How do children and young people eat in Germany?

The nutritional situation of children
in Germany

Continued poor nutrition can have lifelong consequences. Therefore, the questions inevitably arise: What do children eat and drink in Germany and to what extent does the social status of their families play a role? An overview of the nutritional situation of children and adolescents in Germany.

Every child has the right to an adequate standard of living in accordance with "his physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development". This is what Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says. A healthy standard of living also includes a healthy diet. It is the cornerstone of physical wellbeing. But in no other European country do so many overweight children live as in Germany.

Almost every sixth child is too fat. A healthy diet is not possible for families in financial need. You simply cannot afford fresh fruit and vegetables. In addition, the food industry knows how to cleverly hide sugar and fat and in particular outsmart children with clever advertising, tempting packaging and product placements aimed at children.

Poverty versus health

Around 2.7 million children in Germany currently live in direct poverty or in socially vulnerable circumstances. Hartz IV does not change anything, as the Joint Association found: Since the introduction of Hartz IV, the proportion of disadvantaged children in Germany has stagnated at an almost constant level. Every seventh child under the age of 15 lives from Hartz IV. In eastern Germany, it is every fourth child.

A daily rate in Hartz IV households is not enough for a healthy diet, not even if you only shop in cheap discounters. For a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and a small snack in between, around 6 euros are needed per day. The Hartz IV standard rate for the nutrition of children, however, is only an average of EUR 3.49.

Nutritional deficits across society

But not only children from financially needy families are affected. Diet-related diseases are pervasive throughout society. The entry to school also brings about a major change for most children, because sitting for a long time combined with less exercise poses health risks.

15.4 percent of 3 to 17 year olds are currently classified as overweight; 6 percent of them even suffer from pathological overweight (obesity). This is the result of the long-term study "KiGGs Welle 2" on the health of children and adolescents in Germany by the Robert Koch Institute. The consequences for those affected are often mental and physical problems, which in turn can have consequences for their private and professional future.

The results of the previous study also show that children, for example, consume far too many meat and sausage products. Of the 12- to 17-year-old boys, 86 percent exceed the recommended amount, while only 29 percent meet their fruit and vegetable needs.

However, acute hunger remains one of the main problems. According to the Association of Pediatricians, about 500,000 children regularly suffer from hunger which is not satisfied. Your daily life is not determined by the quality of your culinary consumption but by the fact that it simply does not exist. Hunger can really hurt and affects your thoughts like hardly anything else. The health consequences are just as serious: lack of protein leads to underdevelopment of the brain and hinders muscle building. The consequential damage can never be remedied.

antidote

The current nutritional situation of children in Germany contradicts Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. But not only that. It also affects the health insurance system and creates additional costs that could be invested sensibly from the start.

As an antidote, not only financial resources help here, but also educational programs in which the parents must of course also be involved. The goal should be to sustainably improve the nutritional situation and not just to provide a healthy meal occasionally.

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