Putting real food into food education

Lessons can be simply effective

Exciting developments are unfolding in the Basu household. My 13-year-old son came home full of beans about cooking lessons in school. His design technology class was going to make a fruit salad. To put this into perspective, a similar response is normally only elicited by hard cash and digital devices. I was happy to pack his ingredients as he was struck by a strange malaise, which he promptly recovered from the next day in time to skip to class. My happiness was short lived, however, as the shopping lists for the next few assignments arrived.

Pic: food education shopping list

The “fresh” fruit salad with carton juice moved on to pizza, then a flapjack and then came the final bombshell - sugar-laden fairy cakes. Now, granted it’s nearing the end of term and freshly baked cake is lovely. But this came with an instruction to specifically send in ready icing. Icing is made with two ingredients. Not everyone would be able or keen to whip up a batch, but I could have made some if I was given the choice. This was not an option unless I wanted to be the cause of my son’s social suicide in class.

What made matters worse, is that I was just back from chairing two sessions on Ultra-Processed Food. A quick look at the back of the ready icing pack and it showed the following: 3 Emulsifiers, 1 Preservative, 1 Stabiliser, 2 Acidity Regulators, 1 Flavouring, 1 Colour (E160a). Again, fairy cake icing can be made with two ingredients! Given all the talk about real food I’ve been involved in recently, it felt like a crash landing in the real world.

The real world has mostly been a good place for both my kids and food education. They went to a state primary school in Lambeth, which was a pioneer in outdoor learning. They used an outdoor oven, grew their own produce in wildlife garden, which the late Vivienne Westwood donated generously to, and then sold the produce at a local farmer’s market. They’ve been cooking with me since they were toddlers. And when I say cooking, I don’t mean fairy cakes and biscuits. They were peeling garlic, shelling peas, cutting vegetables with butter knives until I bought them a child-safe sharp knife. My son is particularly into it all and was slaying sofrito before he turned double digits

This is all good stuff. Food education doesn’t solve all the problems we have with our food environment, the spaces around us that determine what and how we eat, and the broader food system. But it helps as a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that needs to come together for the health of people and the planet. School Food Matters and Chefs in Schools are doing great things in this area. I’m worried my son is being set up for an exploration of sugary snack bars with dubious health claims and takeaway pizza, and I am not prepared to sit around silently and watch the missed opportunity unfold.

So, I’ve done something he’d be mortified about. I’ve written to the headteacher, who has now connected me to the curriculum head to see how I can help. She has sent a lovely reply asking if I’m available to speak. The classes are designed to be about “basic recipes that familiarise students with the kitchen environment”. I have offered time I don’t have to get involved. If everyone I know that cared about this stuff got stuck in with their time, we could move mountains. Or at the very least, give the kids some kitchen skills with real food they could take into adulthood and real life. Have you done this? Would you?

Pic: That letter to the school

Wish me luck… and if you know my children, don’t tell them.

Meanwhile, what is real food?

My older teen queen is now on a refined sugar free and low junk food challenge thanks to a man called Eddie Abbew. I interviewed him recently at Groundswell Festival. This was one of the most challenging fireside chats I've hosted, with a personality who has fans and haters.

Pic: Eddie and me at Groundswell

Eddie is an unlikely hero of the movement for the return to real food. A professional personal trainer and former nurse, I discovered him when he had a few 100k followers on TikTok. A buff 60-something year old he was going into shops and food chains, picking up food items with dubious health claims or high in salt, fat and sugar and swearing at the products and the people buying them. (“This is not food”, “This is shit”, “Are you fucking stupid” and “Wake the fuck up” also in handy hashtag form #WTFU).

Eddie now has 4m followers on Instagram and 1.5m on TikTok. He is a masterclass in achieving cut through with simple messages admitting in his own words to "dumbing down" his messages to reach people. He has plenty of positive case studies and love to show for it. A living, breathing example of the age old KISS principle - Keep it Simple, Stupid!

Like many successfull brands, he is also Marmite.

For every comment I had about him being a legend, I also took a beating online from people who said he was dangerous and a peddler of misinformation. Eddie is not a fan of fruit, vegetables or bread. A meal of 12 eggs and raw / lightly seasoned meat isn't to everyone's taste. He is also not a qualified nutritionist and taken out of context, this could be unhelpful advice.

I get all of that, obviously. But what Eddie says online and off really resonates with people and brands/people could learn a thing or two from it.

1️⃣ Eddie is a businessman, and his business is a gym. His nutrition advice is geared towards building muscle and losing fat
2️⃣ His core messages to eat real food, cook from scratch and get clued up about what you put in your body cannot be contested
3️⃣ He's got points about the burden on the NHS and junk food out to millions of people in a way that a lot of campaigns struggle with.

Interestingly, his gorgeous and super smart, professionally qualified chef daughter Selina Abbew has been intrumental in helping him use social media and channel negativity right to grow his following. She's in the midst of setting up her own enterprise Pro Prep meals and was behind helping me get Eddie to Groundswell. The crowd loved him. He has his sights on supporting farmers and NHS junk vending machines next!

For a lot of parents like me, Eddie and Selina have helped us have balanced conversations with our teenagers about nutrition. They are body/appearance conscious, but also powerless against sophisticated marketing, peer pressure and unhealthy high street food offers.

For all the parents of young children I meet, worried about nursery or primary school food, what happens next is a horror story of epic proportions. You have no control over what they eat as they hang out in fast food outlets, try and max out their allowance with cheap, sugary treats, energy and caffeine drinks. I’m not obsessed with nutrition and take a fairly relaxed 80/20 approach with food, but this is tipping the ratio the wrong way.

Eddie recommends a two-week challenge as a starting point to wean them off the bad stuff and get them on to the good. And so far, it’s working in my home. Long may it last. Love him or loathe him, you can't ignore him. I know where I sit. What do you think?