Pupils get an education - on a plate

As in many other countries, over-consumption of chips and soft drinks is a wide-spread problem in Russia, leading to high obesity rates and health problems. Now a school in the Kaliningrad Region of Russia has found its own way to tackle the problem.

Pupils there are learning about healthy food during normal lessons. They count calories, proteins and fats in maths lessons to create a well-balanced sandwich, get a taste of French cuisine in geography, and write essays on vitamins and minerals in literature.

To develop the right attitude, the children are provided with the best learning aids possible – cheese, vegetables, sausages and fruit. They use their imagination to assess the benefits of other kinds of food.

The teachers say the creative approach is working, and the kids are losing interest in fast food: “They see for themselves the harm this kind of diet does. There’s also the economical benefit – they themselves have counted how expensive it really is,” says one of the teachers.

The school's head believes they’ve found a perfect solution to curb youths’ addiction to junk food. The local authorities promise to extend the experiment to other schools.