A healthy school choice

Nutrition is always of great importance to health and well being throughout life. With this in mind new nutritional standards on school meals have been introduced.

These standards are of interest to butchers, caterers and anyone involved in the meat industry as they recognise the importance that meat can have in a child's diet.

For children the impact of what they eat is profound as it has a major effect on their;-

l Immediate health and well being which includes all aspects, from catching infections to problems that take longer to develop like obesity and iron-deficient anaemia

l Feelings of health and whether they are full of life or lethargic and cannot be bothered to enjoy activities

l Ability to learn at school and at home, and whet her lessons are easily assimilated or struggled over

l Behaviour and even allowing for the pressures of teenage years, whether they are hypo one minute and down the next

l Future health with the development of disorders such as cancer and coronary heart disease.

Meat can play an important part in a child's diet as it provides not only a source of protein but also iron and zinc as well as other B vitamins. This is recognised by the new standards on nutrition for school lunches, which state that as from September 2006 'red meat shall be available twice a week in primary schools and three times a week in secondary schools'.

The red meat is carcase meat and provides a wonderful opportunity for those in the meat industry to work with schools in providing enticing meals containg red meat.

Mabel Blades

Nutritionis

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