Eating one packet of crisps a day is the equivalent of "drinking" almost five litres of cooking oil every year

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Eating one packet of crisps a day is the equivalent of "drinking" almost five litres of cooking oil every year, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has revealed.

The findings will shock the parents of half the UK's children who admit to consuming at least one packet of crisps every day.

The figures have been released as the BHF launches the second phase of its Food4Thought campaign, ahead of World Heart Day, which aims to expose the amounts of hidden salt, fat and sugar that lurk within many common snacks, takeaways and ready meals.

A shocking new advertising campaign will feature a young girl drinking from a bottle of cooking oil, with the caption "What goes into crisps goes into you".

Around 2,500 schools across the UK will also be sent teaching resources in the shape of over-sized burger boxes, in a bid to make children more aware of the potential damage that certain foods can do to their hearts.

Professor Peter Weissberg, BHF Medical Director, said: "The BHF believes having a daily dose of such a high-fat, nutritionally poor product is a threat to children's long-term health.

"Daily unhealthy snacking is a worrying habit. Rising rates of childhood obesity and cases of type 2 diabetes paint a particularly grim picture for the future.

"The BHF wants to expose the truth lurking within these foods and to help children and parents make healthier choices."

The industry body the Food and Drink Federation described the British Heart Foundation's campaign as "scare tactics".

FDF Communications Director Julian Hunt said: "We welcome anything that raises the debate about diet, but scare tactics are a waste of time. One of the great things about our industry is that we strive to give consumers genuine choice, whether it is a better for you version or a completely reformulated standard product."

has this thing kicked off yet?

crisp fo breakfats lunch and tea

How long before the food police check your trolley at the checkout?
Just thinking of the decisions we make about our children's eating habits in one day.
Cereal - okay as long as it isn't cornflakes (salt), sweetened (most), has no chocolate something in, hasn't too much dried fruit (teeth), porridge fine (no salt or sugar added), etc
Fruit juice - dilute and don't brush teeth too soon after drinking
Toast - whole grain preferably with unsalted butter obviously, smear of jam? smidge of peanut butter?
Packed lunch. Nerves of steel required here. Ham (salt), cheese (salt), jam (are you mad?), tuna (heavy meatals), cheese spread (processed), etc.
Bread? rolls/wraps/pitta most have loads of salt .
Fruit - yippee safe ground (washed thoroughly and organic of course with good mix of colours especially orange. oh and blueberries by the bucket full.
Yogurt - too much sugar unless you give natural with fruit preferably berries.
Drink - water/smoothie/juice too much sugar? too acidic? no stick to water that they'll bring home with them again.
No biscuits although homeemade cake is fine (wholemeal flour preferred, no jam or icing. perhaps more fruit?
NNOOOO to crisps.....Even Burts mega expensive, super dooper ones. No to Oraganix. No to it all.

Aaargh - we are drowning in information about our children's foods. We eat to live. Most of us do fine. When will they leave us alone?

LOL yoyo I agree. Maybe I will just feed my ds plain rice cakes (though aren't they bad too unless the rice is wholemeal?) and black berries if they are in season and organic. It just gets ridiculous.

Obviously giving your child a packet of full fat/salt crisps every day is not ideal, but I think this food thing at the minute is just completely over the top!!! I agree with people who have said there is no harm in a bit of everything in moderation.

GB, I often incense people on here

DS1 cried the other day because we'd run out of apple rice cakes. I thought of MN as he sobbed

"eat right, exercise, die anyway"

pmsl

Bloody hell - if we're going to get that paranoid just think how much fat there must be in all that milk and cheese, and yoghurt, olive oil,meat, fish....eeeeww yuck! Let's stop eating any of that disgusting food. It's got stuff in it.....

I loved crisps so much I used to get given a box for Christmas.
Thankfully have lost the taste for them now but I must have eaten thousands of packets in my time.
Do the effects hang around?

welshmum your post has taken me right back

when i was little we always used to visit the fox's biscuit factory in leicester on the way back from visiting my grandparents. for £1 you could get a mahoosive (i.e. the size of a toddler) box of broken biscuits.

it was the epitome of kiddie heaven - dive in and fight with your little brother over the scraps of chocolate ones.

sigh

I love crisps, me.

I was horrified by this news! I love crisps and me and DD 4 often share a bag with our sarnies
but i do buy the potato head reduced fat/salt ones! also tbh i was more worried about the salt levels than the fat levels.... ooops!
of course we didn't have any today tho!!!

I like crisps.

I don't eat them very often - unlike the father of my children - but I do I do I do rather love them.

mi, don't you get annoyed with typing "the father of my children" all the time instead of dp (he is your dp, right?)? it would wind me right up. perhaps we should use a new accronym: dfomc, or just fomc.

iarose: you are right to worry more about the salt levels than the fat levels imo.

we need some fat and it may as well come from crisps. I really think the bhf have done more harm than good with thi campaign

I don't believe it - have you seen a 5-litre bottle of oil? I'd like to know how they worked that out and which kind of crisps and what size packet they're talking about.

I love crisps (knew I had something in common with you moo!)- in fact, reading this made me add a multipack of meaty walkers crisps to my sainsburys order. My kids don't get a look in with crisps as they are mine all mine!

I think it would be a public service if they banned those prawn cocktail ones - those are inherently wicked and those who have eaten them should be banned from breathing in public. Yukky fish breath ewwwww

I can take them or leave them. My ds have them about once a fortnight, I empty a packet onto a plate and they share them. They're 'take it or leave it' too.

Its clear that everyone here knows that crisps are loaded with fat and salt but not every parent realises that you shouldn't give your dc them every day in the packed lunch. Ludicrous as it seems, I think that's why the shock adverts are coming.

I ask my xh not to give them in the packed lunch (when he has them midweek), he does it anyway to spite me. FGS.