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Cork East TD, Tom Barry – health & nutrition awareness is essential for our youth.

If Fine Gael Deputy Tom Barry has his way, Junior Certificate students will study health and nutrition as part of their curriculum. He's asked Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to include the subjects on the revised Junior Certificate cycle, which will begin from September 2014, saying “From an educational, health and financial standpoint, it is vital that we move to formally address education in health and nutrition."

“Experts are lining up to tell us that we are on the cusp of an obesity epidemic and that the fitness levels of our young people are far below what they should be. Knowledge and the tools to address their own health and nutrition will be the most important lessons we will ever teach our children," he added.

AWARENESS

Pointing out that aspects of health are already addressed in CSPE and aspects of nutrition covered in Home Economics, he believes what's needed is "A wider, formal subject that covers the language of nutrition, the science of fitness and the very real dangers that our future generations face."

While certain sectors of the food and drinks industries have made significant strides in recent years in relation to food labelling and drink awareness, he agreed, "All the labels in the world will serve no significant purpose if our young people don’t have the tools to interpret and understand the precise ingredients of what they are putting into their bodies. It is incumbent upon us, as legislators, to demonstrate the political will to tackle this head on by introducing a mandatory, modular subject at Junior Certificate level initially; and subsequently to Leaving Certificate."

He went on: "We reward our children for all kinds of skills and knowledge-sets; but they get no reward for knowing how to feed themselves healthily; or how to attain and maintain a fitness level that will prevent so many physical and mental health problems down the line.

PREVENTION ESSENTIAL

"From a purely financial point of view, we have an over-emphasis on treatment rather than prevention in this country and we need to focus on giving individuals the skills to make informed decisions about their own bodies. This is not straightforward, as manufacturers go to ever-increasing lengths to disguise what they are producing with claims of ‘no fat’ and ‘low fat’, while completely ignoring the huge amounts of sugars used – sugars which will turn into potentially very dangerous fat deposits.

"Education is the way to open up this because there are vested interests in the tobacco industry, the drinks industry and the food industry who will continue to try and protect their profits. This whole pulse of helping young people discover what health is all about will reduce the amount of drug taking. At the moment some drugs are considered glamorous.

"I have formally asked that this subject be introduced for the Junior Certificate class of 2017; beginning with their first week in secondary school next September."

Deputy Barry is a Science graduate and has a degree in Biochemistry.

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