Kids: eating away good health: the eating patterns of today's youth are taking a toll on health.

Improvement is needed in the nutritional quality of food eaten by today's youth. Teens typically eat foods that are high in fat, cholesterol, calories, salt, and sugar, and low in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. The consumption of fruit and vegetables is infrequent, while chips, ice cream, candy bars, pizza, and burgers are common fare.

Teens are generally unaware of the health implications of poor eating habits. For example, many teens skip breakfast, but skipping breakfast has been associated with lower academic performance, higher accident rates, and a decreased ability to concentrate in midmorning. A recent study has shown that breakfast habits may affect a child's blood lipid levels. Young people aged 9 to 19 who skipped breakfast had an average cholesterol that was 8 percent higher than those who ate breakfast.

Where is the family? One factor linked to the nutritional quality of a child's diet is the family meal. When children eat meals with their parents and siblings in a pleasant family atmosphere, they eat a more nutritious diet. Unfortunately, the reality is that many American families do not eat together anymore. A recent national poll showed that one in five families do not eat supper together.

Poor nutrition is not the only downside of allowing children to fend for themselves. Regular family meals also provide order, discipline, and emotional security for a child, as well as an opportunity for family communication.

The atmosphere at a meal also influences the amount of food eaten. Playing lively and loud music can cause a person to eat more, while slow, soothing music will help cut down on the amount eaten.

Food gimmicks. What is the food producer doing to influence the nutritional status of our youth and help them to make healthy food choices? Unfortunately, it appears they are more interested in capturing their minds and money. The 30 million American children between the ages of 6 and 14, with an average allowance of $3.00 each per week, are a very lucrative market. In addition, children have a say in the annual spending of an additional $50 billion of family money. So what are the gimmicks out there luring children to spend their money on food items? Food commercials on children's television programs are a proven way to convince kids to buy certain foods. Seven out of every 10 commercials on Saturday-morning cartoon shows are food commercials, and the majority of them are for high-sugar, low-nutrition products. Furthermore, the television commercials that promote sugar-laden cereals as part of a nutritious breakfast are very misleading. The idea is conveyed that a nutritious breakfast is not possible without the high-sugar cereal.

Other new gimmicks of the nineties include kiddies' magazines that are full of paid food advertising, plastic play food such as Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin-Robbins ice-cream cones, and other junk food models, and children's clothing (such as McKids clothes) that are sponsored by food companies. And then there is KoolAid Man, the comic book produced by General Foods Coroporation, featuring the adventures of a pitcher of sugarrich Kool Aid.

Sugar is still in. The late 1980s brought a rush on the market of new cereals that contained oat bran, since oat bran and oatmeal had the capacity to lower blood cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, all of this was aimed at adults. Down at the kids' eye level the lower shelves in the supermarkets were still crammed with all the old high-sugar favorites, such as Lucky Charms, Dinersaurs, Frosted Flakes, Honey Smacks, and Apple Jacks. Most of these cereals contain about three to four teaspoons of sugar per one ounce serving. In fact, for Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, Dinersaurs, Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs, Fruity Pebbles and some other sugar-rich cereals, sugar and corn syrup supply between 45 and 70 percent of the calories. The cereal grains naturally contain little fat, but are rich in starch and fiber. However, the ready-to-eat cereals are highly processed, often with added fat, sugar, and salt. The refining of grains takes a hefty toll on vitamins and trace minerals, with about 70 percent of the micronutrients typically being lost during refining. However, many of the manufacturers add a whole gamut of vitamins and minerals so that the breakfast cereal actually becomes more like a flaky, crunchy, toasted vitamin pill! And because of this cereal fortification, many are left with the impression that as long as they eat their breakfast cereal they can eat as they like for the rest of the day.

