Children are learning the wrong food lessons

The report titled 'Through the back door' found that the curriculum packs produced by food companies contain misleading or incorrect information. The Children's Food Campaign says it came across packs teaching children that they should include fatty or sugary food as part of their breakfast; that overweight children should not eat less food; and that soft drinks are made with "gooditives", an invented term to put a positive spin on artificial additives. In one of the more blatant promotions, Vimto encouraged teachers in more than a thousand schools to use English lessons to promote the sugary soft drink. Pupils were urged to write a poem in praise of Vimto for National Poetry Day. Campaign Coordinator Richard Watts said: "We were flabbergasted by some of the claims in these packs. We found nutrition lesson plans about the benefits of eating crisps, claiming that colourings in fizzy drinks were to restore the fruit's natural colour, and telling children to only eat fruit and vegetables in moderation. Promoting junk food in the classroom under the guise of education is unacceptable." He added: "The dodgy claims in these packs are written to be taught to children as fact in a lesson. Parents may have no idea that this is happening. Our investigation shows that the food industry cannot be trusted to provide children with unbiased nutritional information." Report co-author Lianna Hulbert said: "It is ironic that while many of these claims would be stopped in television or printed advertising, there are no restrictions on promoting them to schools to be taught in a classroom. The materials used to teach our children are totally unregulated. It's time to go beyond toothless 'guidelines'. If we can monitor these packs, why can't the Department for Children, Schools and Families?" Currently, commercial activities in schools are covered by guidelines produced by Department for Children, Schools and Families and an industry body, the Incorporated Society for British Advertisers. Professor Jack Winkler, Director of the Nutrition Policy Unit at London Metropolitan University said: "It is no use the government improving cooked lunches in canteens, if they allow commercials in the classroom. We have an epidemic in childhood obesity underway. Yet the Food and Drink Federation claims that "children should not reduce food intake to lose weight", and the government let's them get away with it! This is a public-private partnership to peddle propaganda." UK companies spend an estimated £300 million every year on advertising in the classroom.