Nutritionist Warns On Children’s Lunch Packs

As children return to school after the long vacation, parents should make vegetables, fruits and water their wards’ diets, a nutritionist said.

The Principal Nutritionist at KubwaGeneral Hospital, Abuja, Mrs Victoria Eze, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen on Monday.

She said that consumption of fruits, vegetables and water would ensure a balanced diet and help in boosting the rate of assimilation and intelligence of  the child.

Eze urged parents to select the appropriate fruits and vegetables for their children from the variety of fruits available in the market.

According to her, nutritionists have started an enlightenment campaign among parents with the aim of making them to see the nutritional benefits of giving fresh fruits and vegetables to their wards instead of packaged juice.

She further advised parents to abstain from feeding their children with packaged juice as it was a major cause of obesity among children.

“They shouldn’t lack in a food pack, no matter how small, make sure that there is fruit, even if it is one orange, banana, garden egg, make sure you create a space and drop one for the child to take to school.

“If the child doesn’t eat well, whatever is being taught, the child might not understand because the brain would not be functioning well because the child did not take enough energy giving food.

“We are discouraging children from taking drinks to school. Most of our children are becoming obese and the problem with obesity in children is that by the time they are getting to adulthood they are already developing diabetes which is dangerous.

“The fruits should be prepared at home but orange and apple they will be taking one everyday to school instead of all these packaged fruit juices’’.

Eze also advised parents to ensure that the foods their children took to school contained a lot of protein.

She identified beans, fish, eggs, beef and chicken as some foods rich in protein and necessary for healthy living.

She said that foods rich in carbohydrate should be combined with vegetables or eggs with a lot of water because of their heaviness.

“Beans should not be too much or else the child could sleep in class,” Eze said.

She condemned the feeding of children with fast foods, such as noodles as they were not healthy.

“We don’t advise parents to feed their children with noodles everyday because it would have gone soggy before lunch-time.

“The best time to take noodles should be immediately after cooking and anytime after one hour, it is considered poison.’’