Early Education in Schools Can Prevent Childhood Obesity
Type 2 diabetes is rising so rapidly in young children that many will die younger than their parents. This alarming trend is directly related to the epidemic of overweight or obese children we are seeing in many schoolyards today. Inactivity, overeating, and indulging in foods high in fat and sugar content are major factors in this looming health crisis.
Alice Waters, owner of renowned Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley, California, is working with groups of schoolchildren in a concerted effort to reverse this trend.
“Universal physical education is a start, and it’s a shame that schools have been cutting back on recess and gym,” Waters says. “But in a country where 9 million children over age 6 are obese, we need the diet part of the equation.”
Waters knows from experience that teaching children about food changes their lives. She helped to initiate the gardening and cooking program, the “Edible Schoolyard,” in Berkeley’s Public Schools. “Children’s eating habits stay with them for the rest of their lives,” Waters explains.
“The best way to defeat the obesity epidemic is to teach children about food — and thereby prevent them from ever becoming obese.”
Critical of the hamburgers, chicken nuggets and French fries that dominate school lunch programs, Waters also bemoans the fast disappearing shared family meal. Only a third of married couples with children report having dinner regularly together.
In schools without programs such as hers, it’s all too often that fresh fruit and salad get thrown out from cafeteria meals. Students frequently bring packaged junk food in their lunches or buy fast food after school.
Waters’ program began at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School 10 years ago, with a kitchen classroom and a garden full of fruits, vegetables and herbs. The Edible Schoolyard has become a model for a district-wide school lunch program.
At King School today, 1,000 children now grow, prepare and share fresh food. In addition, teachers incorporate food-related activities into the math, science and history curriculum.
“When a healthy lunch is part of a class that all children have to take, for credit – and when they can follow food from the garden to the kitchen to the table, doing much of the work themselves – something amazing happens.
Students want to taste everything. They get lured in by foods that are beautiful, that taste and smell good… When children grow and prepare good, healthy food themselves, they want to eat it, and what’s more, they like this way of learning.”
Waters calls for a “delicious revolution” that will induce children in a pleasurable way to think critically about what they eat. She advocates food studies as part of a core curriculum for all students from kindergarten through high school.
“It will be costly,” she admits, “but if we don’t pay now, the health care bill later will be astronomical.”
San Francisco Chronicle, 2/24/06; The New York Times; from an op-ed article by Alice Waters
Alice Waters, owner of renowned Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley, California, is working with groups of schoolchildren in a concerted effort to reverse this trend.
“Universal physical education is a start, and it’s a shame that schools have been cutting back on recess and gym,” Waters says. “But in a country where 9 million children over age 6 are obese, we need the diet part of the equation.”
Waters knows from experience that teaching children about food changes their lives. She helped to initiate the gardening and cooking program, the “Edible Schoolyard,” in Berkeley’s Public Schools. “Children’s eating habits stay with them for the rest of their lives,” Waters explains.
“The best way to defeat the obesity epidemic is to teach children about food — and thereby prevent them from ever becoming obese.”
Critical of the hamburgers, chicken nuggets and French fries that dominate school lunch programs, Waters also bemoans the fast disappearing shared family meal. Only a third of married couples with children report having dinner regularly together.
In schools without programs such as hers, it’s all too often that fresh fruit and salad get thrown out from cafeteria meals. Students frequently bring packaged junk food in their lunches or buy fast food after school.
Waters’ program began at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School 10 years ago, with a kitchen classroom and a garden full of fruits, vegetables and herbs. The Edible Schoolyard has become a model for a district-wide school lunch program.
At King School today, 1,000 children now grow, prepare and share fresh food. In addition, teachers incorporate food-related activities into the math, science and history curriculum.
“When a healthy lunch is part of a class that all children have to take, for credit – and when they can follow food from the garden to the kitchen to the table, doing much of the work themselves – something amazing happens.
Students want to taste everything. They get lured in by foods that are beautiful, that taste and smell good… When children grow and prepare good, healthy food themselves, they want to eat it, and what’s more, they like this way of learning.”
Waters calls for a “delicious revolution” that will induce children in a pleasurable way to think critically about what they eat. She advocates food studies as part of a core curriculum for all students from kindergarten through high school.
“It will be costly,” she admits, “but if we don’t pay now, the health care bill later will be astronomical.”
San Francisco Chronicle, 2/24/06; The New York Times; from an op-ed article by Alice Waters
Comments
Post a Comment