OHF wants milk and water to be standard options on children’s menus

California has recently made it law for milk and water to be the standard drinks available to purchase with children’s meals in restaurants. The Oral Health Foundation would like to see the same principal applied in the UK where our restaurants also offer milk and water as the standard options on children’s menus to go some way to fighting the disastrous effects that sugary drinks are having on our children’s oral health. But it is not just sugary drinks, recent research has shown that breakfast cereals contain between 25% and 71% of a child’s recommended daily allowance for sugar intake per 30g bowl consumed.
Dr Nigel Carter OBE, CEO at the Oral Health Foundation, said: “We know that some children are consuming several sugary and fizzy drinks every day. This is not only contributing to oral diseases, but is at the forefront of general health issues like obesity and diabetes. Around one in four five-year-olds in the UK have tooth decay. The amount of sugar young children are consuming, along with how often, is the root cause of the problem. Any initiative to make water and milk default options for children’s meals must be driven by the restaurant industry. If they fail to show a commitment, then we would be pushing for its introduction by a change in the law.”
Richard Broadbent, MD of Sinks-taps.com, said, “This investigation into the sugar in children’s cereals has been truly worrying. We hope this information will help parents make more informed decisions on breakfast foods for their kids. It is especially concerning how, even with the recommended serving size, there is a large percentage of a child’s daily allowance of sugar used up before school.”