FAO: All health and food writers/editors
Dr Poh Bee Koon, Lecturer at Universiti Kebangsaan Sains
Malaysia will present perspectives from Malaysia on child nutrition to an
international audience of health experts at the Global childhood Nutrition
Forum, and the American Food Services Association Annual Nutrition Conference
which are being held in Indianapolis 22nd-28th of July.
The organizers invited Dr Poh to present a uniquely
Malaysian perspective on child nutrition to this global event.
Dr Poh’s who is a specialist in child nutrition, will
provide the delegates with both a perspective on food service provision in
Malaysian schools, and also the result of recent research conducted by the Asian
Food Information Centre on current knowledge and attitudes of parents and
children to food and health. Dr Poh acted as adviser to the Malaysian fieldwork
of this project.
The survey found that parents were unsure of the best way
to encourage their kids to eat healthily, and to stay fit, but that kids
definitely looked to their parents for guidance on these matters. Parents also
recognized that their kids did not have as much free time as they had in their
own childhoods, and were worried about overloading their children with too many
demands during individual free time, or time spent as a family.
Kids were found to have a strong grasp of the basic
principle of healthy eating, thanks to lessons in school on the topic. Kids
however, were less knowledgeable about why healthy eating was so important, and
tended to under-estimate how much physical activity they should do to stay fit
and healthy.
AFIC has responded to these findings with a series of
information resources. The most recent of these is a collection of the most
frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) parents and their kids have on healthy
living. Click
here for
Parent's and
here
for Children's FAQ’s. Additional information is available by emailing
info@afic.org
Other information also available at -
AFIC website
www.afic.org
American Food Services Association (organizers of
both 6th Global Child Nutrition Forum, and AFSA Annual Conference)
www.afsa.org
