Chew on This: Kids' cooking classes compulsory

Childhood obesity isn't just a real concern in the U.S. In China 10 percent of children are obese, a figure that's predicted to increase by 8 percent a year. In the UK, one in four 11 to 15 year-olds are overweight.

The global spread of fast foods and the pressures of limited time on working families are justly targetted for blame. I'd add to that dropping home economics from school curriculums. We have no idea how to cook nor how to eat.

But the Brits are doing something about that. The government has just announced that cookery lessons will be compulsory in Middle Schools. 11 to 14 year-olds will have to take one hour a week for one term and learn to cook and what's good in food and bad. It doesn['t sound like much time. But it's better than none.

Schools should also increase the number of minutes children are allowed to eat their lunches and make it a pleasurable period of 'down time' instead of a frenzied scoff at the trough. And if they make more time on the curriculum for extra sports, maybe our children will have a chance to discover that what and how much you put into your body affects your body.

If a child at home can find time to sit for hours at the computer or in front of the TV, that child has time to go outside and play.