Nutrition project to improve students' physical fitness

While cooking mushrooms and leafy greens on a hot stovetop, Wu Kejian explains how to make a nutritious meal with less oil and salt for 50 students attending a nutritious catering class in the school kitchen.

When the mushrooms are tender, he turns off the flame, serves the steaming dish and invites students to taste it.

Wu is a cook at the Experimental School Affiliated to Niulanshan First Secondary School in Beijing's Shunyi District. He and four other school cooks have been trained in nutrition to teach students how to make two nutritious dishes through the biweekly class.

The class stems from the implementation of the "Nutrition School" project in Shunyi District.

With a focus on nutrition education, the project aims to explore new methods that can help students change their eating habits and become healthier.

Zhao Wenhua, a dietician in charge of the "Nutrition School" project, said that nutrition education refers to the education that focuses on the role of food, nutrition-related knowledge and the cultivation of good eating habits in promoting the development and growth of children and adolescents.

The State Council, China's cabinet, issued a new guideline to implement the Healthy China initiative and promote people's health in July.

With a focus on disease prevention and health promotion, the guideline proposed 15 special campaigns to "intervene in health-influencing factors, protect full-life-cycle health and prevent and control major diseases."