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Back to the pyramid

Posted in General March 13th, 2007 by Melinda Varley

A new week and another chance to continue to abuse Ofcom for banning junk food ads and of course the government for making our kids fat.

This week’s debate is a continuation from last weeks argument that the Food Standard Agency’s Notional Profiling Model, the index that has been put in place to help us figure out what is good for us and what isn’t, was not effective in telling us what we should and shouldn’t eat.

It now has emerged that the Committee of Advertising Practice will meet this week to scrutinize Ofcoms regulations and to find a more workable model that is easier to understand and implement.

Aside from the fact there is actually a meeting to be held in which attendees’ primary reason for being there is to simply bitch about things, they are actually planning to reinstate the oldest model in the book. The food pyramid. If you are a keen reader of madcomments you will know that this was in fact my suggestion in the first place.

That, however, is aside from the point. What really needs to be done comes down to the parents of children. Since Ofcom’s ruling The Sun and The Mirror have inundated us with stories and images of fat kids reminding us that we, as a society, are in fact to blame. But the truth is, you only have to look as far as the parents who are giving in to their cries.

Today I found an interesting article which highlighted this point exactly, all eating habits start with the parents.

Four children’s mental abilities have suddenly improved after they took a simple dietary supplement.

Scans showed their brains underwent three years’ worth of development in just three months.

At the same time they displayed remarkable improvements in tests of reading, concentration, problem-solving and memory.

The three boys and one girl, aged between eight and 13, were taking part in a pilot study looking at the effects of diet on developing young brains.

Scientists believe the results are powerful evidence of the harm “junk food” is doing to Britain’s children.

At the start of the study the children were given a supplement called VegEPA, which contains a combination of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids.

They took two capsules a day for three months and were also encouraged to cut down on fatty snacks and fizzy drinks and be more active.

At the end of the study period the children were put through a battery of tests and given hi-tech proton spectroscopy scans that look at biochemical changes in the brain.

Dramatic improvements were seen in every area. The children showed an increase in reading age of well over a year, their handwriting became neater and more accurate, and they paid more attention in class.

Obesity is just one of the many things that is affecting our kids today. It is one in a string of problems that can easily be prevented by responsible parenting.