Kids and Young People

Yesterday, I was asked to make a comment on live radio for BBC Merseyside in response to news reports that the public health minister had announced that it is “easy to identify the poorest people in society because many of them are overweight or obese”. You can here me from 56:30 here for a limited time.

Keep Reading...

My little boy has school dinners every day. I never had school dinners, growing up in Brisbane where we I took a packed lunch to school and occasionally had money for the “tuck shop”. I can’t say I’m 100% happy with the school dinners my son has, but we have decided he will stick on them for a few months.

Each day when I pick my son up from the bus stop, I ask him how his day was and what he had for lunch. It’s been playing on my mind for some time now that he never mentions that he has any fruit at school. He tends to have a baguette or wrap and a small cake and drink. The other day, I asked him why he doesn’t have any fruit at school and was told that there was no fruit on offer. Now I don’t know if that’s so or not, (8 year old faced with a small cake or fruit is a difficult one), but it certainly made me aware that I can’t rely on school dinners to be providing my own son’s fruit and vegetables for the day.

Keep Reading...

It’s the end of two weeks school holidays for the AM Dietetics household, so it’s back to school on Monday. Having opted to go to packed lunches in the middle of this year, this also means back to trying to think of a good and interesting variety of packed lunches. I usually use a range of different breads but it’s always nice to try something a little different in the form of rice, pasta or couscous based meals. I usually make it up as I go along when it comes to lots of rice dishes but I found this great little recipe, which I have adapted, which gives it all – a little slow release, low GI carbohydrate, fruit, vegetables, some healthy fats and a bit of lean protein. Add a stick of cheese (which I always do in the lunch box) and you have it all covered! Oh and it’s great for adults too!

Keep Reading...

Did you know that giving your children milk may help them with their physical performance and protect them from falls in later years? We all know that milk is a great source of protein and calcium, essential for bone growth and development, but there is also some evidence that mobility may be improved in the later years as a result of drinking more milk.

Keep Reading...

This week, I had a query about diet and acne, whether or not there is a link and what sort of dietary changes could help to reduce or avoid acne.

Acne can be very distressing for young people and older people alike. A high proportion of 11-30 year olds are affected by acne (over 80%). There have been many suggestions about the links between diet and acne in the past, but there have been variable amounts of evidence to support many of the claims.

Foods such as sweets, chocolate and fatty foods have been blamed for being acne triggers and suggestions have been made that zinc and vitamin A can help to reduce outbreaks.

Keep Reading...