Why isn't nutrition/cooking a core subject at school?

[estavino]

Just that really. I see so many kids having regular lunch/dinners that's barely contains any nutrition not out of laziness/budget but due to lack of education.

I can't think where I use any science knowledge gained from school in day to day life yet I had an hour a day once a week for years. Cooking on the other hand I had one term a year for three years. I think we had to make shortbread, a fruit salad and a flapjack. In the second year we had to make a tomato and cheese sauce. In the third I think we had to cook chicken breasts and something to do with beef. Yet I can still label parts of a cell, atoms and know some basics of the periodic table.

We literally use nutrition various times a day- why isn't it compulsory?

I wish it had been as late thirties and I still can’t cook

anyone can cook though, start small, build on it.

Youtube has tons of wannabe TV chefs on there. The main problem I have with friends who say they can't cook is they never actually DO any cooking.

Boil an egg, make some toast - lunch. Boil some pasta, stir through some pesto - dinner. Then build on it. Egg yolk, ham, parmesan and black pepper instead of pesto - and you've cooked a pasta carbonara...

I was never taught to cook, but you just pick it up as you go. Nutrition, I learned in Biology - so I know what you are SUPPOSED to eat, cooking I learned from life.

Can we really blame schools for not being able to cook by your thirties? Buy a book, do an evening class, watch one of the many cooking programs!!

It's a parents responsibility.

Most adults do not understand what nutrition is. They couldn't tell you how much protein and fats etc their bodies need.
Let alone work out their children's.

I think we desperately need to teach thermodynamics and nutrition in schools if we are to start turning around the obesity epidemic that is crippling our health and our NHS system.

the obesity epidemic is not yet crippling the NHS - that is for future years, the NHS is simply a victim of its own success.

People live longer with illnesses that used to kill them, but can now be maintained with costly intervention and drugs.

(In past generations my mum would have been dead at 50, but she is 79 - thankfully - and the 29 years she gained have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money.)

www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment--2

6.1bn is crippling in my book, it is completely controllable.

If we educate people what their bodies actually need instead of telling them to eat salad etc we might start to turn the tide. Education is the key.

But is education the key? Whether or not you agree with current government guidelines on diet, the fact is that most people will not, cannot or don't want to follow the guidelines they are given long-term. I don't really believe that having an understanding of thermodynamics will change that.

Copious quantities of cheap, unhealthy food are easily available 24 hours a day. Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight requires round-the-clock willpower, which most people don't have. Diets (even if you call them 'lifestyle changes' or 'ways of eating') don't work because sugar and fat are tempting and ubiquitous.

Ah, English lit. Bloody silly stories about pirates, and the prostitute heroines of Jane Austen held up as great characters. (Yes - they agree to sex for shelter, food and dresses - the fact they call it marriage makes no difference)
Austen also does the ' it is feminine to be thick' which still prevails on mn.

So much good stuff out there but no chance at school.

You should use your science and English language comprehension skills - but as diet pills, anti wrinkle creams and so on sell so well, very few do .

My brother’s school did not have a room for Food Tech. They offered other DT subjects but not Food. It was a private school, so not a state that didn’t get much funding. My school used to offer it at GCSE but no-one did it so it’s now only for Year 7-9.
I don’t remember learning many useful dishes either. As with all DT subjects it was all about designing a new dish that fit a specification. The year 9 unit was all about designing a new layered dessert for example.