A sports nutrition company is urging the government to make nutrition a compulsory school subject, just like English and maths.
Myprotein.co.uk claims that the government’s newest measure of sending parents letters lacks impact and will have no effect on battling childhood obesity.
The UK’s leading sports nutrition company has written to the government to assert that nutrition should be part of the National Curriculum.
Myprotein.co.uk has sent letters to public health minister Dawn Primarolo MP, secretary of state for health Alan Johnson MP, secretary of state for children, schools and families Ed Balls MP, and minister of state for schools and learners Jim Knight MP.
Figures from the department of health show that young people are becoming more obese with every passing year. Projections predict that there will be nearly three million children aged two to 15 years affected by obesity to the point where it affects their health by 2010.
Myprotein.co.uk claims that children should be educated from a young age in how to make the right food choices and that it should be as compulsory as English and maths.
Oliver Cookson, managing director of Myprotein.co.uk said: “The government’s latest offering does not have the impact a situation such as the one we find ourselves in requires. Avoiding terms like ‘obese’ and ‘exercise’ is exactly the reason we are slipping further into this crisis.
“We need to take control of our own and our children’s lives and stop shifting blame to things such as the proposed ‘fat gene’, which surprisingly, does not rear its head in many other countries.
“It is my opinion, and that of many others in the health, nutrition and fitness sector, that education is paramount to battling this epidemic. Therefore, I have written to the department of health and the department for children, schools and families asking that something be done about this before it is too late.”
Cookson added that “a few hours forced physical exercise is not enough” to keep children healthy in the long term.
“It is my belief that nutrition should be a compulsory subject, in which children are taught how to enjoy a healthy, well balanced diet, informed how a poor diet can lead to ill health and educated as to the dangers of eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and over-eating,” he said.
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