Taste Education
Taste Education
  • About Us
    • What is TastEd?
    • Who we are
    • FAQs
    • Partners
    • In The Media
    • History of TastEd
    • Gallery
    • Blog
    • Contact Us
      • Get in touch
      • Volunteer
      • Sign up to our newsletter
  • Teachers
    • Primary
    • EYFS
  • Parents
    • Activities
    • Lessons
    • Videos
  • Sign Up
  • Log In
  • Donate
  • About Us
    • What is TastEd?
    • Who we are
    • FAQs
    • Partners
    • In The Media
    • History of TastEd
    • Gallery
    • Blog
    • Contact Us
      • Get in touch
      • Volunteer
      • Sign up to our newsletter
  • Teachers
    • Primary
    • EYFS
  • Parents
    • Activities
    • Lessons
    • Videos
  • Sign Up
  • Log In
  • Donate
  • Taste Education

    Food Education Like You've Never TastEd Before

  • Taste Education

    Food Education Like You've Never TastEd Before

  • Taste Education

    Food Education Like You've Never TastEd Before

Five Pitfalls for Food Education (and why TastEd is Different)

creative662019-09-05T13:09:10+01:00

Like many of the best laid plans, lessons in healthy eating can go awry.

Here are some of the ways food education has gone wrong in the past and an explanation of why TastEd is different.

 

  • Food education is too theoretical and not enough about food. It is all very well teaching a child about 5-a-day at a logical rational level. But the big question is, do they actually choose to eat 5-a-day in real life? Unlike the food education of the past, TastEd focuses less on theory and more on direct – and delicious – interactions with ingredients.
  • Food education is not enough about pleasure. Most lessons on healthy eating have a strong air of ‘should’ about them and pay no attention to a child’s likes and dislikes. Yet nutrients only count when someone chooses to eat them. TastEd lessons are directly aimed at preference change and encourage the children to talk about the foods that give them pleasure.
  • Food education is too boring. Too many lessons in healthy eating have been uninspired. We believe that children learn best about food when it is less like a lecture and more like a fun game of exploration.
  • If it is done wrong, food education can promote a disordered relationship with food. Too many lessons on healthy eating fall into the trap of demonising certain food groups such as fats and sugars. This can leave children feeling guilty and confused about their food choices and about their own bodies. TastEd by contrast adopts a non-judgmental attitude to food. We do not talk to the children about obesity or about fat grams. Rather, we encourage them to trust their own senses and to realise that they have the ability to widen their own palate. The point of the lessons is to create a safe and welcoming atmosphere for children to explore their own tastes.
  • Food education teaches children to run before they can walk. The main focus of school lessons on food has been cooking (and sometimes gardening too). There is nothing wrong with this; most children desperately need more knowledge of cookery. But before children can learn how to cook they need to learn how to eat. TastEd lessons pare it right back down to the fundamental sensory knowledge of vegetables and fruits. Teachers at Washingborough Academy report that a child who has received TastEd lessons is then able to engage much more fully with cooking activities.

Share this post

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google + Email

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.


Related Posts

TastEd and Veg Power

Earlier this spring, when it was hard to imagine we would now be in lockdown, the TastEd team was... read more

In Memory of Einar Risvik, Taste Education Pioneer

All of us at TastEd were so sad to hear the news that Einar Risvik died of cancer on... read more

Sharing TastEd with School Families and Communities

As part of Prendergast Primary’s Food Week, each class from Reception to Year 6 experienced a different TastEd lesson every... read more

A Teacher’s View – Sensory Food Education in the Early Years

Ruth Platt - Senior Lecturer Practitioner in Education at Anglia Ruskin University Many schools report that children coming out of... read more

Happier meals with Bee Wilson and Kim Smith

On Tuesday the 16th February TastEd hosted a brilliant talk between renowned food writer and co-founder of TastEd  Bee... read more

Sweet and Sour by Naomi Rayner, TastEd volunteer

One of the things that’s surprised us in TastEd lessons has been how the children can’t get enough of... read more

Herbs & Memories by Naomi Rayner

If you want to get an idea of TastEd, one of the simplest ways is to take a fresh... read more
Peach

A word from one of our TastEd Teachers

Karen Igoea, one of our TastEd teachers, has written about her Tasted Lessons: (more…) read more

Playing with Your Food by A Parent

Like many people, I was brought up not to play with my food.  To those of the wartime generation,... read more

TastEd hosts International Symposium on Taste Education

We’ve never had two days quite like it.  We sniffed mint and we sipped seaweed broth from Japan. We... read more

Archives

  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • May 2021
  • February 2021
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • May 2019
  • March 2019

Categories

  • Food Education
  • Healthy Eating
  • In the news

Contact Us

info@tasteeducation.com
Facebook Instagram Youtube Twitter Linkedin
TastEd is a charity registered in England and Wales, charity number 1183753
© Copyright Taste Education. | Privacy | Terms & Conditions

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • The Team
  • TastEd Blog
  • Data protection and policies
Website Design by The Creative Agency