by Emmy Glover
"Young people
have got to be engaged and see the beauty in food…. People learn when they are
happy"
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Childhood obesity has dominated the headlines recently with just over 33% of 11-year-olds now classed as overweight or obese.
This week, Behind the Beauty met with Lindsay Graham, a health and food advisor who travels the UK to encourage kids to get excited about being healthy.
Her latest project 'International School Meals Day' will take place on the 8th March throughout the UK.
This week, Behind the Beauty met with Lindsay Graham, a health and food advisor who travels the UK to encourage kids to get excited about being healthy.
Her latest project 'International School Meals Day' will take place on the 8th March throughout the UK.
The event, which builds on a two year relationship between the USA and UK , was put together after Lindsay and her colleagues made several trips to the USA, learning about their school food policies and how the US was tackling both hunger and childhood obesity.
Her travels gave her the opportunity to meet and talk to a variety of food champions including Sam Kassa health policy advisor and the Obamas family chef and colleagues in the United States Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Education. The USA has a new health improvement policy for schools called the 'Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act,' (2010) alongside the First Ladies LetsMove! Campaigning this new legislation is set to change the eating and activity habits of the next generation .
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| Lindsay with Obama Family Chef Sam Kass |
"Young people have got to be engaged and see the beauty in food - whether that's growing, whether that's the cooking stuff, learning about the science of it - It's got to be fun! People learn when they are happy."
Scottish born Lindsay, was the youngest of three, and said her passion for food came from a very young age after her father who spent time in India taught her all about herbs and spices.
After moving to Sheffield 7 years ago, she continued her fight to get the country thinking positively about healthy food.
"We're living in what I call a square society"
Recent figures place Sheffield in the top ten for its rising numbers of obese children. The study by Calendar news suggested that the number of obese ten and eleven year olds has gone up by more than a third in the last five years. Startling increases in obesity, Lindsay claims, are as a result of a sedated society:
"We've also become very sedated - we're living in what I call a square society where we have become screen orientated - our whole world is like that. There's expectations now of cheap food, quick, fast food that we just didn’t have twenty/thirty years ago."
Although the media suggest multiple avenues are to blame, including parenting, Lindsay acknowledged the difficultly faced by parents trying to get their children to eat healthily and claimed food has simply become less valued. "We've also become very sedated - we're living in what I call a square society where we have become screen orientated - our whole world is like that. There's expectations now of cheap food, quick, fast food that we just didn’t have twenty/thirty years ago."
With more choice available to children and the constant exposure to flashy advertising and big-branded fast food chains, many children do not understand the simple basics about where food comes from and the damage unhealthy food is doing to their bodies.
As well as alarming rates of obesity, Lindsay is also working to decrease childhood poverty. Listen here as she tells of her shock after witnessing a starving, young boy during one of her school visits....
"It's all well and good saying get your school healthy, but it's about getting them from 40 bags of chips to one!"
Follow them on Twitter: @IntSchoolMeals
You can also hear more about Lindsay’s work at:
@LindsayGrahamUK
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