More and more people are getting fat. The incidence of obesity, heart diseases, diabetes and artherosclerosis are rising in the United States, Europe and Asia. This is mainly due to the fact that our lifestyles have become pretty much sedentary, and our diets have mainly consists of downing fats, salts, and sugar. The fast-food industry, with the likes of McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza hut, have been raking in lots of money out of people’s gluttonous desires. And the next generation does not seem to care about their future.

How can we instill in teens the desire to maintain a healthy life? Fear conditioning – bombarding them with “You will die young” ads? Or starting them young – engaging them in fun cooking activities, which is also a great bonding session for the whole family. Teaching children and teenagers about cooking is the beginning of creating a healthier lifestyle for the family. Most kids have the idea that cooking is boring, but it is important to let them know that cooking is a whole lot more. Cooking involves technical know-how in mixing the right ingredients. Cooking opens doors for different tastes and flavors of different cultures, and teaches people to appreciate sophistication and élan in serving and eating a variety of dishes. Cooking is an adventure – not knowing how the food will come up can be both nerve-wrecking and pleasantly surprising. Cooking also gives people the opportunity to switch to healthier and more nutritious foods, and not to rely on too much take outs, fast food or instant food.

Start teaching kids how to cook simpler recipes, which takes about twenty or thirty minutes to create. This makes the task challenging for them, and less time consuming. Involve the kids when mixing, pouring or measuring ingredients. Let them taste test your dish and ask their opinion about its flavor – whether it is too salty, too sweet or just right. Teach them basic knife skills and how to handle different knives properly.

Make cooking a challenging and learning activity inside the household. It is important that kids know making mistakes are okay and that what counts is knowing how the right way is done. Looking over different recipes like a Dutch oven recipe book or a Dutch oven ebook allows kids to explore different dishes, or even experiment with leftovers with different kitchen utensils and tools. Best of all, cooking is both good healthy – not only for the body and mind but also for the heart.