"Good habits practised from an early age are more likely to continue into adulthood. Through this partnership with Euro-Toques, the Commission aims to promote the importance of healthy eating to children in a fun and interactive way. Encouraging children to enjoy healthy eating and physical exercise is the best investment that we can make for their future," said Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, launching the European day of healthy food and cooking on 8 November.
The EU Mini-chefs day brought together top chefs and school children for demonstrations and workshops on how to cook healthy, tasty food and promote a balanced lifestyle.
With around 22 million overweight or obese children in the EU today, and some 85,000 more adding to that figure every year, the aim of the initiative is "to instil an interest in children in the food that they eat and to make them aware of the basic principles of good nutrition".
The initiative is part of the Commission's broader campaign to tackle obesity by encouraging EU citizens to choose a balanced diet and exercise more.
Child obesity is of particular concern, as eating habits and levels of physical exercise are often adopted very early and tend to persist throughout life. Therefore, obese children tend to become obese adults, along with all the health risks the condition represents: heart disease, type-two diabetes, hypertension, strokes and certain types of cancer.
