Knowledge and attitudes towards healthy eating and physical activity:

Figure 12: Responses of children and young people aged 8–16 years to the question
‘What would help you to make healthier choices at school’
Improved decoration and better seating
Having more healthy items in the tuck shop/mid‐morning break
Having vending machine service for healthy food
Special days when you can sample healthy dishes
Help yourself salad bar at lunchtime
Wider range of prepared fruit available
Cheaper prices for healthy options
Better choice of healthy dishes
Less queuing time for healthy dishes
Opportunity to win prizes if you select healthy items
Source: Sodexho School Meals and Lifestyle Survey, 2005 ii
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
b. Perceptions of weight, weight loss and dieting
This section summarises available data relating to children and young people’s
perceptions of weight, weight loss and dieting.
Key points
• The majority of children and young people (73%) consider themselves to be
about the right weight.
• The majority of children and young people classified by the HSE 2007 as
overweight (77.3%) consider themselves to be about the right weight as do
46.3% of children classified as obese.
• 65% of children and young people classified as obese are trying to lose
weight.
i. Weight, weight loss and dieting
The HSE 2007 provided information on children and young people’s perception of
their own body weight and whether they were actively trying to lose weight. The
majority (73%) aged 8 to 15 years felt that they were ‘about the right weight’, 16%
‘too heavy’ and 10% ‘too light’. These data were compared with the BMI category
assigned to them (calculated from the anthropometrics recorded by nurses as part of
the survey). The results show that 77.3% of those categorised as ‘overweight’ stated
that they thought they were ‘about the right weight’ as did 46.3% of those
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