More bread, less children obesity
AVUI Newspaper - March 2010

Children have replaced bread with other products full of fat and protein. Sandwiches are still a common snack, but risk becoming a classic of the past

Kids eat little bread. Much less than what their parents ate. Bread does not appear in most breakfasts and it is scarce at lunch or dinner. Children who eat more bread are suffering less overweight and obesity, have better nutritional status and have fewer cardiovascular risk factors. At least that's what has shown a team of nutrition experts from the Complutense University of Madrid according to a study that analyzed the eating habits-and, in particular, consumption of bread in 508 schools in the country -68 of them in Barcelona between 8 and 13 years for three days.

The results of this work make it clear that children not only eat less fruit and vegetables than is desirable, but are far from eating the right amount of bread and cereals. In some cases, children itself restrict the consumption of bread because they have assumed bread “makes you fat”.

"Kids have stopped taking food to eat other things that normally have more fat and protein," says Rosa Ortega, director of the study. She assures that children who eat more bread in general have a more structured diet. In fact, among the children tested who ate more bread, 15.8% were overweight and 14% obese. Percentages are quite high, but they still were more among children who ate less bread: 16.6% were overweight and 20.5% were obese.

Traditional diets have always been based on cereals (in the Mediterranean, the wheat in Asia, rice ...), "but this diet has deteriorated and is no longer our reality," said Ortega. Our bodies are used, for centuries, to a strong focus on grains and thus in energy intake from carbohydrates. "It's as if our body was designed to use fuel and now there we were giving a different one, which are fats and proteins," explains Ortega.

The study found that an intervention as simple as introducing two more servings of bread in the day, could help adjusting the diets of schoolchildren. "Bread intake increases carbohydrate energy and reduces fat calorie," says Rosa Ortega.

Increased grain consumption also increases the intake of fiber, vitamin B1, calcium, iron, iodine, zinc and magnesium. In addition, children who eat more bread feel more satiated, and do not snack junk food so often.

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