VITAL SIGNS : Too healthy

Healthy eating policies in schools could mean that some children are not getting enough high-energy food needed for growth, research from Southampton suggests. A survey there of 935 five to eight-year-olds found that 5.1 per cent went without bre akfast while 11 per cent made do with junk food such as biscuits.

The children, from low-income areas, could not compensate later for their lack of breakfast, since most of the schools they attended banned all mid-morning snacks apart from fruit, the authors report in the Health Education Journal.