Despite Ministry of Health guidelines that ban unhealthy foods from school lunches, many schools disregard the regulations and make available to students a diet that can be a recipe for academic failure and health problems.

Of course, a child's diet at home also plays an important role in the increasing problem of obesity among the young and the portent of a variety of medical problems later in life.

The Ministry of Health is stressing the importance of teaching children proper eating habits and ensuring youngsters get a proper amount of exercise. It is time for action to be taken before child obesity and child illnesses become more serious in the kingdom. Among the foods officially banned from school cafeterias are carbonated sodas and drinks with a low per centage of fruit juice, candies, chocolates and gum. Yet many schools in the kingdom still offer some of these items.

“Children at this stage of their development need more nutrients than adults,” said Dr Fuad Mustafa Niazi, a nutritionist at a Jeddah hospital. “They should get a full serving of vitamins and nutrients, such as proteins and water, for example,” he added.

According to the report titled 'A Full Plate for Schools' by John Marlowe, only 2 per cent of all schoolchildren meet all the requirements of the food pyramid and 16 per cent don't meet any of the requirements. What makes these statistics so important is that unhealthy eating habits at school affect children‚s classroom concentration and performance.

A New York study found that many school students experience malnutrition, not much to be a clinical problem, but still enough to affect intelligence and academic performance.

The study also found that children who suffer from poor nutrition during the brain's most formative years score much lower on test scores of vocabulary, reading comprehension, arithmetic and general knowledge. Unhealthy eating habits also expose children to serious medical illnesses.

“Psychological problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and even cancer are just a few of the illnesses unhealthy eaters can encounter,” Niazi said.

Schools in the kingdom should enforce healthy food policies, which will guide students to more nutritious snacks and drinks during the day rather than items with no nutritional value.

“One of the major problems we face in the Kingdom is lack of awareness of the problems unhealthy eaters face. Health education for all is extremely important for the well-being of all the people,” he added.

70pc students overweight

A SURVEY of 120 Saudi schoolchildren aged 14-16 in a government school in Riyadh recently showed that more than 70 per cent are overweight as a result of eating fatty food, lack of exercise and sedentary lifestyle. The findings were tabulated on the basis of a questionnaire given to the students who were asked about their eating habits, lifestyles, physical activities and leisure pursuits.

The findings revealed a general ignorance of nutritious food. It also highlighted a serious shortcoming on the part of parents in educating their children about healthy eating habits. The teachers often overweight themselves, served as poor role models for the pupils.

In reply to a question about food habits, more than 90 per cent of the children said they ate rice with meat at least once a day, with chocolate bars bought from school canteens serving as their breakfast.

Since government schools close at 1pm, they go home, have lunch and then take a nap.

Asked about fast food, 70 per cent of the respondents said they ate junk food at least twice a week, while 20 per cent eat it three times or more. Only 10 per cent of the students eat fast food once a week. As many as 60 per cent said they ate pizza, shawerma, foul, broast chicken, chicken and beef burgers with French fries for dinner. A surprising finding was that a typical Saudi family does not prepare dinner at home, but prefers to buy takeaways.

Some 80 per cent of those surveyed said they spent three to four hours a day watching TV or playing computer games, especially on weekends. Even at school, they play football only once a week for only 45 minutes.