The comments follow a recent report that found a widening gap in average life expectancy and that of the poorest populations in England.
The report found that the current average life expectancy has risen over the last decade to reach 78 years for men and 82 for women. However, there’s been a slower rate in poor areas, with life expectancy standing at almost 76 years for men and 80 years for women.
Nutrients for healthy development
According to Dr Sam Everington, a GP in Tower Hamlets, East London, the state of the nation’s diet plays a huge role in these findings. Children, in particular, are often not receiving the essential nutrients required for healthy development.
“Between one third and half of all children [in the area of his practice] are poorly nourished in some way. I include both obesity and nutrient deficiencies in that,” said Dr Everington.
Malnutrition leads to long-term health problems, he said. “In children, it’s very subtle – for example, you see lower development, lower academic achievement, poorer mental health and overall wellbeing.”
“If you haven’t got basic health sorted, you won’t succeed in other areas. But the thing about diet is that we can clearly do something about it. It’s the job of all of us to improve the general nutritional status of our children,” he told NutraIngredients.com.
Vitamin D and iron
According to Dr Everington, the most striking and frequent deficiencies he comes across in children visiting his practice are vitamin D and iron.
There is currently no recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin D in the UK for children. Iron for children is 6.1mg for children aged 4-6, and 8.7mg for children aged 7-10.
Read the full story at: http://www.nutraingredients.com/Industry/Many-UK-kids-are-malnourished-says-health-expert?utm_source=RSS_text_news.
Source and thanks to www.nutraingredients.com.
Nigel Denby comments:
This confirms what we at grub4life hear from many of our colleagues working with the under5s in inner cities- Rickets, iron deficiency anaemia and failure to trhive are all on the increase. While attention of course needs to look at the obeisty crisis amongst children we cannot overlook the effects of inadquate nutrition.
This is excatly why grub4life started, to help try and spread the word that the nutritional needs of the under 5s are unique to that group- we can't go on using healthy eating guidelines which apply to older children or adults for the under 5s- they just don't work!
The problem is also about a lack of funding and support for the Early Years childcare sector- training in nutrition is inadequate and the budget to help improve nutritional standards are being slashed if they even exist anymore in some areas!
If you would like to aceess FREE resources to refer to about nutrition in the under 5s click here http://grub4life.org.uk/factsheets/
