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‘Teach children to cook’
From the The Bolton News, first published Monday 29th Jan 2007.
CHILDREN need to be taught to cook healthy food in school if Britain is to beat the problem of obesity, says a Bolton health boss.
Margaret Clare, executive member for adult social care and health at Bolton Council, wants to see old-fashioned domestic science taught in schools.
Mrs Clare, who chaired the childhood obesity panel last year, said: "We need to teach children to cook in schools. These days they have food technology, and are taught to make and market a pizza rather than the basic skills of cookery. If children can cook healthy food for themselves and know how delicious it is, they will be less tempted to turn to the more unhealthy but seemingly easier options."
Health bosses already run a range of schemes, such as the Healthy Schools programme, promoting healthy eating and physical activity.
And some schools have come up with schemes to encourage pupils to adopt healthy lifestyles.
Last September, youngsters at Castle Hill Primary School took part in a cookery competition organised by school caterers Scolarest.
And Mytham Primary School has been "adopted" by Paul Heathcote's Olive Press restaurant, in Nelson Square, Bolton, with its manager and sous chef giving the children tips.
The classes, which began in September, run four times a year and alternate between the school and restaurant.
Olive Press manager Ben Wiseman said: "We've had a really good reaction from the children. After the classes started, a lot of the children were bringing their parents to the restaurant telling them they should eat healthy food."
A survey by the Bolton Primary Care Trust revealed one in four children under the age of 11 is obese or overweight.
Fat youngsters run an increased risk of developing type two diabetes - normally found in the over 40s - by their teenage years, along with heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and arthritis.
But Mrs Clare added: "There is a fine line between weighing and measuring children and knocking them on the road to anorexia, and I think we need to keep that in mind."
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