Some food ads mislead public, says dy minister

Guidelines for school canteens soon :

Nadira Gunatilleke

Food and drug advertisements need to be regulated without delay. Some food advertisements mislead the public, especially parents of toddlers. Guidelines for school canteens will be implemented to prevent schoolchildren from consuming junk food while the public needs to be educated on nutrition and food, Health Deputy Minister Lalith Dissanayake said.

Dissanayake was addressing the media during a seminar at the Health Education Bureau Thursday on the 'National Nutrition Month'.

"Although Sri Lanka has the best health indicators in the region, high literacy rate and achieved many Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) certain things such as nutrition has not improved yet. Things that can be improved with vaccination and treatment have already been achieved while nutrition needs to be improved through people's attitudinal change," he added. Dr Sudarshani Fernandopulle MP said an infant milk powder racket is on focussing on children's brain development process.

"Only breast milk should be given to infants during the first six months to ensure their healthy growth.

"Thereafter they should be given breast milk with some additional food. After one year,they should be breast fed including additional meals. There is no need to feed them with milk." Dr Fernandopulle said when a child drinks a glass of milk, he or she cannot eat much and it deprives him from taking other nutritious food.

"There is no decline in the purchasing ability of mothers. The problem is mothers do not have required knowledge on food and nutrition," she said.

"Nutritious food such as green leaves, sprats and green gram are not expensive but mothers do not know that. People spend more money on other things such as mobile phones, re-loading phone etc than food. This is because nobody sees what they eat. Eighty percent of the brain of infants develop during the first three years and this cannot be changed once they grow up," the MP said.

Senior Assistant Secretary to the President Waruna Dhanapala, Prof Ariyaratne Athugala, Health Ministry Acting Secretary Dr Palitha Mahipala and UNICEF Representative for Sri Lanka Reza Hossaini addressed the seminar.