Ed Balls: We must act now
Tuesday, 22 Jan 2008 13:13
Action must be taken soon to halt the rise in the number of obese Britons, schools secretary Ed Balls has argued.
One step to achieve this, he believes, is to teach young people in school healthy eating habits so that they will hopefully lead healthier lives as adults.
As such the government is introducing compulsory cooking classes for pupils aged 11 to 14 that will "set them up for their adult life".
"I think the discussion we have had about obesity has shown all of us that if as a society we don't act now we are going to have real problems in the next few decades for adults and also for young people," Mr Balls told the Today programme.
"Many will learn to cook from their parents in the home, but that is not going to be available for every young person, and if we can make sure that young people are all learning to cook the basics then maybe they can take that home and introduce some of that into their own home environment that can make a real difference to the healthiness of our society in the next decades."
The classes will be compulsory from 2011 and 800 teachers will be trained over the next three years to run the lessons.