Country life "less healthy" than the city for children
By David Fletcher, Health Correspondent
CHILDREN brought up in the country are less healthy than those who grow up in towns, it is claimed today.
Although both city and country children believe that the country is healthier, a study found that rural children consume more animal fat and take less exercise.
A hundred children between seven and 11 from Newcastle upon Tyne and Evershot, west Dorset, took part in the research for tonight's Watchdog Healthcheck programme on BBC1.
They kept a two-week diary of their eating and exercise habits that banished the idea country children walk more - because they are more likely to be driven around.
They also suffer more from asthma (12 per cent in Dorset, seven per cent in Newcastle), take more medication (42 per cent to 32 per cent) and visit the doctor more often (17 per cent to 14 per cent).
But both areas reported the same amount of days away from school because of illness.
The idea that country children have the advantage of long walks in the fresh air is a myth because they tend to live further from the local schools, meaning they usually arrive by car.
City children walk because they live nearer to the school and, in general, take more exercise.
Analysis of eating habits found that in Dorset, a dairy farming area, children had significantly higher intakes of animal fats than their Newcastle peers (16.6 per cent energy from saturated fats compared with 14.6 per cent).
Newcastle children had a noticeable lack of fresh fruit and vegetables and consequently lower levels of vitamin C in their diet.
Salt and sugar consumption were higher in both areas than Government-recommended levels.
Professor Neil Armstrong, from the University of Exeter's department of exercise science, said that many children did not have the equivalent of a 10-minute brisk walk in their normal week.
He said: "What this survey has shown is just how few children actually walk or cycle to school.
"This used to be an important part of children's lifestyles. It has been lost and we are not compensating for it."
Dr Michael Nelson, from the department of nutrition and dietetics at King's College, said that what the children ate now would influence their health in later life.
"So if there is too much saturated fat it increases their risk of heart disease. If there is too much salt it is going to increase their risk of high blood pressure.
"If they don't eat enough fruit and vegetables now we know this is going to increase their risk of cancer in years to come," he said.
Diet in pregnancy, together with changes in the pattern of childhood infections, are the probable cause of the big increase of asthma in children.
Prof Anthony Seaton, a leading asthma specialist, of Aberdeen University Medical School, said last night that changes in the type of fat eaten to protect against heart disease might be increasing the risk of asthma.
He said that pregnant women consuming more polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oil, coupled with insufficiency of polyunsaturated fats from fish oil, could be affecting their children.
He said: "They could be swaying the child's immune system to develop in a way that predisposes them to asthma and other allergic diseases."
A shortage of vitamins - particularly C and E - in the mother's diet might also be making things worse by lowering defences against asthma in new-born babies' lungs.
Prof Seaton, giving the annual PPP health care group Bayliss lecture in London, said: "It is likely that a combination of factors associated with diet and changes in the pattern of childhood infections are the primary explanation [for the increase in asthma] and that increase in exposure to allergens has played only a minor, secondary role."
