Food and nutrition absent from draft national curriculum

DESPITE a quarter of Australian children being overweight or obese, healthy food lessons for kids have been scaled back in the proposed new national curriculum.  

DESPITE a quarter of Australian children being overweight or obese, healthy food lessons for kids have been scaled back in the proposed new national curriculum.

Public health experts warn practical food skills are ''glaringly absent'' from the new curriculum and rely on unqualified staff to teach them.

Associate Professor Heather Yeatman from the Public Health Association of Australia - which has branches in every state - has criticised the draft of the new Health and Physical Education curriculum - and urged for immediate changes.

''If you look at what it says about food and nutrition, it's a lot of talking about stuff,'' said Associate Prof Yeatman, from the Public Health Association of Australia.

''There is class discussion but it's not providing students with any hands-on experience.''

There is mounting evidence children's eating habits change for the better when they grow and prepare healthy food.

''While fruit and vegetable consumption falls during the school years, with only 1 per cent of 14 to 16-year-olds eating enough fruit compared to 61 per cent of four to eight-year-olds, initiatives such as the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program are improving diets.

''We know from evaluation of the kitchen garden program that children are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables if they have prepared them themselves and even more likely if they have grown it themselves,'' Prof Yeatman said.

Stephanie Alexander said the program is currently in 300 schools and is intended to run in 10 per cent of Australian schools by 2015.

''Children change their attitude to 'healthy' food,'' Stephanie Alexander said yesterday.

''Over and over again we hear of children going home and demanding their families start digging veggie gardens. They want to be involved in the household grocery shopping, they ask where the salad is at every meal and put pasta machines on their gift lists.''

Final submissions for the new Health and PE curriculum are due with the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) today.

Obesity Australia yesterday recommended rolling out the Stephanie Alexander program to all primary schools as one of five steps needed to fight obesity.

''Progressive extension across all primary schools in Australia over six years would revolutionise the next generation's food attitudes, and instill a knowledge of and preference for a diet high in fresh vegetables,'' Obesity Australia said in its Action Agenda released yesterday.

Sydney's Vaucluse Primary school captains Coco Stallman and Matty Gitli, both 11, said their weekly kitchen lessons and fortnightly garden time had taught them a love of herbs.

Principal Maureen Hallahan signed up to the Stephanie Alexander program a year ago and said rather than just being about food the kitchen was a place to learn about science and culture.

''It's had a very significant effect on their eating and understanding good food, so making healthy choices is just a normal part of their eating patterns now,'' Ms Hallahan said.