What is the situation with the nutrition of students in elementary schools? How much does it contribute to health and the prevention of obesity in students? Namely, only about 20 percent of schools offer fruits and vegetables every day, according to research by the Croatian Institute of Public Health on the occasion of World Food Day.
There has been progress in nutrition in primary schools, but there is certainly room for improvement, he says. Nutritionist from the Health Promotion Service Ivana ŠimićNamely, the results from 2019 and 2023 show that there are still not enough fruits and vegetables, reports HRT.
- It is still not at the level of the recommendation and guidelines, which is that children have fruit and vegetables every day. Only 22 percent of schools offer fruit every day, 23 vegetables, approximately every fifth school. There are also problems with the consumption of juices, or rather their offer. About 65 percent of schools offer juices, which is in no way in line with our recommendations. There are also problems of an infrastructural nature, with professional staff, schools emphasize, but we have a good trend of decreasing the addition of sugar to drinks - explained Šimić.
Children should be provided with a sufficiently colorful, interesting and tasty meal.
The greatest responsibility lies with the school chefs who prepare the menus. That is why the Croatian Institute of Public Health offers support in the professional preparation of menus. The training will start as a pilot project, and employees can be registered by school founders or principals. UNICEF is also participating in it, whose program manager Đurđica Ivković highlights the problem that schools do not have equal conditions.
- Children who attend regional schools in a number of cases do not have the same diet as children in their home schools. There are counties and places where there are no school kitchens and certainly the diet in schools where there are no school kitchens depends on external suppliers and we believe that a clearer standard should be introduced here as well - warned Ivković.
Experts agree - representatives of different professions should be included in the process, and children should be provided with a sufficiently colorful, interesting and tasty meal that only requires a little effort and imagination.
Source: HRT (Author: Ivana Čutura/Radio Sljeme)HRT (Author: Ivana Čutura/Radio Sljeme)
Photo: pexels
