Top chef: put cooking on the primary school curriculum to cut obesity

Food preparation and cooking should be included on the primary school curriculum in light of a new study showing growing levels of childhood obesity and ill health, a chef says.

The study, by researchers at University Cork, shows around half of 800 children involved in analysis of salt intake had taken more than the recommended daily amount.

It also found high blood pressure in one in 12 of the primary school children involved in the study, which included children from 27 schools in Cork and Mitchelstown. One quarter of the children were either overweight or obese.

Donegal-based chef Brian McDermott, who advocates a ‘no salt’ policy in the preparation and cooking of food, said the findings of the Cork Children’s Lifestyle Study highlighted the need to take a different approach when it comes to educating children about food.

Mr McDermott, who has also worked for Kerry Group, said: “It is not just a problem in processed food, it’s easy to point the finger.

“It is the mind-set, it is an addictive taste bud — ‘where is the salt?’ Look at the number of people who take it by habit, and it stems from generations of having salt on the table. If the parents have salt on table, children see, children do.”

He said “food is based on memories” and that Irish people had developed habits in relation to seasoning and other uses for salt that were not conducive to healthy living.

A reduction of 3g of salt a day would prevent about 900 deaths each year from stroke and heart attack, according to the Irish Heart Foundation.