It's easy being green - The Age

Meal deal: Cooking club teaches children that vegetables are important, easy to prepare and tasty.

Clare Collins has a vision - seeing more families gathered around a dinner table digging into a home-cooked meal with more vegetables. But first we have to ditch the idea that kids won't eat the green stuff.

''There's a pervasive attitude that says, 'Why give kids vegetables when everyone knows they don't like them?' If you want evidence of how sticky this belief is, look no further than children's menus - you'll see nuggets and hot chips but not peas or pumpkin,'' says Collins, professor in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Newcastle.

''Yet vegetables are one of the secret weapons for maintaining a healthy weight, because they can replace high-kilojoule fatty ingredients and add bulk. The bottom line is a bigger serve with fewer kilojoules.''

Collins says many families need support to put a dinner that includes vegetables back on the dining table. She and her colleagues from the university's school of health sciences have developed an after-school cooking club for children of primary school age. Called the ''back to basics healthy lifestyle program'', it involves five after-school sessions that teach children to make simple meals and snacks such as crostini, stir-fries and pizza. The children graduate with basic cooking skills, a knowledge of kitchen hygiene, and familiarity with healthy foods. Parents join in during the final half hour of each session to share the food the children have cooked.

The aim is to improve families' awareness of healthy eating and help children feel confident about preparing vegetables and fruit. It's like Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food crossed with Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Foundation - minus the garden.

''The kitchen garden is a great innovation but this is another approach that lowers the bar a bit,'' Collins says. ''Schools don't need to maintain a garden, which opens it up to a bigger range of schools. They just need access to a sink, portable kitchen appliances and volunteers from the school community to learn how to put the program into practice.

''Children can do more in the way of food preparation than many parents realise. Six to 12-year-olds can wash, shred and chop. They can help share the load.''

She says increased reliance on manufactured food over the past 30 years means for many families, meals with few vegetables have become the norm.

''If everyone else you know eats like that, then parents may think there's no problem. This is why health messages don't have an impact. Preparing food can be seen as an inconvenience in a busy life, and that's when people rely on takeaway or on something from the supermarket that you whack in the oven on 200 degrees. It's become easier to please the family with food you think they like without spending a lot of time cooking. But time in the kitchen is really an investment in your family's health.''

Collins isn't hankering for a backflip to the 1950s, just for people to ''quarantine 20 minutes of our evening to sitting around the table as a family''. The evidence is, eating together helps nurture healthier eating habits in children.

''I don't care if it sounds old-fashioned - it's also what we value when we grow up. Just think about how we value the memory of the special dishes that our parents cooked when we were children. It would be sad if children's memories of special times were only about being in a certain fast-food playground,'' Collins says.

For information about how schools can adopt the program, as well as tips for getting children to eat more vegetables, see cookingmattersaustralia.com.au.

Paula Goodyer blogs at smh.com.au/chewonthis