Footballer and nutrition experts warn David Cameron that cuts in food education will be a 'disaster' for Britain's youngsters
England football international Steven Gerrard teams is teaming up with medical experts and academics to demand that cooking and food education should remain compulsory for all children aged five to 14 to help fight obesity.
A letter to David Cameron signed by the Liverpool captain and a group that includes Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, says the Olympics have already been "tainted" by the UK's shameful obesity statistics.
They make clear it would be a disaster for the health of young Britons if a review of the school curriculum now under way allowed cooking and food education to be downgraded. Gerard's intervention places further pressure on education secretary Michael Gove and health secretary Andrew Lansley, who have been criticised for failing to do enough to tackle obesity and encourage good diet and exercise.
The experts say legislation introduced by the Labour government to improve nutritional standards for school food has had a positive effect, but adds there are still alarming gaps in policy and that too many children are being given packed lunches by their parents containing crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks. "The negative health consequences of obesity are well known," the letter says, "but in failing to tackle this issue we are also potentially denying Great Britain many future sports stars." Gerrard is "particularly concerned about the impact of poor diet, nutrition and lack of physical activity in young people, especially in communities with high social and economic deprivation."
Other signatories include Professor David Haslam, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, Professor John Wass, professor of endocrinology at Oxford University, and Liverpool FC's first-team doctor Dr Zafar Iqbal.
Cooking is part of design and technology in the national curriculum, which is compulsory in all maintained schools in key stages one to three (ages five to 14). However, all aspects of the national curriculum are under review. The group is "extremely concerned" that the resulting changes may mean food preparation and education activities are removed as compulsory subjects. For key stages one to three, the letter calls for a minimum of 24 hours of compulsory education about food and cooking in the school year.
A spokeswoman for the department for education suggested it would be left up to individual schools to decide, in line with Gove's determination to devolve more decisions to headteachers. She added that, whatever changes might be made to the national curriculum, schools should still be able to devote more time to cookery, where that was considered a priority.
Last month Gove was heavily criticised by Jamie Oliver in an interview with Observer Food Monthly for allowing academy schools to be exempt from nutritional levels introduced by Labour in 2008, which most experts agree have raised standards of school food. Oliver said there was evidence that some academies were allowing vending machines on school premises to sell junk food and drink in order to make money.
Academies, which have greater freedom to decide what to teach, do not have to follow the curriculum, but must provide a "broad and balanced" education.