However, knowing what is healthy and what is not is by
no means a direct indication of actual consumption patterns.
A recent survey found that 10-12 year old children
in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Manila did
have a basic understanding of the role of macro-nutrients
(e.g. energy sources) and micro-nutrients (such as iron
and calcium), as well as some of the primary sources of
these. The bad news is that they found that such knowledge
does not seem to prevent childhood overweight and
obesity. One in four of the children surveyed were overweight
or obese, and amongst the boys, this figure rose to
almost one in three