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Half of WA kids not eating enough veggies

Children in Western Australia are getting better at eating their vegetables, but more than half are still not eating their recommended daily intake.

Of the children ages four to 15 surveyed in the Health and Wellbeing of Children in Western Australia 2011 survey, only 49.6 per cent are meeting their daily intake requirements for vegetables.

While the figures that over half of children are not getting the required vegetables are concerning, it is actually a significant improvement on last year’s results, which found only 44.2 per cent were meeting the target.

Only one in five of children aged 12 to 15 years are eating the recommended daily serves of fruit compared to almost all, at 96.3 per cent, of children aged four to seven years.

Over 40 per cent of children aged one year and over eat from a fast food outlet at least once a week.

Western Australia's Chief Health Officer Dr Tarun Weeramanthri is positive about the findings, pointing out that the vegetable consumption levels in the latest study were the best yet, and that in 2002 when the surveys began, only 37 per cent of children were getting the right amount of vegetables.

"Diet also has an important effect on health and can influence the risk of various diseases including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and digestive system cancers," he said. 

The study also found that almost nine out of 10 children aged 15 years and under were considered to by their parents or carers to be in excellent or very good health and just under half of children aged five to 15 years were meeting the recommended amount of physical activity.

Boys were found to be more likely than girls, to complete the recommended amount of physical activity, with 55.5 per cent for boys compared to 35.1 per cent of girls.

Just over a fifth of children spent more than two hours a day in front of a screen.

The survey also found parents are unable, or unwilling, to understand if their child is overweight or obese.

Almost a fifth of children aged 5 to 15 years are classified as overweight or obese according to their height and weight measurements, but only one in 10 respondents perceived their child as overweight or very overweight.

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