Feed your children well...

[Workingman]

...... to paraphrase Crosby, Stlls, Nash and Young.

Prof. Dame Sally Davies, England's most down-to-earth Chief Medical Officer, is suggesting that all children, every single one, be given vitamin supplements A, C and D to stave off conditions such as rickets and mental health problems. She says that people should feel "profoundly ashamed" of a "very worrying picture" of children's health.

By comparison, Dr Michael Moseley, in his TV programme 'Trust me, I'm a doctor', exploded the myth of vitamin supplements as being necessary, if a person ate a nutritiously balanced diet.

The charge must be that many parents are not feeding their children a healthy balanced diet. Dishing out tablets is not going to change that in the long run and must only be a stop-gap measure so that other initiatives can be put in place.

[JoM]

I'm of the strong belief that vitamins should not be given in place of a healthy, balanced diet. Feed your children right and they should be getting everything the need.

I listened to a report about this actually on the local BBC radio station this morning and I was amazed that there were still cases of rickets in children, and quite a number in the Birmingham area too, although there's been a decrease. I thought that was something we'd left behind years and years ago

[Rodo]

I eat a healthy diet and I take vitamins as well, so there!

[Workingman]

Rodo, it's one thing to take them by choice because you want to, but for them to have to be given to keep children healthy is a disgrace.

I do not totally blame parents for this mess. A lot of the blame lies with government, food processors and health fascists. We have been harangued from all sides about the dangers of this, that and the other for decades.

Salts, sugars, fats and minerals, all necessary for cell reproduction, have been removed and replaced by artificial sweeteners, fillers, trans-fats and chemicals with no nutritional value whatsoever. It is all done to make "food" look, feel, smell and taste like the real thing, but without the goodness.

[Kaz]

A lot of this is down to the lack of outdoors time children get, leading to a lack of vit D from sunlight

Children get driven from A to B, they don't play ut anywhere near a smuch as we used to, plus as soon as the sun comes out they give slathered in sun block.

[Workingman]

An interesting aspect, that, about Vit D Kaz, we appear to have fallen into the trap of solving one problem and creating another.

Another thing also being missed is the link between exercise and vitamin absorption. Children simply do not do the same amount of exercise as past generations.

I think that one of the worst things I found is that the nutrients found in vegetables and fruits are only about 35% of the levels found in those grown between the wars. Since WW2 we have turned to intensive farming to grow more (tonnage) which is becoming less and less nutritious - so why bother?

[Suff]

- so why bother?

Erm, Money?

I think this doctor needs supplements for her medical condition. Forcing vitamins on children who already have a healthy and balanced diet is simply not acceptable.

But, apparently, we now need to have these decisions taken away from us and they should be managed by the.... erm... Collective....

I take the point about the reduced this and reduced that WM. I spent a good 3-5 minutes last weekend searching the racks of ham on sale in our supermarket in France. What was I looking for? Decent ham which was not reduced fat, reduced salt, reduced this/that/the next. I achieved it, but I wonder how long it will be before we have to grow the pigs ourselves???

[TheOstrich]

I think one needs to put the rise of rickets in Birmingham into context ...

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/lo ... rns-149080

A shock figure of - wait for it - 21 children. That's in a population of about 1 million.

[JoM]

I think one needs to put the rise of rickets in Birmingham into context ...

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/lo ... rns-149080

A shock figure of - wait for it - 21 children. That's in a population of about 1 million.

I was just surprised that there were still cases of it. It's a disease I associate with pre-WW2.

[TheOstrich]

I was just surprised that there were still cases of it. It's a disease I associate with pre-WW2.

Yes, absolutely, Jo.

But TBH, I'm more concerned about the rise in TB in Birmingham .....