New research has identified an alarming “university challenge” facing today’s students…the kitchen!
- 50% of students don’t know how long it takes to boil an egg.
New research has identified an alarming “university challenge” facing today’s students…the kitchen!
According to new findings from Aviva, 50% of university students in Britain don’t know how long it takes to hard boil an egg and 9% thought it took as long as 30 minutes.
With students’ lectures often perceived as being few and far between it may come as a surprise to find that 40% of students said they don’t have time to cook nutritious meals. Also, 37% said they couldn’t afford to cook healthy meals yet one in three admitted to tucking into a takeaway up to twice a week.
Lack of knowledge is also cited as reason for not cooking nutritious meals as almost a quarter of students (23%) state they don’t know any recipes or are worried about getting a recipe wrong. This is evident with over 10% of students admitting they have no idea what a classic dish like cottage pie is or believing the main ingredient was chicken.
The research was conducted to launch a new educational partnership between celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott and Dame Kelly Holmes’ "On Camp with Kelly" initiative supported by Aviva. The collaboration aims to redress the balance of students not cooking for themselves by educating young athletes and also university students about how easy it can be to cook cheap, quick and nutritious meals.
Dame Kelly Holmes said: "Over the past six years of running my ‘On Camp with Kelly’ initiative, I have become aware of the issues faced by talented athletes who go away to university with limited cooking skills and insufficient knowledge of preparing nutritious meals on a budget, which ultimately is detrimental to their health and performance as sports people.”
For that reason Dame Kelly invited Ainsley to join her at University College Birmingham to show "On Camp with Kelly" athletes how to cook quick, cheap and nutritious dishes and teach them some essential practical cookery skills. The athletes then underwent their own challenge by preparing and cooking the dishes themselves.
Ainsley said: “Cooking nutritious and tasty meals doesn’t need to cost the earth and can be done without dramatically altering students’ busy social and sporting schedules.
“I am really pleased to be involved in educating young athletes on the ‘On Camp with Kelly’ initiative, supported by Aviva, as I feel a few simple food preparation skills and quick and easy recipes can transform students’ relationship with food and provide essential nutritional information which often can be forgotten when young people flee the nest.”
The "On Camp with Kelly" initiative, which has been supported by Aviva since 2004, provides 800m and 1500m athletes and their coaches with the unique opportunity to benefit from the personal mentoring from Dame Kelly Holmes as well as educational get-togethers and camps and medical and other financial support.
Sue Helmont, head of advertising & media at Aviva Life Insurance, said: “We are proud to support these young athletes and believe it’s important for young people to understand the importance of good nutrition and how detrimental it can be to their health if neglected. We are thrilled that Ainsley Harriott has teamed up with Kelly Holmes for this unique educational experience. As the team behind UK Athletics we look forward to seeing the positive impact on our next generation of British medal winners.”
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Stephanie Burke
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Amy King
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Notes to editors:
- 9% of students thought it took 10-30 minutes or over 10 minutes.
- Time taken to cook a hardboiled egg quoted as seven to eight minutes as suggested by Ainsley Harriott.
About the research
Research conducted by Opinionpanel on behalf of ICM Research. A UK representative sample of 1,001 interviews with students at 134 Higher Education (HE) institutions representative of the UK HE population in terms of gender, year group and university type. The interviews were carried out between 7 October 2009 and 14 October 2009.
About ‘On Camp with Kelly’
"On Camp with Kelly" (OCWK) was started by double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes in January 2004 and with support and sponsorship from Aviva has grown from strength to strength. Over 60 athletes have been involved in the initiative to date.
Dame Kelly set up OCWK because she wanted to help talented young female middle distance athletes to achieve their dreams. Her vision of OCWK was that it should be an educational development programme so that the athletes who are part of it gain life experiences as well as learn what it takes to become a world class athlete. Since 2008 15 talented young male athletes have also been involved in the initiative.
Eight girls were given the opportunity to participate in the first OCWK camp in South Africa in October 2004 and since then there have been regular Get-Togethers, a training camp in Spain, camps in Melbourne during the 2006 Commonwealth Games and at the GB Team Preparation Camp in Portugal and the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in 2009. OCWK athletes also have the opportunity to race in international meetings across the UK and Europe and benefit from mentoring from Dame Kelly as well as medical and financial support funded by Aviva.
For more information about "On Camp with Kelly" visit www.oncampwithkelly.co.uk.
About Aviva
Aviva has been the team behind UK Athletics since 1999 and is committed to developing the sport at every level from the playground to the podium.
This year we’ll have put on six world class athletics events on home soil and supported the Aviva GB & NI Team as they prepare for major championships. Through the Aviva UKA Academy it is anticipated that by 2012, we’ll have given every child in the UK the opportunity to get involved in athletics.
Aviva is the world’s fifth largest insurance group, serving 50 million customers across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
We are the largest insurance services provider in the UK and one of the leading providers of life and pension products in Europe.
The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes images, company and product information and a news release archive.
For more information on our athletics sponsorship visit www.aviva.co.uk/athletics/.