THREE-QUARTERS of Irish children do not consume adequate amounts of fibre, research to be published next week has found.
The study of five- to eight-year-old children in the West of Ireland, to be published in the Irish Medical Journal, also reveals that the incidence of constipation in children with an inadequate fibre intake was more than twice that found in children with a good intake of fibre.
A team of paediatricians and dietitians at Mayo General Hospital recruited 170 children who were sequentially admitted to the hospital with a self-limiting medical illness. Children with chronic gastrointestinal problems and those with previous contact with a dietitian were excluded.
Using food diaries, the participants’ home diet and fluid intake was then assessed over a three-day period within three weeks of discharge from hospital.
Some 135 food diaries were completed with 24 per cent of children found to have a proper intake of fibre. An adequate fibre consumption ranges from 11.5g per day for five-year-old girls to 13.5g per day for eight- year-old boys.
Fibre plays a significant role in normal bowel functioning and it also lowers the risk of constipation. High fibre diets have been shown to lower obesity rates also. Fruit and vegetables are a good source of fibre. Foods with a high fibre content include bran, dried apricots, brown bread, wholemeal spaghetti and brown rice.
The North/South Food Consumption survey found that 77 per cent of Irish adults do not consume the recommended daily fibre intake.
“This is similar to our findings of inadequate dietary fibre in 76 per cent of children,” according to Dr Michael O’Neill and his colleagues, “suggesting that either poor dietary habits in childhood are continued on throughout adulthood or that adults with poor eating habits subsequently have children with poor diets.”
The authors say that the issue of poor fibre intake must be seen in a family context. “Healthy parental eating is reflected in their children’s eating practices.
“Families that eat meals together consume more healthy food, as do those who avoid television watching at meal times. Reduced portion sizes are also associated with healthy eating practices.
“Children’s diets are deficient in fibre with the risk of constipation being doubled. The solution must be seen in the context of health gain where parents, healthcare professionals and government public policy are all part of the solution,” the authors conclude.