The latest Government priorities include looking at the problems of Obesity within the community. This is becoming an increasing problem as we see the end result of a number of factors:- Loss of community open space and amenities
- Increasing use of computer games for entertainment
- Parents' paranoia about letting their children play outside or wandering
- Loss of school playing fields as a result of Government's failing to ring-fence their use.
Added to this, there is a lack of understanding by many people today of the way to cook meals from scratch. When Mycroft's daughters left home for university, one of things that it was essential that they could do was to be able to cook good nutritious and inexpensive meals. Many of their friends were unable to cook, but were only able to assemble food.
Mycroft was pleased that they could cook pasta, and stew and basic meals from ingredients.
So, today at teaching I set the group a task to develop an obesity clinic to run in a deprived part of our patch. It ran quite well, and they were able to develop a strategy to run obesity clinics without a great deal of problems. The question is, whether this would actually come to fruition, or is this a typical Government initiative.
We shall see.
1 comment:
I think this was an excellent use of your teaching.
Some years ago, my son in his first charge as a minister in a very deprived part of a Scottish city set about developing a class to teach the skills of buying for and cooking healthy meals.
Why is it that in the poorest areas so much money is wasted on expensive convenience food when it is so much easier to buy fresh, inexpensive food and cook it yourself? So often in those areas it is not pressure of time needed to work.
It would appear to be a poverty-induced inertia.
Is there anything that we can do to reverse this trend, which is currently being passed on from generation to generation?
Post a Comment