mumbai its a problem that took the cuffe paradebased makhijanis a whole year to figure out despite having their 10yearold daughter kinjal on a nutritionistprescribed healthfood diet she ended up growing more in width than in height this despite a blanket ban at home on colas chips and fried foodsthey discovered after a thorough investigation that the reason lay in the school canteen all the fizzy drinks vada pavs french fries burgers and puffs that were available there resulted in kinjal piling on the kilosaccording to nutritionist naini setalvad a 100 gm packet of wafers contains 500 calories and an aerated softdrink 300 calories the calorie count would drop drastically if the potato chips and french fries were replaced by healthy but equally tasty alternatives she saidthe simple aloo chaat or hot corn a rage in multiplexes are healthier options than fries or chips said setalvad a cup of hot corn even with butter adds up to only 125 calories she said fruit smoothies too can replace milk shakes and reduce the calorie content by over 50for doctors and dieticians across the city fried foods are a nono for starters anything fried can be carcinogenic even worse is that they are a major cause of obesity which in turn is a known cause of cancer two fried medu vadas have a whopping calorie content of 750 if theyre replaced by two idlis the calorie count is onefifth said setalvadweve now discussed the hazards of junk food with kinjal and explained to her the importance of selfcontrol she can now resist canteen food even when her friends gorge on it said hiren makhijani kinjals fathera few schools especially those that cater to the more affluent sections of society have begun waking up to the hazards of junk food and revamping their canteen menuwhile bandras dhirubhai ambani international school has introduced a salad bar in the canteen cathedral and john connon high school fort has cut out the colas and replaced them with fruit juiceswe even have a committee of parents to review the canteen menu said cathedral school principal meera isaacs setalvad however said too few schools were following such examplesanother important factor is the duration of the lunch break over a decade ago lunch breaks lasted an hour in todays fastpaced lifestyle they have shrunk to 30 minutes in the scramble this results in at the canteen children barely get 15 minutes to gobble down their food the result is that they opt for fast food rather than full meals