School meals can save children from health problems in later life

Britain needs to cut the number of fat children with the help of healthier school meals if it is to reduce cancer and heart disease in later life, said scientist and broadcaster Robert Winston.

Winston, the keynote speaker on the first morning of the LACA annual conference, said too many British children were overweight and ate the wrong foods.

He added: "Nutrition early on is the building block for how we later turn out."

Winston, best known for his work on infertility, said obesity in early life also made adults more likely to develop strokes, deep-vein thrombosis, diabetes, asthma, osteoarthritis, menstrual problems and gallstones.

He said while fat babies did not necessarily grow up to be obese, "fatness at 13 is a strong predictor of adult fatness" and the best time to prevent it was between five- and 12-years-old.

Winston added that statistics showed the number of fat children was increasing and that one in 10 four- to six-year-olds ate no fruit at all and three in five ate no leafy vegetables.

A diet high in fruit and vegetables is believed to be helpful in preventing a range of diseases.

Winston told the conference that regional and class variations were also important in the diet of children, as they were in adults.

Scotland was highlighted as particularly bad. "Diet in Scotland is not really porridge, it is crisps and beer," said Winston.