Why cooking skills are the key to healthy eating

Parents who want their children to eat more fruit and vegetables should give them an apron and let them cook, recent research suggests.

By teaching our children to cook they are more likely to grow up to be healthy adults because they have a better knowledge of cooking techniques, preparing food and new tastes.

Watching talented amateur cooks on Masterchef and gazing longingly at meals concocted by TV celebrity chefs is fine, but actually doing the cooking ourselves is what matters.Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote Being able to cook is a life skill which helps children grow into healthier adults.”

Rob Rees School Food Trust When it comes to young children, I Can Cook on CBeebies might hold their interest while you put on the washing but it's no replacement for getting out the butter and flour and letting them make a mess, or so new research has found.

A study in Liverpool, by City University London, found that cooking classes aimed at both school pupils and adults had a positive impact on eating habits, with more pupils saying they ate more fruit and veg following the sessions.

Another study, carried out by the School Food Trust, which measured the impact of a national network of school-based cooking clubs for four to eight years olds, found that learning to cook improved their recognition of healthier foods - and their desire to eat them. With the UK in the grip of an obesity epidemic, is this the answer to improving our diets and our lifestyles?

Experts say children can learn a lot about food from cooking themselves On holdThe push to get school children to eat more healthily is not new, with Jamie Oliver among many others campaigning against unhealthy 'turkey twizzlers' on school dinner menus for years.

But the previous government's plan to include cooking skills in the curriculum for 12 to 16-year-olds is now on hold while the current government reviews the national curriculum, to come into force in 2014.

At primary level, cooking is still part of the curriculum but the quality of lessons is thought to vary enormously from school to school.

This is where charities and social enterprise initiatives can play an important role, inside and outside school.

Jacqui Lawson, a teacher of food technology at Enterprise South Liverpool Academy, knows how valuable cooking lessons are for school pupils. She organised for a group of her sixth form students to take part in a secondary school cooking competition run by Can Cook, a social enterprise.

The students received three hours of training from a chef, before practising cooking some recipes and then their dishes were judged by a panel of professionals.

Continue reading the main story

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Start Quote

They were trying things they hadn't tried before, like Spanish cooking, Thai food and how to make burgers from scratch...”

Jacqui Lawson

food technology teacher

Beef burgers