Too much snacking bad for children: Expert

Too much snacking bad for children: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): Parents beware. The jajanan, or snacks, which
your children buy and eat from vendors at schools can stunt their
physical and mental growth and may affect their performance at
school, according to a dietitian.

Soemiati Sardjono said the majority of these snacks have very
low nutritional value and consist chiefly of flour and fat with
little protein or mineral content, Antara reported.

Such an empty calorie intake causes children to feel full yet
they become sleepy and tend to lose enthusiasm for studying, she
said.

Many school administrators, responding to the tendency among
their pupils to lose concentration in the afternoon, put
mathematics in the early hours and other subjects like history in
the afternoon, Soemiati noted.

This approach does not help as it further strengthens the
stereotype of social studies as being less important than natural
and exact sciences, she said.

In the more elite schools, the variety of snacks available is
different but the impact on studying is probably just as bad, if
not worse, Soemiati said.

"Hamburgers, ice cream, beef noodle soup, hot dogs and fried
chicken could lead children to develop heart disorders, high
cholesterol, high blood pressure or to become overweight at an
early age," she said.

She added that the growth of children in well-off families is
also affected by the fact that most of them are driven to and
from school and as such they rarely exercise their muscles.

So what's the solution? Certainly not closing down food
stalls, Soemiati said.

Soemiati suggested that school administrators make an
arrangement with food vendors that they sell more nutritious
foods at prices affordable by the children.

Other experts says that the habit of snacking during school
breaks has a certain social function and that the best solution
is to turn the presence of food vendors into part of the
education system, in this case education about nutrition. (emb)