BRISTOL, England, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Few bag lunches of British children meet the Food Standards Agency recommendations of a starch, a protein, a dairy product, a vegetable/salad and a fruit.
Only 3.5 percent of packed lunches from home contained all of the food types recommended by the Food Standards Agency, while 44 percent included two or less, according to researchers at the University of Bristol.
Packets of potato chips and chocolate biscuits were the most commonly eaten foods after white bread with some type of spread containing fat.
"We compared nutrients in foods brought by hundreds of children in their packed lunches to recommendations and found that they fell short in important nutrients like potassium and zinc and were much too high in sugar and saturated fat," said Dr. Pauline Emmett, a nutritionist and dietician. "The foods eaten in the rest of the day did not compensate for this."
The lunches were especially low in fruits and vegetables.
"Fruit and vegetable/salad intakes were very low in packed lunches -- only 41 percent had a fruit and 16 percent a salad vegetable," said Emmett. "On average children were eating half the amount of fruit and vegetables that they need."
