The best way to ensure our children’s health

“Home. The biggest problem with the home is that it used to be the heart of passing on food culture, which made our society. That is not happening anymore.” Jamie Oliver

There is no doubt there is a real loss of cooking skills amongst our generation and as a result, our own children’s generation.

The busier life gets, the more we rely on processed packaged foods to get us by.

Which not only means we are missing out on nourishing our families properly, but also that we are slowly losing the art of cooking simple, delicious meals from scratch and passing this lifelong skill onto our children.

In 1984 we made 72 percent of our dinners from scratch, but by 2008 that number dropped to 57 percent …

What will happen with cooking in the future?

And all the while obesity is on the rise. And increasingly, we are seeing more illness and disease creeping in earlier and earlier with our children.

Getting kids in the kitchen goes a long way to improving children’s health and wellbeing both now and in the future.

I would love to see cooking classes become compulsory again in high schools, and I am thrilled my son has elected to do food tech at high school as he delights in food creation, presentation and eating! 

In fact, all that time in the kitchen with me has meant my kids have turned out to be a massive help when it comes to cooking, often helping out with all the meals of the day which substantially lightens my load. We have a good time in the kitchen together too.

The school holiday’s provide a great opportunity to embrace your kids in the kitchen so why not give it a go with this round up of the best healthy recipes to make with your kids these school holidays. 

By teaching your kids to cook you’ll also be …

• boosting their maths and science skills
• fostering their social skills
• teaching them about healthy food and good eating habits
• building responsibility and independence
• creating great memories and conversation
• improving their reading and comprehension
• taking inadvertent steps to unfuss their fussy eating
• and learning a skill that will benefit them for life by keeping them well and happy, and will also one day pass this skill on to their own children

Here’s to our budding chefs changing the future of health and well being.

Let’s get their health back on track.

Bren x