THE MAJORITY of Irish parents are making positive changes to their children’s diet and physical activity levels, according to new research.
About 50 per cent of parents say that they are replacing unhealthy food with healthier options for their children and 60 per cent of parents say their children are spending more time doing physical activity during the week, according to the HSE/Safefood study released today. More than half (51 per cent) of parents also say that they are preparing more meals from raw ingredients and using less fatty foods in their children’s diet.
“The findings show that people will try to make changes when information is available to them,” said Maria Lordan-Dunphy, health promotion development manager with the HSE.
The survey also found that almost 50 per cent of children spend three hours or more watching television between Monday and Friday which suggests that there is work still to be done in this area. “Yes, personally, I would like to see children watching no more than 30 minutes of television on a weekday and an hour at weekends,” said Ms Lordan-Dunphy.
The study was carried out as part of the joint HSE/Safefood Little Steps campaign to provide parents with support to make small changes to improve their children’s diet and increase their levels of physical activity. The health promotion campaign was first launched in June last year with a website littlesteps.eu.
“The campaign was first launched with an emphasis on eating well. Now we are placing more emphasis on physical activity,” said Ms Lordan-Dunphy.
The website littlesteps.eu was visited by almost 36,000 people in the first six months of the campaign. About 1,000 of those registered to use the site to help them improve the health of their families. The website has since been re-vamped to include healthy meal and lunchbox planners which include printouts of shopping lists required to carry out a weekly plan.
Registered users will also be able to keep track of the little steps they take towards a healthier lifestyle.
Later this year, visitors will also be able to search the site for sport and physical activity facilities in their local areas. “We are developing physical activity guidelines for the Irish population with the aim to increase physical activity levels among people of all ages,” said Ms Lordan-Dunphy. Currently about one in five people do not take any exercise.
