JUNCS: Indian Academy of Pediatrics coins new acronym to fight unhealthy foods

Nagpur: The Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) has come up with a new acronym ‘JUNCS’ to cover a wide variety of concepts related to unhealthy foods easily available among children in India and recommended families to avoid them as far as possible.
The new acronym ‘JUNCS’ foods stands for Junk foods, Ultra-processed foods, Nutritionally inappropriate foods, Caffeinated/coloured/carbonated foods/beverages, and Sugar-sweetened beverages.
Importantly, the JUNCS food should not be offered as reward/gift to any child as this gives undue promotion to unhealthy foods, it says.
The guidelines come in view of easy availability and increasing trend of consumption of fast foods and sugar sweetened beverages (fruit juices and drinks, carbonated drinks, energy drinks) among Indian children. As per IAP’s study, with increasing obesity and related non-communicable diseases in kids, there is a need to develop guidelines related to consumption of foods and drinks that have the potential to increase this problem in children and adolescents.
The national level body would soon circulate these guidelines across India.
Well-known child specialist Dr Uday Bodhankar said parents need to first give up these unhealthy foods themselves and only then it can be expected that children won’t consume them.
“Now, even kids in the US have stopped eating processed or packaged foods. Parents and even teachers need to play role models for kids. At our clinic, we have been distributing Rajgira laddoos which are healthy and nutritious,” he said
Besides strongly discouraging consumption of the JUNCS foods and beverages, the guidelines also suggest putting a cap on the intake. Parents can alternatively limit consumption of the JUNCS foods at home/outside and have not more than one serving per week; not exceeding 50% of total daily energy intake for that age. Kids must not consume foods while watching television/screen. Eliminate trans-fat and reduce free sugars to less than 5% of total energy intake.
At the same time, importance is laid on home made meals. Freshly cooked home food with minimal addition of sugar and no trans-fats should be preferred over restaurant/packaged foods, the guidelines state. Traditional and acceptable home-made snacks with long shelf-line can be offered to children as alternative to the JUNCS foods.
Regarding fruit Juices, IAP says parents must encourage intake of regional and seasonal whole fruits over fruit juices in children and adolescents. These should not be offered to infants and young children aged below 2 years at all.
Similarly, caffeinated energy drinks should not be consumed by children and adolescents. Intake of carbonated drinks, tea and coffee is to be completely avoided by children less than 5 years. In fact, the guidelines say tea and coffee intake must not be more than half cup a day in adolescents.