Children's carb consumption blamed for rising obesity levels

"Empty" carbs such as white bread and cereal – not fats and sweets – should take the blame for rising childhood obesity, a new study suggests.

Auckland University of Technology health researchers have looked for the first time at the diets of school-age New Zealand Pasifika children and how this changes as they age. Young Pasifika kids have one of the highest rates of being overweight and obese.

One in four Pacific children, aged between 2 and 14, are obese, according to the Ministry of Health's latest New Zealand Health Survey.

But the study, of nearly 650 children at age 4 then 6, showed children rarely consumed the foods traditionally blamed for weight gain: sweets such as chocolate, and fats such as mayonnaise.

Instead, highly processed carbohydrates such as white bread, cereal and rice figured prominently in their diets, study co-author Faasisila Savila said. Bananas, apples and oranges, milk and meat were also among the most frequently eaten foods.

"A lot of them are high-energy foods, and in the most frequently eaten foods there are no vegetables. There is fruit, but in a lot of fruit, there's high sugar as well. Vegetables definitely need to start being represented in there."

The regularity with which snack foods such as crisps, noodles and powdered fruit drinks were consumed by the 4 and 6-year-olds was also a concern.

Savila said the results of the New Zealand Medical Journal-published study probably represented the diets of all the country's Pasifika school-age children. "Most Pacific children are in similar circumstances as the kids we investigated.

"Ideally we'd want to go back to early childhood and really look at food patterns then,  and even into adolescence and even much older age groups. We'd hope to link that to child growth rates."

Cottle Kindergarten teachers Melissa Ross and Carolyn Evans were not surprised by the frequent consumption of high-energy foods found in the survey.

The Upper Hutt kindergarten had been involved in a Heart Foundation healthy eating programme for several years. Replacing ultra-processed goods such as white bread with fresher, more natural food was one thing they encouraged among kids and families, Ross said.

"We've learned a lot about foods, what's good and what's not so good, such as the muesli bars and fruit strings. The most recent thing we've learned is about sugar."

Evans said, before the programme was introduced, she had seen processed foods becoming a more and more common sight in the children's lunchboxes.

"I think it's just because it's easier for families. We have both ends of the scale, those families that really consider what they put in and others where it's quick and easy, lots of packets."

The children had really responded to healthy eating ideas, from being told about food pyramids to growing and using produce from the kindy garden, Evans said. "They're recognising what fresh vegetables look like."

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Graham