Making healthy eating a family affair

Food for thought: Childhood obesity is casting a dangerous shadow over world health. A generation of children face a shorter lifespan than their parents, as well as early onset of chronic ill-health.

The National Health and Lifestyles Survey this month revealed that fruit consumption had declined by almost 50 per cent among Irish schoolchildren. It's a deadly trend.

Getting your children involved in household food preparation is a great way to pass on the fundamentals of healthy eating. It's a gift that your children will relish for life.

Garth McColgan, director of the Food Active Summer School in St Conleth's, Donnybrook, Dublin, knows how to get children interested in food. Trained by chef Paul Rankin in Belfast, McColgan has been catering to the students of Gonzaga College in Dublin (shown right) for seven years. He believes that parents need to develop their children's sensory and intellectual appreciation of food.

"Healthy eating is not restrictive, it's enlightening," says McColgan. "Real food is fascinating, especially to children. Vegetables, for example, in all their diversity of colour and texture, are very interesting to a child if introduced in the right way. Children need to taste, feel and smell a variety of foods from a young age."

McColgan suggests some basic activities which parents and children can share to awaken an understanding of food. "Food-label literacy is important. Children should be encouraged to read and understand the components of what they are eating.

"Experience of the background of foods is a real eye opener too - a trip to an organic farm brings city kids closer to the real source of food. Give your child some basic cooking tips and tricks - the confidence born of practical knowledge is empowering. Cook something slow and healthy with them, like brown bread. Their eyes will light up when they see what they have created."

McColgan concedes that many young parents don't have much culinary knowledge to pass on, but he urges families to relearn good eating together. "The National Heart Foundation and the Slow Food Movement are two good sources of information to get you started."

www.slowfood.com www.irishheart.ie.

Food Active Summer Camp runs fortnightly through the month of July. Contact foodactive@hotmail.com or telephone 086 8066111.