Future health. How do early nutritional habits and food choices affect a child's future health and happiness? Proper nutrition for children is very essential for a number of reasons. It:

a. provides for adequate growth

b. helps avoid fatigue

c. enables better scholastic achievement

d. reduces the risk of infection

e. helps diminish school absences

f. lays the groundwork for healthy eating choices later in life

g. provides a strong foundation for good health in adulthood

Too much weight. Recent studies tell us that American children are heavier and less fit than their counterparts were 30 years ago. Both childhood and adolescent obesity are on the increase for boys and girls. Not only are children getting fatter, but the fatter children are getting more and more obese. Over the past two decades superobesity has increased almost 100 percent.

Fatness can be "tracked" from adolescence into adulthood, and so many overweight adolescents become overweight adults. The more obese the child, the greater the risk of obesity in adulthood. The increased use of highfat fast food, decreased physical activity, and increased television watching have been suggested as major culprits resulting in the increasing obesity seen in children today.

American children spend about as much time watching TV each week as they spend in school. Viewing television is a very sedentary activity, and as television watching increases, so does consumption of calorie-dense, high-fat junk food promoted by commercials. Children typically eat extra food as they watch TV programs.

Dr. William H. Dietz, Jr., director of clinical nutrition at the New England Medical Center Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and his research group found that the incidence of obesity increases 1.3 percent for every additional hour of television viewed per day. Television viewing was found to be the factor that was most closely associated with body weight. New research also suggests a link between television viewing and elevated blood cholesterol levels in young people.

Among the problems experienced by the obese child are emotional and social disturbances, loss of self-esteem, discrimination by peers and teachers, as well as some physical health risks. As the obese child gets older, there are increasing difficulties experienced with elevated blood lipids, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and orthopedic disorders. An Italian research group observed that the incidence of elevated blood pressure in schoolchildren aged 6 to 11 years was significantly higher in obese children.

Another eating-related health problem seen in some young people is that of elevated blood lipids. Although clinical signs of cardiovascular disease appear later in life, it is now recognized that heart disease and high blood pressure are diseases that really begin in childhood. Analysis of the arteries of young American servicemen killed in Vietnam and the Korean war revealed significant lesions. From the autopsies of children and youth who were victims of violent death, it was clearly verified that atherosclerosis begins in childhood.

It is generally believed that diet has a major role in the development of cardiovascular disease. The saturated fat intake is especially considered to be a major dietary factor determining blood cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease. In countries where saturated fat intake is below 10 percent of the calories, young children have low serum cholesterol levels and adult heart disease rates are low, while in Northern Europe and America, in which saturated fat intakes are 13 to 18 percent of the daily calories, young children have higher cholesterol levels and there is a high adult rate of heart disease.

In the United States there are 7 million American children and teenagers who have elevated blood cholesterol levels (above 170 milligrams/deciliter). Medical experts emphasize that all children over the age of 2 should be consuming a heart-healthy diet to prevent heart disease, and those with high cholesterol levels should have a low-fat, low-saturated-fat diet. This dietary regime is especially important if the child is inactive, obese, smokes, or has high blood pressure.

Following a vegetarian diet is one way to achieve a diet of low to moderate fat content. This diet is associated with improved health, even in young people. A study of Australian adolescents revealed that blood cholesterol levels of vegetarian children averaged 23 percent lower than those of the nonvegetarian adolescents. A Chicago study also found that vegetarian adolescents had low blood pressure levels.

Changes to come. In view of the fact that certain chronic diseases begin in childhood and that diet has a major role in determining the health of a child, it is important that certain changes be made in the eating habits of children. Recommendations to influence the eating habits of children would include the following:

* School lunch programs should be improved so as to make available more low-fat, low-saturated fat choices, salads, and fruits.

* The food industry should increase efforts to design, prepare, distribute, and promote tasty foods that are low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol.

* Proper meal patterns should be established for the entire family.

* Children must be taught to avoid high-calorie snacks.

* Children with elevated risk factors for heart disease should be counseled regarding how to choose a low-fat, heart-healthy diet.

* Children should be encouraged to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and less fast-food and processed food that is high in fat, sugar, and salt.