The Mother and Child Foundation calls upon the leaders of political parties, and on candidates for both national and local government to declare their support for the Foundation’s campaign for better nutrition for expectant and nursing mothers, and for their dependant children.
The evidence is now accepted that poor nutrition during pregnancy causes life-long damage to the unborn child. Lack of key nutrients cripples brain development at the root; at its most extreme (which is becoming distressingly common) causing conditions like Cerebral Palsy, and even in milder forms destroying learning potential, and condemning a generation to lives of poverty.
The removal of Home Economics and Nutrition from the standard curriculum in the early 1970s set a time bomb ticking in the heart of our communities, and we now have a generation who, despite token efforts of cookery lessons, and despite the odd highly publicised campaign in politically well placed schools, cannot plan a balanced diet. We have an underclass, given a pittance barely enough to survive, who cannot afford good food, and do not know how to make the most of what they can afford.
The result is now falling around our ears – a generation of parents living on refined starch and fats, simultaneously growing obese whilst their bodies fail them through malnutrition. We have ever higher rates of metabolic disorders such as diabetes. We have massive and increasing rates of poor mental health. We have rates of seriously underweight babies which are an international disgrace, comparable only with the Balkan states recovering from civil war. We have a mental health system barely able to cope with those in extremis, and without the resources to help them before they reach that point.
And we have more of the same to come, with the next generation of that underclass being fed on what their parents can afford to fill their bellies, without the knowledge or the money to give them the nutrients which they need. Children who start out handicapped by poor nutrition, who will grow to become adults who need support just to function, let alone become productive members of society.
We need to address the problem where it begins. A recent study in London found that nearly three quarters of the mothers studied were significantly deficient in vitamin D. Many were suffering with anaemia, due to lack of iron and B vitamins. All of these affect their babies, with anaemia being particularly damaging to the brain.
Numerous trials (for example those recently reported in Cardiff, and the East End of London) show that measures as simple as providing pregnant and nursing mothers with free vitamins can produce benefits for their children, and through developing their potential, the nation.
We need nationally set programmes and standards for the teaching of Nutrition and Home Economics, so that children are empowered to make decisions that will affect their own life, health and that of their children. We must invest in prevention, which is the surest way to save costs of the Health Service. Yet only 2% of the total budget for research by the MRC and NHS is spent on preventive research. The old maxim says “a stitch in time saves nine”: as a nation, we need to invest in health which means prevention as a priority. That will save ten times the cost in mental and other ill health issues, and the social costs linked to chronic ill health, especially mental ill health.
The old way are health costs spiralling upwards to try to serve more and more chronic disease, obesity and mental ill health. Let’s have new way ! It is time for a paradigm shift that will save money and enhance the health, intelligence and productive capacity of the nation.
We need to start with the mother and child. We need nutrition, and we need education: empower children. Who is with us?
