A new survey shows that children in the UK eat more than 1.4 billion packets of crisps a year, the equivalent of 657 tonnes of salt.
Parents were asked about the regularity of their children’s consumption of crisps, with 92 per cent saying they ate the unhealthy snacks at least once a week.
Comparatively, only a quarter of children eat nuts regularly. Nuts have been considered to be a healthy alternative to packets of crisps, and Dr Dawn Harper has been pushing children to include more nuts in their children’s diet.
Commenting on her new campaign, Dr Dawn Harper said: “Despite the fact almost a quarter of parents say they give their children a snack as a way of getting extra nutrients into their diet, they also reveal that they prefer to give their child sugary and salty snacks like crisps and cereal bars than nuts as a snack. We want to change that.
“Nuts are a great, tasty way of getting good fats, and key vitamins and minerals into the diet which can help children’s growth, development and cognitive function.”
Only one in 10 parents is aware of the many health benefits of nuts, and 33 per cent of the parents surveyed assumed that they contain too much salt.
The survey found that the biggest concern held by parents is allergies, with 19 per cent of parents saying this was the reason they did not feed their children nuts.
A spokesperson for the BDA said: “Obesity and salt intake are really important issues we are facing as a society, so it’s alarming to see that many healthy foods such as nuts aren’t getting the air time they need to ensure parents are aware of the benefits they can have for their children.
“While it’s absolutely important to ensure nuts are unsalted and are small, or halved to avoid choking, primary aged children would benefit massively from adding more unsalted nuts, and less crisps, sweets and chocolate to their diets.”
