Hungarian children eat alarmingly little fruit and vegetables

Hungarian children between the age of 4 and 10 consume less vegetables, fruits, dairy products and whole grains than recommended, but their diet contains more fat and salt than necessary, nestlé Hungária states in its recent, representative research on children’s dietary habits. The proportion of overweight and obese children remains very high, with 23 percent of children overweight. Preschoolers and schoolchildren consume an average of 263 grams of fruit and vegetables per day, which is still just over half the daily recommendation of 400 grams. According to the nutrition logs, only 43 per cent of children consumed whole grains, so it’s no surprise that nearly a third of schoolchildren have less than 70 per cent of their fibre intake. According to Dr. Diána Sárga, dietitian at Nestlé Hungária, this is particularly worrying because eating the right amount of fruit and vegetables is essential to maintain a healthy immune system in children.