ABSTRACT
The healthy body jigsaw is a way of putting diet and exercise into the overall picture of what makes people healthy. The more children feel that health is relevant and something they have some control over, the greater the chance they will make healthier choices when parents are not around for advice. Between the ages of six and eight years, children gradually change from seeing parents as the ultimate reference point and believing everything a parent tells them to taking on board the views and influences of other people. Children are bombarded with information - through home, school, advertising and television. What is more, much of this information is complex, too detailed for the age of the child and often simply inconsistent, irrelevant and confusing. In order to make messages clear to younger children people often oversimplify them - trying to make the world black and white.
