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)