Get kids cooking!

Over the weekend, I saw a fantastic news article about Jamie Oliver and Steven Gerrard teaming up to fight obesity, by calling on the PM to offer more cooking classes in schools. These would be compulsory and would teach children to cook nutritional meals. This in turn would educate children about what goes into their food and empower them to make the right decisions about their diet when shopping or at a restaurant. As well as helping curb obesity in children, I think that being able to cook provides so many important life skills for when they’re older. Most adults who are obese are so because they have to resort to fast food or over-processed food because they don’t know how to cook anything else. In fact, a flatmate of a friend of mine didn’t even know how to cook pasta at the age of 26 and studies have shown that a lot of children don’t even know how to crack an egg. I think I’m quite lucky, as my mum is a fantastic cook and always got me and my sister involved in the kitchen from a very early age. In fact, if we wanted something particular for tea, she would show us how to cook it ourselves, rather than do it for us. I also did Food Technology GCSE, but this wasn’t compulsory and I think it focused too much on food production rather than practical cooking. If you want to get your children interested in cooking, they’re never too young to start. For example, Djeco have a great role playing toy set which features a chopping board, vegetables and a knife, all made from wood. This is ideal for much younger children or toddlers and will get them interested in playing with real food. When they’re older, get your children baking. Making and decorating cakes and cookies is great fun, and The Cooking Club For Kids has fantastic baking sets that come with everything you need. They even have decorating tools and each item is tailored to make them easy for kids to use. With older children, you can also get them to help you out; for, example washing peeling and chopping vegetables for the Sunday roast. Are your children avid cooks, or would you welcome more lessons available in schools? Like always, we would really love to hear what you think on this really important issue. Don’t forget to leave us a comment, or speak to us on Facebook or Twitter!