3 May 2000

Scottish teenagers are focus of national healthy eating initiative

The eating habits of Scottish teenagers are at the centre of a new educational campaign, Eating for Life, launched at Ninewells Hospital today [Wednesday 3 May] by Dundee-based medical charity SHARP.

Eating for Life aims to raise awareness among young Scots of how diet can affect their health, with a particular emphasis on its role in preventing coronary heart disease (CHD).

At the same time, the campaign will help teenagers to form good eating habits at a crucial stage in their development, hopefully ensuring that the next generation of Scots has a better health record than their parents. Bad diet is second only to smoking as a cause for the nation's notoriously poor health.

Home economics teachers at every secondary school in the country are being sent a detailed study pack, including a 12-minute video, an innovative addition to existing classroom materials as part of the nationwide Higher Still initiative.

Prepared by SHARP in partnership with the University of Dundee's Centre for Applied Nutrition and Research and North Lanarkshire Council Education Department, the pack features TV presenter Lorraine Kelly interviewing people about their eating habits and describing how to make meals which are cheap, nutritious and enjoyable.

The project is thought to be the first healthy eating campaign in Scotland to combine the expertise of doctors, health researchers and educationalists to take its message directly into the mainstream schools curriculum.

The pack describes the varieties of CHD, the physiology of cardiovascular diseases, the risk factors for CHD, how a change in diet can reduce risks, what constitutes a good diet, and preparing meals. Practical cooking exercises the teacher can do with the pupils, aligned to the consideration of economic factors that might influence what people eat, are also included in the support literature.

Dr Shirley McEwan, chairman of SHARP, said she welcomed the opportunity to be part of a national project which could help to create a healthier Scotland.

"Cardiovascular diseases remain one of the major killers in the western world, but this need not be the case," Dr McEwan explained.

"We now have a great deal of knowledge which has the potential to change Scotland for the better. The underlying pathological process in CHD starts to develop at an early age and is already detectable in teenagers.

" Awareness of the need for a healthy diet, taking adequate exercise and not smoking forms the starting point for direct action which could save many lives."

Eileen Mullen, a member of the project team, who co-edited the teachers' pack, explained that the campaign had been carefully designed to appeal to teenagers.

"We've had to be very realistic in shaping these important messages for the teenage audience," she said.

"It's no use simply preaching a set of healthy eating commandments and expecting people to change their lifestyle. That simply won't work.

"What we've done with Eating for Life is to devise a programme which gets behind the messages and really allows teenagers to become involved in choosing, preparing, cooking and enjoying good food.

"Young people have a great deal of idealism. They don't want to be known as the next generation of dying Scots."

The pack's author was Karen Walker, assistant head teacher and home economist, Taylor High School, New Stevenston, near Motherwell. Media enquiries:
Chris Roberts or Maya Anaokar
Tel 01382 561571
Mobile 07808 713397

NOTES FOR EDITORS:
SHARP, Scottish Heart and Arterial disease Risk Prevention, is a medical charity, founded in Dundee in 1988. SHARP aims to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease by promoting healthier lifestyles, as well as conducting research into the cause of coronary heart disease. SHARP's chair is Dr Shirley McEwan and the charity is based in the Department of Medicine at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

A third of all premature deaths in Scotland are the result of cardiovascular disease. Ten per cent of premature deaths are caused by strokes that are a direct result of arterial diseases, making cardiovascular disease the biggest killer of Scots.

Website: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/sharp