Editorial: Cooking up a healthy habit from an early age

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

Surprise, surprise, a 10-year US-based study has revealed that learning how to cook while you are young can have long-term health benefits.

Not sure how much the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour cost, but I could have told you that for nothing.

What's more, given the chance, children love helping in the kitchen - so it's not as if you have to drag them there screaming and crying.

In fact I would wager that, given a choice between a screen and the kitchen, most younger children would pick the kitchen and baking cookies.

Helping in the kitchen is fun — most children can't wait to stir ingredients, help wash the vegetables or "wash" the dishes.

It not only teaches them to identify different foods, but also in this day and age of fast food and ready packed (or sometimes thrice packed), it teaches them that not all the food they eat comes ready prepared from the supermarket or a takeaway store.

I remember watching a Jamie Oliver programme a few years ago in which children where asked to identify fruit and vegetables.

Most of them didn't know the names of basic food such as cauliflower and broccoli. That's sad.

Cooking is like riding a bike — once learned it's a skill you have for life and it's so easy to teach even if you are a basic cook like me. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to be real food.

Sit your children or grandchildren up on the bench or get a stool for them to stand on and let them help while you prepare a meal. You never know, you might just inspire a lifelong love of cooking.