22 Healthy Eating
Agency and Department of Health, 2000–2001). The results from this
survey showed that children aged between 4 and 18 consumed on average
less than half of the recommended intake of fruit and vegetables with
20 percent consuming no fruit (excluding fruit juice) during the week of
the survey. Further, the majority consumed over the recommend allowance
for saturated fat, way below the allowance for oily fish, and above that rec-
ommended for sugar (most of which came from fizzy drinks). In addition,
the children’s diets were deficient in vitamin A, vitamin D, and iron (causing
high levels of anemia), which was particularly low in girls aged 11–18 years.
In sum, the data on children’s diets indicate that children’s diets in both
the US and UK do not match the recommendations for a healthy diet,
particularly in terms of their fat content and consumption of fruit and
vegetables.
Malnutrition
Dietary recommendations aimed at Western countries in the main
emphasize a reduction in food intake and the avoidance of overweight.
For the majority of the developing world, however, undereating remains a
problem resulting in physical and cognitive difficulties and poor resistance
to illness due to lowered intakes of both energy and micronutrients. Recent
data from the World Health Organization (WHO) examining the prevalence
of malnourished children indicate that 174 million children under the age
of 5 in the developing world show low weight for age, and that 230 million
are stunted in their growth. Further, the WHO estimates that 54 percent
of childhood mortality is caused by malnutrition, particularly related to a
deficit of protein and energy consumption. Such malnutrition is highest
in South Asia, where it is estimated to be five times higher than in the Western
hemisphere, followed by Africa, then Latin America. Prentice and Paul (2000)
explored the dietary needs of children in the developing world. They
suggested that a common problem is the low energy content of the foods
used to wean children, and that this can lead to growth faltering and ultimate
malnutrition. In particular they studied children’s diets in Gambia and
concluded that breast milk is an essential source of fat for children, and is
often the main source of fat until the child is 2 years old. Problems occur,
however, when children are weaned onto low-fat adult food. They also con-
cluded that although these lowered energy diets can sustain health in the
absence of illness, they are insufficient to provide “catch-up” growth if the
child is ill with infections such as diarrhea. Malnutrition is therefore a
problem for developing countries. The WHO states that malnutrition also