Healthy Eating 21has specifically examined the role of both childhood and in uteronutrition
on the development of adult illnesses and has provided evidence for his
“Fetal Origins Hypothesis.” In particular, his research indicates that early
nutrition may relate to illnesses such as hypertension, ischemic heart dis-
ease, stroke, and chronic bronchitis. Researchers have therefore examined
the question “What do children eat?”
The Western hemisphere
Many children’s diets in the West are unsatisfactory. For example, the Bogalusa
Heart Study in the US showed that the majority of 10-year-olds exceeded
the American Heart Association dietary recommendations for total fat,
saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol (Nicklas, 1995). A survey in the UK
in 1989 showed a similar picture, with 75 percent of children aged 10 to 11
exceeding the recommended target level for percentage of energy derived
from fat (Buttriss, 1995). Likewise, Wardle (1995) reported that 9 –11-year-old
British children showed inadequate intakes of fruit and vegetables, con-
suming less than half the recommended daily intake on average, and that
only 5 percent of children studied exceeded the recommended intake.
One large-scale survey in the US provided a more detailed view on chil-
dren’s diets. For this study data were collected from over 7,000 children
aged 5 and under, and nearly 11,000 aged 19 and under, in the years 1994 –
1996 and 1998 (US Department of Agriculture, 1999). In terms of overall
healthiness the data indicated that for those aged 5 and under, 46.2 percent
consumed the recommended amount of food energy, 96.6 percent consumed
the recommended amount of protein, 30.6 percent consumed the recom-
mended amount of total fat, and 86.5 percent consumed the recommended
amount of cholesterol. This suggests that the majority of children have healthy
diets in terms of protein, but only a minority have healthy diets in terms
of fat and overall calorie consumption. For essential vitamins and nutrients,
only 52 percent showed a healthy consumption of calcium, and 60.9 percent
consumed iron at the recommended levels. For those aged between 5 and
19 the results showed a similar pattern, with the majority having a healthy
diet in terms of protein but not in terms of other dietary components.
The data also provided insights into what food was eaten and where, and
indicated that over 80 percent of both the under-5’s and those between
5 and 19 were eating snacks which contributed about 20 percent of their
total calorie intake.
In 2001, a similarly large-scale study was carried out in the UK exploring
the diets of those aged from 1 and a half to 18 years old (Food Standards