A vast majority of primary and middle school students are not only
bored but also malnourished by their breakfast, according to the
latest survey of Chinese students' eating habits.
The results of the survey, conducted by the Institute of Child and
Adolescent Health under Peking University and Shanghai Second
Medical University's Nutrition Department, were released last
week.
The survey shows that some students skip breakfast, and some only
eat a limited selection of foods.
The survey covered 4,692 pupils aged from six to 11 from seven
schools in Beijing and 4,300 pupils from five schools in
Shanghai.
Of
those students surveyed, 25.8 percent in Beijing and 11.4 percent
in Shanghai fail to eat breakfast every day.
"Skipping breakfast confuses the dietary cycle and wastes the
chance to replenish nutrients used up during sleep," warned Chen
Chunming, a professor at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Experts agree that breakfast is supposed to provide 30 percent of
the day's total energy.
But if they fail to eat breakfast, teenagers, who are usually
occupied in the mornings with physical and mental activities, will
see their blood sugar levels drop. This can cause tiredness and an
inability to concentrate, which have a negative impact on their
learning.
This sort of malnutrition can have a long-term impact on young
people's health and development.
The primary and secondary reasons students gave for failing to eat
breakfast were lack of appetite and time.
The survey, sponsored by Nestle, found that there is a limited
choice of breakfast foods.
The survey also found that in Chinese cities, the average
teenager's breakfast mainly consisted of grains, meat and eggs.
In
Beijing, children and teenager's breakfasts mainly consisted of
grains, including bread, steamed stuffed bun, noodles and
dumplings. Meat, eggs, milk, soybean milk, vegetable and fruits
were also popular.
A
decent breakfast should contain all four types of food, including
grains, meat, milk products and vegetables and fruits.
But statistics show that only 0.9 percent of students in cities and
rural areas eat four or more types of food every day, and the
percentage of those eating only one or two types of food was as
high as 87 percent.
The researchers believe that students' nutrition has improved as a
result of the rapid economic development and better standard of
living.
But poor knowledge of nutrition and an unbalanced diet has led many
children to be malnourished, rather than undernourished.
(China Daily December 12, 2002)