50% of UK children are consuming five litres of cooking oil each year due to their crisp habits, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has revealed today.
1 in 5 children are consuming 9 litres per year as they eat their way through crisp packets per day.
Food4Thought Day is aimed at showing hidden salt, sugar and fat in common foods, so that children are better able to understand what damage is done to their health and hearts .
The campaign message shows a young girl drinking a bottle of cooking oil, with the the caption, ‘What goes into crisps goes into you’, shown beneath.
Over-sized burger boxes are going to be sent to 2,500 UK schools .
A BHF survey of 8-15 year olds showed half of children admitting to eating a pack of crisps a day. 1 in 5 eat crisps twice a day or more .
A 35g bag of crisps has two and a half teaspoons of oil. This increases in a larger 50g bag to three and a half teaspoons.
Increasing rates of childhood obesity as well as cases of type 2 diabetes show a grim picture for the future. This campaign challenges our children as to what’s in their takeaways, snacks and ready meals. It is about making such foods an exception rather than the rule.
These findings mirror the worrying state of our children's diets :
75% of mothers feed their children takeaways and readymade meals more than three times a week. A 2004 report showed that 13% of boys and 12% of girls report eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables daily, with 10% reporting eating none the previous day .
There are more than 200 children in the UK who have volunteered as BHF Young Ambassadors, lobbying their schools, MPs and local media to support Food4Thought.
Student action packs have been delivered to 400,000 children as the campaign kicks off in schools later this year.
bhf.org.uk/food is where you can find out more about the Food4Thought campaign.
