Some kids and their parents seem to have a strange notion about what kinds of foods are part of Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating.
In a recent poll taken for Breakfast For Learning on child nutrition in Canada, 25 per cent of parents surveyed said that their child sometimes ate french fries -- which are high in fat and calories -- two or more times a week. And the same percentage of parents reported their children drinking high-calorie, sugary juices and soft drinks.
Breakfast For Learning, a non-profit and volunteer agency founded in 1992, helps communities to start and sustain school nourishment programs to ensure that every child in Canada attending school will be well fed and ready to learn.
It operates 2,200 programs which feed more than 220,000 children. The majority of the community-based programs are in schools but can also be found in community centres and churches.
Canada scores a "C'' when it comes to making sure our kids are eating healthy foods, according to the group's Report Card on Nutrition for School Children. The telephone survey of 500 households with children aged six to 12 and adolescents aged 13 to 17 was conducted in 2006 by polling firm Maritz Research.
It found that many children are not eating the daily recommended servings of vegetables and fruit, whole grains and milk products. It also found that as younger children hit their teens, their eating habits worsen.
"Focusing on developing healthy eating habits in elementary school is the best chance of having some success in tackling the problem,'' says Susan Evers, a professor in the department of family relations and applied nutrition at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ont. She is also on the Breakfast For Learning board.
Evers adds that children in the early grades, unlike those in secondary school, "are a captive audience because they are more likely to go home and have questions (for) their parents about what they are eating so a discussion can ensue, which is helpful.''
Toronto dietitian Carol Dombrow, a consultant with the group, says that the results of the survey didn't come as a surprise, but that doesn't mean they weren't a disappointment.
"I have been a dietitian for 30 years and I sometimes wonder what I have being doing all these years,'' she says of the Report Card and its "C'' grade.
When the breakfast programs first began in 1992, healthy food wasn't so much the focus as it is today "and we know so much more now,'' Dombrow says.
"Back then, the schools involved were just happy that hungry kids were getting fed in the morning,'' she says. "Then as BFL matured, we wanted to make sure that whatever breakfast program you go to, no matter what school, you get good nutritious food.''
Consequently all the programs strive to meet quality standards which they must endeavour to follow.
"For breakfast programs we are looking at the three food groups: fruit or vegetable, milk products and whole grains,'' says Dombrow, "and we try to make it as easy as possible for the school to provide these kinds of foods by accessing special grocery incentives for discounts on certain products to make sure they can get healthy foods.''
However, Evers says she would like to see the federal government support a national nutrition policy and childhood nutrition programs by funding Breakfast For Learning.
"The infrastructure is there, the training has been done, the resources are all in place and I would think that it would be a wonderful opportunity,'' she adds.
In January, Toronto NDP MP Olivia Chow said she would seek all-party support for a program aimed at improving the eating habits of school students.
While poor kids are a focus for nutrition programs, she notes that child obesity rates are on the rise, suggesting that middle-class children also need to be encouraged to eat healthy snacks.
According to a 2004 study by Statistics Canada, some 26 per cent of children aged two to 17 are considered obese.
