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Kate Whitehead

Tuck shops are synonymous with sweets, crisps and soft drinks. There is no law that they should limit themselves to sweets and fatty snacks, but they do. It is just one of the many mixed messages schools give out when it comes to nutrition.

The biggest sellers in local tuck shops are instant noodles, potato crisps, sweets and soft drinks. Coca-Cola spends millions each year on advertising, but promotion comes cheap in schools. Almost every school has a soft-drink vending machine, and distributors often get to display their posters free in tuck-shop and canteen areas.

'A lot of schools are compromising the food offered for the chance to make a little money. They get a profit from the tuck shop and are letting a monetary decision undermine children's education about healthy eating,' said Dr Georgia Guldan, a lecturer in food and nutrition at The Chinese University.

Unhealthy snacks dominated tuck shops because they had a longer shelf life than fresh foods, she said.

Fresh produce is also more demanding in terms of facilities. Many tuck shops would need to be refitted with basins if they were to begin preparing and serving fresh fruit.

Jason Walter, head teacher at the Delia School of Canada, says it is this lack of facilities that prevents the sale of fresh food.

Although it is in the centre of the campus, he does not see the tuck shop as part of the school. 'The tuck shop is privately run. We see it as separate, like a 7-Eleven, and staff do not encourage students to use it,' Mr Walter said.

Dr Guldan has suggested to tuck-shop operators that they offer healthy snacks, but said they had insisted students would not buy them. Two years ago, however, she ran a project in 13 schools which she said disproved this assumption. For a year healthy high-fibre snacks and fruit were offered alongside the usual tuck-shop fare. The result? Students did not shun the healthy options.

'Once students are accustomed to the healthy snacks, they will start buying them,' she said.

Textbooks also give out mixed messages. Take number 3A in the On Target Student's Book  series (Oxford University Press). In a chapter designed to teach children to express what they want to eat, most of the examples are for fast foods. A young boy in a fast-food restaurant says: 'I'm hungry and thirsty. I want a hamburger, some French fries and a large Coke, please'. Other chapters in the series include examples of healthy foods, but the lack of a consistent message can only serve to confuse students.

The Education Department does offer a set of guidelines for tuck shops. The advice is wise - sell less junk food and offer more high-fibre snacks and fruit - but without the necessary clout behind it, its suggestions are largely ignored.

But the problem does not lie with tuck shops alone. Children need to be educated about healthy eating habits, insists Dr Guldan.

'When we talk about education reform, nutrition is missing from the curriculum. All the food served in the school should be conducive to teaching healthy eating,' she said.

School lunches are often a nutritionist's nightmare. Few schools have canteens or dining rooms and most children eat from their lunch boxes at their desks, which does not make for good eating habits. Given a choice, most students would prefer a meal under the golden arches, but where lunch on school premises is compulsory the nutritional value is often still poor.

'Many schools serve a lot of fried food because the children prefer the taste,' said Ruth Chan Suk-mei, the nutritionist at Hong Kong Council of Early Childhood Education and Services. The council has teamed up with caterers Happy Holdings to produce healthy, well-balanced meals. They are now serving 5,000 meals a day to 20 schools. The flavour enhancer monosodium glutamate has been banned from the kitchen, salt is used sparingly and the food is seldom fried.

In September, the team will launch the 'G-lunch'. There will be a similar emphasis on health with three dishes to choose from daily. The meals will be priced from $14.50 for primary students ($19 with drink and dessert) to $15.50 for secondary students ($20). What is unique about the new G-lunch is that it will be delivered alongside a specially designed educational programme.

'We will give regular talks in schools on issues such as food intolerance, labelling, GM (genetically modified) food and table manners. We will also have a Web site - parents can e-mail us their questions about food and they will be answered by our panel of experts,' said Ms Chan.

The new lunches are also varied - a typical choice would be fried rice with pork and vegetables, shredded beef and vegetables, or steamed chicken and rice.

But there was one drawback, said paediatrician Sophie Leung Suk-fong: natural flavours often seemed bland after a diet of fried foods with strong flavours. 'We have to learn to make vegetables palatable and appealing. We must spend time preparing healthy menus,' she said.

Commenting on recent research that 12 per cent of children aged six to 12 were classified as obese, Professor Leung said local students were eating a lot more fat, especially in meat and dairy products, as well as more refined sugar and less roughage. 'Increasing affluence, urbanisation and Westernisation are all contributing factors,' she said.

'In the past, people would prepare their own food at home, now people rely a lot more on fast-food outlets and restaurants.'

Professor Leung, formerly a paediatrician at the Chinese University, said that only by showing children what a nutritious meal was would they learn to see the value of a good diet.

Concern over lunch boxes is not limited to commercially supplied ones: some home-made lunches can be equally worrying. Julie Harries, a teacher at Kennedy School, has seen children bring cold fast-food burgers and chicken nuggets for lunch. 'I suspect that a lot of parents are very busy and there is a lack of supervision of lunch. Few of the children bring fruit or vegetables, and at snack time most eat crisps or biscuits,' Ms Harries said.

Given the choice, children opt for low-nutrition, high-energy meals, said Dr Guldan, who is working on a pilot scheme for a school-based, lifelong healthy-eating programme.

Three secondary and three primary schools are involved in the plan, and she is introducing various health themes, from the food pyramid to physical activity.

'Children will continue to ask for fried chicken with rice and no vegetables. But if we teach them what a well balanced meal is, they are much more likely to accept it,' she said.

'If we want children to eat more healthily, we have got to explain the fundamentals to them and teach by example.'



The tuck shop:  food for thought  or a lot of junk?