PUPILS should be banned from leaving school grounds during lunchtime to prevent them eating takeaways and junk food, public health experts have said.
The Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) made the call in response to Scottish Government plans to tackle obesity.
They said councils should consider 'onsite lunchtime policies' to stop youngsters eating takeaways or buying junk food.
Read more: Nursery pupils to get free meals for first time
This would mean pupils were forbidden from leaving school premises unless they have express permission.
Figures show that 29 per cent of Scottish children and two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese.
Read more: Pupils gorging on junk food
The GCPH experts said Scotland could follow the example of Sweden, where children also help prepare school meals.
They wrote: "In our research exploring the nutritional quality of food sold from outlets around selected schools, we found that fast food bought outside school is of very poor nutritional value and high in fat salt.
"Encouraging pupils to stay onsite is therefore likely to result in an improvement in the nutritional quality of lunch.
"In addition, pupils eligible for free school meals are disadvantaged where there is a culture of leaving school to buy lunch.
"Onsite lunchtime policies have the dual benefits of providing healthier, affordable food options without stigmatising those not financially able to purchase off-site lunches.
"We would like a review of the approach to food in schools."
Read more: Pupils should get free fruit every day at school
The Scottish Government is currently considering responses to a public consultation on its obesity strategy, which has proposed measures such as a ban on junk food price promotions and forcing food retailers including restaurants and takeaways to display calorie information on menus.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel