Dieticians in Bradford are backing a campaign by the British Heart Foundation aimed at getting children to cut back on their pack-a-day crisps habit.

Half of all children in Yorkshire and Humberside are drinking' almost five litres of cooking oil every year as a result of their love of crisps, a shocking new survey reveals.

Die-hard crisps fans - a quarter of the eight to 15-year-olds surveyed - munch their way through two bags of crisps a day, consuming an alarming nine litres of oil a year.

In response, the British Heart Foundation has started its Food4Thought campaign ahead of World Heart Day tomorrow with the aim of exposing the hidden salt, fat and sugar lurking in common foods, so children can better understand the potential damage it is doing to their heart and their health.

Shocking images of a young girl drinking from a bottle of cooking oil with the caption What goes into your crisps goes into you' will feature in an advertising campaign.

Schools across the district will also be sent teaching resources in the shape of over-sized burger boxes to hammer home the message.

Helen Dixon, senior community dietitian at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "It is so hard-hitting I am sure it will help children realise that what they are consuming could damage their health in the long term.

"What you eat has a direct effect on your health and targeting young children now could stop them developing bad habits."

Miss Dixon said as part of a healthy, balanced diet, the odd packet of crisps as a treat was fine, but children should be encouraged to think of healthy alternatives to fatty, sugary or salty snacks.

"There are lots of foods which can be used as snacks, such as fruit, vegetable sticks, yoghurt, a piece of toast, a small sandwich or cereal," she said.

"Crisps are fine as long as they are a small portion and kept as a treat rather than being the staple diet."

She said children should eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, starchy carbohydrate - such as potato, rice, pasta or cereal - with every meal and have a moderate intake of protein and dairy food.

The Food4Thought campaign has attracted support from celebrities like the pop group Sugababes, actress Fay Ripley and Premiership footballers Anton Ferdinand and Theo Walcott.

BHF medical director Professor Peter Weissberg said: "The BHF believes having a daily dose of such a high-fat, nutritionally poor product is a threat to children's long term health. Daily unhealthy snacking is a worrying habit. Rising rates of childhood obesity and cases of type 2 diabetes paint a particularly grim picture for the future.

"This campaign is about challenging our children, alerting them to what's lurking in their snacks, takeaways and ready meals.

"It's about making these food the exception rather than the rule."

e-mail: claire.lomax@bradford.newsquest.co.uk