Letter: Junk food for thought

Sir: On 13 July, I visited the Science Museum in London with one of my students. One department was headed 'Food for thought'. Minerals, vitamins and fibres in food were explained and food containing them was exhibited.

Promoting a healthy diet was one of the aims of this department, which happens to be adjacent to the museum's snack bar, where Coke, coloured liquids, crisps and snack bars were on sale. Hundreds of schoolchildren were having a lunch consisting of E numbers, artificial sweeteners, colours and preservatives. There was an old-looking banana cake which cost pounds 1 per thin slice.

I was speechless] But then, I thought, what an excellent representation of our hypocritical society, which allows junk food adverts on television, drinks machines in schools, unhealthy school lunches and unhealthy hospital food, but then gets worried about the health of the nation. Virginia Bottomley may have difficulty in succeeding now that a healthy diet has become an exhibit in a museum and is no longer an everyday habit.

Yours sincerely,

H. VARDULAKI

Cambridge

24 July