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Apple a Day Approach

The government is being asked to intervene to improve children’s eating habits after the success of a pilot study involving fruit in schools.

New research being released at a World Nutrition Symposium in Christchurch this week shows the benefit of the programme, which saw fruit provided free to 25 schools twice a week, one piece per child.

The idea of feeding school children is not new. Many older New Zealanders will recall, with varying degrees of fondness, the 30-year-long milk in schools programme.

Often curdled by the midday sun, milk was supplied free to every school-aged child to promote good health.

That ended in 1967, but the recent Ministry of Health pilot study involving 6,000 Auckland and Northland school children has led to calls for the government to step in again.

The results showed unanimous support for the fruit scheme from teachers and children, 50% of whom said they didn’t normally eat fruit every day.

Researcher Paula Dudley says at the beginning of the scheme there was a reluctance from some children to eat the fruit, but by the end of it they were queuing up.

Intervention studies will be a topic of hot debate at an international 5 Plus A Day symposium which kicks off in Christchurch on Monday. 5 Plus A Day refers to the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables a person should eat.

Lorelie Di Sogra from the US Cancer Institute, who is attending the symposium, says if governments don’t get involved in providing good nutrition for children they will eventually have to pay the cost of an obesity problem.

Also up for discussion will be research showing low fruit and vegetable consumption accounts for well over 1,000 deaths in New Zealand each year, many of which are avoidable.

Experts say if the population were to increase consumption by a mere half a serve each day - around 40 grams - 330 of those lives could be saved.