Schools should teach a healthy lifestyle, study says
Children should be taught about healthy eating and nutrition in school as part of an initiative to fight obesity, one study finds.
Lynn Walters, founder and executive director of the initiative entitled Cooking With Kids, suggested that education centres should have a developed integrated curriculum to raise awareness among children of the importance of nutrition.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures show that childhood obesity has tripled over the past 30 years.
A study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior shows how the programme successfully helped students develop skills for the kitchen as well and become more aware of the consequences of a bad diet.
Researchers from the Colorado State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition interviewed 178 school goers as part of a wider report to discover the cooking attitudes of youngsters.
They found that those who learned to cook and manage nutrition in lessons did not see the tasks as chores when they got home and gained enjoyment out of the challenge.
