to excessive weight gain. Eating too much and not involving in physical activity will worsen the situation. Obesity in childhood will lead to increase in diabetes and fatty liver conditions. Furthermore obese children are not physically and mentally fit. It leads to poor school performance and affects their mental well-being as well. In addition, obesity is the start of many non communicable diseases including heart disease in future. Deep frying, also produces trans-fat that leads to cancer and other non-communicable diseases in adulthood.

Q: Is that why the Health Ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been recently emphasizing the importance of eating less sugar, salt and fat?

A.: Yes. Eating less sugar, salt and fat reduce the risk of getting above mentioned non communicable diseases. Further eating less sugar, improves oral health as well.

Prevention before getting the diseases is much better to treating after getting the disease. When they get these diseases they have to be provided with long term treatment as well and diseases will lead to further disabilities too. So there is more emphasis on prevention by eating less sugar, salt and fat.

Q: Ideally what should be the levels of sugar and salt in one’s diet per person per day?

A: Salt intake should be one tea spoon or less per day. This is the daily maximum. Maximum recommended sugar intake per person per day is six teaspoons. If we take lesser amounts it is better for our health. These are for non-diabetic person. Diabetic have restrict sugar more. Actually they should not take sugar routinely.

Q: Is this level applicable to everyone? Does it vary with age?

A. This applies to everybody. But if you reduce these amounts when getting older it is better.

Q: What about calorie consumption? how much should a growing child consume per day? If you were to measure it with a table spoon how many tablespoons?

A: We do not recommend taking sugar as a source of calories for our bodies. We get calories from starchy foods and fat. There are recommended serving amounts for each and serving sizes also vary with the type of food consumed.

Q: Examples?

A: Take children between the ages of 10-19. The following is the recommended number of calories they should have per day according to the specific food type:

Cereals and starch food 7-10 servings

Fruits 2 servings

Vegetables 2-3 servings

Pulses, fish, meat, eggs, nuts 2-3 servings

Milk or milk products 2 servings

Nuts & oil seeds 2-3 servings

The amounts served however will differ with the type of food

In terms of measurement, one serving size consists of (1 cup = 200 ml tea cup) per person.

Cereals & starchy foods

Cooked rice - 1 cup (130-140 g)

Bread- 1 slice (50 g)

Vegetables

Cooked vegetables

(Fruit veg. & leafy veg.) -3 table spoons (½ cup)

Raw salads- 1 cup (200 ml)

Fruits

Medium size fruit 1 (1 banana / 1 orange)

Cut fruit / fruit salad ½ cup

Dried fruits 2 tablespoons (20-30) g

Fish, pulses, dried fish, egg, poultry and meat

Cooked fish/ poultry/ meat 30 g

Cooked pulses 3 table spoons

Eggs 1

Dried fish 15 g

Milk & dairy products

Milk 1 cup (200 ml)

Yogurt/ curd 1 cup (100 ml)

Milk powder 30 g (2 tbsp)

Nuts & oil seeds table spoons (15 g)

Q: Recent surveys have found many Lankan children and youth are now at risk of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). In some areas 1:3 are overweight and in some 1:5 at risk of developing early diabetes and other NCDs. Your comments?

A: In certain areas we have found people who are over weight. In others we have also encountered problems of under-nutrition. So the health sector is catering to both of these extremes.

Latest data we have is for grade 10 children in Sri Lanka. Out of the girls in the grade 10, five percent fall into the overweight category, while four percent of the boys of same grade are in overweight group.

In the past five years there is an increasing pattern of overweight in both groups. So this is an emerging problem mainly in the urban setting where most of the junk foods are available.

Q: Lots of children today spend very long hours at the computer or computer games instead of exercising, with more free time during holidays they spend even long hours glued to their chairs, reading or playing computer games. Is this also a cause for obesity among children?

A: Present advances in technology have created these circumstances. This sedentary lifestyle is a main cause of obesity. Even though they eat their normal amount of food, if they do not expend the energy by physical activity, there will be excess calories in the body. This excess will be deposited in their bodies as FAT. They become obese. This is aggravated if they are eating more while not doing any physical activity.

Q: Your Unit oversees the health of youth and school children. What are the interventions you have put in place to prevent children from becoming overweight and obese?

A: For schools there is a Canteen Policy, which restricts high fat, high sugar and high salt foods. It also restricts carbonated foods and processed foods being sold to children. The Policy promotes provision of natural and healthy foods.

Further we are working together with schools to provide more opportunities for children to engage in physical activity at the schools. Awareness campaigns are also being conducted for parents at the divisional levels.

Q: Your message?

A: Parents must always ensure they serve their children healthy meals even during the school vacations. Children too must act in a more responsible way when it comes to eating healthy foods. However eating a balanced healthy meal alone is not enough.

They must combine this with plenty of outdoor exercise. Children must be encouraged to take part in active games which exercises their entire body.

They should be discouraged from using the computer or watching T.V for long hours as they should take advantage of the longer hours they have for play.

Q. What about misleading advertisements that tempt children to eat unhealthy foods such as chocolates, sausages, biscuits, fizzy drinks?

A: Companies that advertise these products must act more responsibly especially as they are aware of the health implications on the future citizens of our country.