NUTRITION STUDY
SA’s children eat too much junk food, says Discovery
For the first time the Healthy Active Kids SA Report Card includes data on pre-schoolers that highlights a nation of extremes
South African children eat too much junk food, spend too much time in front of screens and do not get enough exercise, putting them at risk of a host of life-threatening diseases in later life, according to a study released on Wednesday by Discovery Health. "We should be outraged because so much of it is not in their control," said Vicki Lambert, head of exercise science and sports medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The government was introducing sound policies to improve children’s nutrition, such as a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, but parents, schools and communities could do much more, Lambert said. The 2016 Healthy Active Kids SA Report Card — the fourth of its kind — draws on the last five years of published data on children’s health. Children scored a C for overall physical activity and a D for weight, a slight improvement on the 2014 report card when they scored an overall D. On average, children watch three hours of television a day, only half do sport at sch...
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