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Not all pupils of primary schools are willing to swallow the dictum that only healthy food is good for them.
Take the case of Si Ling Primary School in Woodlands.
As soon as classes end, the pupils rush out in droves to Lai Lai Minimart next door, going by what The Sunday Times observed recently.
They buy soft drinks, cup noodles and ice lollies to eat at the void decks of HDB blocks. They cannot get such food in the school canteen.
Si Ling is one of many primary schools which keep a tight rein on what is sold in canteens.
In 2004, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and Ministry of Education (MOE) started a Model School Tuckshop programme in primary and secondary schools.
Guidelines include not selling drinks with more than 8g of sugar per 100ml, using milk to replace coconut milk in some spicy dishes and not selling deep-fried food and preserved meat more than once a week.
A Sunday Times survey of 30 primary schools showed that at least 23 of them have imposed even stricter regulations.
The thinking is that if students are taught early to eat healthily, it will serve them well in better fending off problems like obesity in their adult years.
An MOE spokesman said that it is important to equip students with the knowledge and skills to make healthier dietary choices beyond the school context.
But completely banning the sale of less healthy food in tuckshops 'may induce certain negative effects, such as increased desires for unhealthy foods'.
Psychiatrist Ang Peng Chye agrees, saying: 'The more you deprive kids of junk food, the more they will crave it since it's natural to crave something forbidden.'
Schools which are focused on healthy eating usually put canteen vendors through culinary courses with the HPB and taste-test food before it becomes canteen fare.
Evergreen Primary School in Woodlands has a yogurt vending machine while Yew Tee Primary School offers a salad buffet on a monthly basis.
Pupils pay $1 for an assortment of vegetables and a slice of fruit.
At Bukit View Primary School, only drinks like chrysanthemum tea and fruit juice are allowed and a parent-support group patrols the canteen.
Said Madam Patricia Cheng, 63, chairman of the group: 'If we see someone eating unhealthily, we remind him to buy more vegetables and we keep an eye on him the next time around to make sure he does so.'
Gongshang Primary School does not even have a drinks stall.
Instead, the canteen has 10 vending machines so that teachers can control the kind of drinks dispensed - that is, only those with a healther-choice label.
Dietitian and nutritionist Anna Jacobs, while applauding such moves, feels that schools need not ban certain foods but instead offer them in healthier forms.
'What about 100 per cent fruit-juice lollies or slurpies instead of ice cream?' she said.
Should schools be overly strict about serving only healthy food? Please send your views to suntimes@sph.com.sg
