Candy manufacturer encouraging kids to eat chocolate to get fit
The scheme, which is called Get Active!, is launched by Cadbury in May.
Children are urged to collect tokens from chocolate bars, which their schools
can then exchange for equipment.
However, the marketing scheme has been strongly criticized by the Food
Commission. Its new report published today (29/04/03) reveals that if children
ate all the promotional chocolate bars, they could consume nearly 2 million kg
of fat and more than 36 billion calories.
A 10-year-old child would need to play basketball for 90 hours in order to
burn off the calories consumed by earning one basketball, while a junior
basketball team would have to play 27 full-length games to burn off the
calories consumed, according to the report.
School children would need to eat 5,440 chocolate bars containing more than
33kg of fat, and nearly 1.25 million calories in order to earn the most
expensive piece of equipment – a set of posts for a volleyball net.
The initiative is in partnership with the Youth Sports Trust, a charity that
aims to increase children’s participation in sport.
The Food Commission has criticized Sports Minister Richard Caborn MP for
expressing his approval of the marketing scheme in a Cadbury press release.
Kath Dalmeny, research officer for the Food Commission, said, “Most schools
are working hard to improve school meals, teach children about good nutrition
and provide healthy snacks, supported by the Departments of Health and
Education.
“Yet here we have a sports minister explicitly endorsing a scheme to get
teachers to urge children to eat more fat and sugar. Talk about contradictory
policies.”
The National Union of Teachers and the British Dietetic Association have
already criticized the scheme, which comes at a time when the World Health
Organization has recommended that people eat far less and cut back on their
fat and sugar consumption.
© HMG Worldwide 2003
http://www.health-news.co.uk/