Barcelona Mum

Results from a survey indicate that the majority of children don't know or have never tasted foods such as spinach, oranges and tomatoes (Adjuntament de Barcelona)
For the last two years, the Fundació Dieta Mediterrània has organised workshops at schools to teach children about food and eating habits. In these workshops, they make dishes such as Mediterranean salads, with spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, onions, oranges, black olives, carrots, pine nuts, tinned tuna and a vinaigrette sauce with olive oil, vinegar and raspberry jam. Children are given materials to take home, including a book with fifty Mediterranean recipes, in order to make parents aware of the need to follow the guidelines for a healthy diet. To date, 25,000 children have taken part in these workshops, 2,500 of them from Barcelona.

At these workshops, the Foundation carried out surveys which conclude that many children don't eat fruit or vegetables. The results indicate that 32% of schoolchildren have never tasted spinach, 23% don't know what tomato tastes like, and 15% have never eaten an orange. Other foods which are not part of children's diets include onions, with 16.33% having never tasted them, black olives (21.43%), carrots (15.87%), pine nuts (26.58%) and tinned tuna (22.66%). The executive Vice-president of the Mediterranean Diet Foundation, Francisco Sensat, expressed his concern at the high percentage of children who have never tasted foods as important as tomato and orange. Sensat restated that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables was basic for health, along with physical exercise, and highlighted the need to convince parents of their importance. Despite an initial reticence, many children who had never tasted these fruits and vegetables, tried them once they had prepared them during the workshop. (10.01.08)