Children should be offered healthy school meals
Norway is behind in the fight against overweight and obesity, believe researchers at the Oslo Met, who recommend the introduction of school meals.
“It is important to prevent overweight and obesity,” Liv Elin Torheim, professor at the Oslo Met’s Faculty of Health Sciences, told the NRK.
“The conditions for a healthy diet during the childhood years must be established,” she says.
Torheim is one of 34 Norwegian experts in the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) who have reviewed the Norwegian authorities’ efforts to limit overweight and obesity in society. The project is part of the Policy Evaluation Network (PEN), in which five other European countries participate.
To overcome overweight and obesity, the panel recommends, among other things, free school meals. They also propose a differentiated sugar index, and the introduction of lower taxes on healthy foods, more regulation of the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, as well as clearer labeling of calorie content, fat, salt and sugar.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
