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SCMP Reporter

Eat breakfast: it helps to reduce dietary and saturated fats in the body and increases the intake of dietary fibre from carbohydrates, says a health expert.

  Speaking at the '1996 Hong Kong Breakfast Week Press Conference' held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel recently, Dr Anthony Leeds, a lecturer in medical and health sciences at King's College, University of London, emphasised the importance of breakfast.

  The 1996 Hong Kong Breakfast Week, jointly organised by the Department of Health and Kellogg Company, was held from April 19 to 28.

  The theme of the annual event this year was 'Fibre Fitness', which provided health and education programmes to raise public awareness of the importance of dietary fibre.

  Other speakers included Sophie Leung, associate professor of the Department of Paediatrics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Philomena Tse, consultant paediatrician of the Department of Paediatrics and Mentally Handicapped Unit at the Caritas Medical Centre.

  The international and local nutritionists also announced the latest findings from their studies at the press conference.

  They said there was a need to promote nutrition education in the territory since the fibre intake was very low.

  According to the health experts, diet played an important role in people's lives, yet breakfast was still a meal neglected by many despite its substantial impact on our health.

  In a study entitled 'Dietary Fibre, Health and Disease Prevention' conducted in the West, Dr Leeds found that people who ate breakfast were less likely to suffer from heart disease and colon cancer as they tended to eat less fat and more carbohydrates and dietary fibre and had higher intakes of vitamins and minerals.

  Dr Leeds said that widely recognised as the most important meal of the day, breakfast represented the perfect opportunity to increase fibre intake through the consumption of high-fibre cereals such as wheat bran.

  'Fibre is important in relation to gut function and possibly other areas like cholesterol. It is, therefore, vital to get the right amount of fibre,' he said.

  'Hong Kong people's diet is high in fats and contains a lot of meat.

  'It would probably be a good thing for people to reduce the amount of fat and meat in their diet and increase the amount of carbohydrates and dietary fibre.'   Talking about 'Hong Kong People's Knowledge of Dietary Fibre', Professor Sophie Leung said that most Hong Kong adults did not understand the importance of nutrition in disease prevention.

  She added that in a survey conducted on 336 subjects, it was found that only 5.4 per cent were aware that fibre intake was related to heart disease, and only 8.9 per cent knew that fibre intake had something to do with being overweight.

  'However, some 75 per cent knew that fibre had something to do with constipation. Increasing fibre intake is the second commonest means to cure and prevent constipation, next to drinking more water,' Dr Leung said.

  Speaking on 'Dietary Fibre Intake and Constipation in Children with Severe Developmental Disabilities', Dr Philomena Tse said that a lot of people did not have any idea of what they were eating because the ingredients were usually listed in English on the package.

  She suggested that food companies list the ingredients in Chinese.

  'Since fibre is related to obesity, high cholesterol, heart disease and cancer, the higher fibre intake Hong Kong people have, the less vulnerable they will be to these diseases.' 



Benefits of a good breakfast