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Childhood obesity – bold and brave action

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The UK Government’s Health Committee recently released their report “Childhood obesity – bold and brave action”. It calls for urgent action on treating obesity and it’s consequences, which costs the government £5.1bn every year, and has suggested a number of recommendations.

New UK Government on childhood obesity

Did you know that one fifth of children are overweight or obese when they begin school, and this figure increases to one third by the time they leave primary school?

The report goes onto highlight that the most deprived children are twice as likely to be obese than the least deprived, therefore childhood obesity is a significant contributor to health inequality.

Recommended actions to tackle childhood obesity

The report calls on a number of areas where further action is required from the top to reach the most vulnerable individuals:

⦁ Tougher controls on price promotions and advertising of unhealthy food and drink
⦁ Taxation of high sugar and fat food
⦁ Product reformulation of foods high in fat, salt and sugar
⦁ Nutrition standards in schools (which is already happening – see Scottish school nutrition regulations)
⦁ Greater powers for local authorities to help families affected by obesity
⦁ Improved education and information on the importance of a balanced diet

This is just a quick summary of some of the recommendations and for anyone that is interested in the detail you can download the report for some bedtime reading.

Our thoughts to tackle childhood obesity

At Eat Balanced, if we were to support one of these initiatives it would be product reformulation of high fat/salt/sugar food and drinks. We aim to improve children’s nutrition by reinventing kid’s favourite foods, like pizza, into tasty, balanced meals.

What do you think?

If you’re involved in the food and drink industry, we’d love to hear you’re thoughts @eatbalanced and tell us what how you would go about tacking childhood obesity.

The healthyliving award for the food service sector

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The healthyliving award is a national award for the food service sector in Scotland. Eating out plays an important part in people’s lives and what people are increasingly looking for is good healthier food.  We’re delighted that our Pizza Power Kids’ range ticks all the boxes for the healthyliving award.

Putting Caterers and Parents on the Podium

Caterers can now rest assured that they can let kids eat their favourite food, and parents will be glad to know that it is actually improving their health.  Pizza Power Kids, means that children can eat a pizza which is a complete balanced meal.  One small pizza provides 15% of all the nutrients a child aged 5-10 needs for good health.

Food of the future for our future generation

There is no denying that children love pizza. It regularly tops their list of favourites.  However with Scotland having one of the highest levels of obesity in the world, with almost one third of Scottish children classed as overweight, parents and caterers are, quite rightly, are careful in how often the average pizza is served to kids because of the high calorie, salt and fat content.

That’s why Pizza Power Kids have been designed to look and taste like a normal pizza but has secret nutritional ingredients inside, and that’s why we call it ‘health by stealth’.

How can Pizza Power Kids help with the healthyliving award?

These revolutionary new pizzas have seaweed instead of salt, are lower in fat and are high in vitamin C and vitamin A with more fibre than many other foods for children. Parents can enjoy peace of mind that their children are getting all of the 27 nutrients they need in the right proportions, equating to a complete balanced meal. For children, they can still enjoy one of their favourite meals with all the same great taste.

If you are in the food service industry and would like to find out more about the Pizza Power Kids range, please get in touch and we’ll send you a brochure and some yummy samples.

 

Becoming a Good Food Nation – Scottish Government

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The Scottish Food Commission states that making Scotland a Good Food Nation is a challenging task, however, if we all strive to achieve this common goal, the result will follow shortly.

2015 was the Year of Scotland Food and Drink and Scotland presents the world with undeniable high quality produce due to our clear waters, fresh air and rich soil.

The main question is; why when Scotland’s local products are so fresh and delicious is the nation’s health suffering?

Consequently, health is one of the core values outlined by Good Food Nation in addition to prosperity and sustainability. The main idea of the campaign is to significantly improve our food culture by 2025.

We summarised several steps set by Scottish Food Commission:

1. Educating consumers: making them interested in fresh and local food that is really good for them.

2. Motivating the public sector to be an example, as it has a huge influence. For instance, schools providing tasty and balanced meals for kids. It goes without saying that educational institutes are one of the most important targets as it might take a generation to alter the perception of healthy food and transfer ignorance to knowledge.

3. Making sure that people have easy access to good food.  We can start this for ourselves and our families by focusing on eating a balanced diet. However, as more families eat outside of the home, the key would to make healthy food available in places like leisure centres, stadiums, and other family venues at an affordable price.

5. Supporting local food and drink businesses to make Scottish products even better!

6. Making food companies an appealing place to work by offering more work experience and apprenticeships.

7. Making the most of the campaign: promoting  Scottish food and drink internationally, let it be one of the reasons to visit our beautiful country.

Let us know your thoughts and suggestions, we are always open for conversation @eatbalanced or get in touch with us!

Pizza Power Kids and Food for Life Award

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Food for life

We’re often asked how Pizza Power Kids fit with the Soil Association’s Food for Life Award?  In terms of what we are actually trying to achieve, we have quite a lot in common with the Food for Life Award.

What are Eat Balanced trying to achieve with Pizza Power Kids?

It’s simple, we want to make it easier for kids to enjoy a balanced diet.  How we do this is by reinventing kid’s favourite foods with innovative, high quality ingredients into tasty, nutritionally balanced meals.

What are the Soil Association trying to achieve with the Food for Life Award?

Making healthy, tasty and sustainable meals the norm for all to enjoy, reconnecting people with where their food comes from, teaching them how it’s grown and cooked, and championing the importance of well-sourced ingredients.

Pizza Power Kids and Food for Life

Despite being a prepared product, Pizza Power Kids carries a lot of benefits compared to making from scratch and other prepared pizzas, such as:

  • Eat Balanced are a Scottish start-up based in Glasgow
  • Our products are manufactured in Glasgow
  • We work with a Professor of the University of Glasgow – Professor Mike Lean – to verify our recipes (which are lab tested to prove they are nutritionally balanced)
  • Salt is replaced with a special powdered seaweed from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland
  • They are low in sugar
  • Psyllium husk is used for added fibre which means the base is lighter in colour and texture to wholewheat bases
  • Roasted red pepper puree is blended into the sauce for added vitamin C and vitamin A

Our pizzas are suitable for the Bronze Food for Life Award being free from the undesirable additives, trans fats and GM ingredients.

For Silver and Gold, as they are points based standards, our pizzas also carry points under the making healthy eating easier category.  This includes:

  • Reducing salt
  • Having meat free days
  • Cutting plate waste
  • Supporting eating well
  • Monitoring against food and nutrient based standards
  • 50% of bread on offer is wholegrain

We agree that the Food for Life programme achieves amazing results for schools, nurseries and hospitals and we’re delighted to be supporting the healthy eating message.

Supporting Healthy Choices Framework in Scotland

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We’re delighted to be the first start-up to have partnered with the Scottish Government and Food Standards Agency in Scotland on Supporting Healthy Choices (SHC),  a framework whereby Partner organisations to commitments that aim to improve Scotland’s diet and reduce health inequalities.

We believe that the food and drink industry (manufacturers, retailers, food service and brands) should play their part, not just a token effort! At Eat Balanced,  here’s what we’re dedicated to doing:

Commitment 3
Provide and incentivise healthier meal deals, especially where customers include school-age children purchasing lunch.

Our Promise: To make it easier for children to enjoy a balanced meal at school lunch times.  That’s why we’ve launched our Pizza Power Kids multi-serve pizza as a nutritious, tasty and cost effective option for schools.

Commitment 4
Rebalance their food and drink offering and promotions, both in-store and online, to positively support consumers to make healthier choices.

Our Promise: To support caterers to positively promote Pizza Power Kids, that are lower in fat, salt and sugar without negatively affecting their profits.

Commitment 6
Encourage healthier components in meal promotions.

Our Promise:  to provide information to help caterers choose healthy toppings, side portions and drinks, to go alongside our Pizza Power Kids main meal, to promote a healthy balanced diet in line with the Eatwell plate and the Scottish Dietary goals.

Commitment 8
Work with Scottish Government to consider how we can build upon existing practice on the responsible marketing of food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar in order to reduce children’s exposure to messaging.

Our promise: To educate and engage children on the importance of eating a balanced diet.  We’re committed to hosting talks to kids about the important of a healthy diet.  If you’re hosting a Healthy Eating day or event, please contact us.

Commitment 10
Roll-out energy and, where possible, nutritional information on menus and displays (in print and online) across Scotland on an ongoing basis.

Our promise: to provide full nutritional information breakdown on all products in our Pizza Power Kids range to caterers.

Commitment 12
Work towards reducing calories, fats, salt and added sugars.

Our promise: to work with the Scottish Government and other influential partners in the food industry, to work towards reducing, calories, fats, salt and sugars.

Commitment 13
Work towards the HealthyLiving Award on an ongoing basis.

Our Promise: to continue to make our products compliant with the HealthyLiving Award.