Melanie Gardiner embarked on a six-year course to become a nutritional therapist after she found out she had coeliac disease.

Now more than halfway through her studies, the mother of one is channelling her spare time and energy into implementing a nutrition programme at North Village Community Club.

“Kids are my main priority,” Ms Gardiner, whose son Aaron, 11, has been attending the club since 2008, told The Royal Gazette.

“I want children to really understand the importance of good food and nutrition.”

Ms Gardiner has given presentations about the importance of good nutrition and hydration to both parents and children and hopes to expand the programme over the next couple of months.

She also wants to highlight the health consequences of a high-fat, high-sugar diet and the importance of laying a good foundation at an early age to prevent health problems.

But she stressed that she was not telling parents or children to diet, instead she is informing parents and children how food can affect their performance on the field, in the classroom and life in general.

“If children wish to be the next generation of sports stars, they need to realise that they have to eat the right foods that provide them with nutrients, vitamins and minerals and not those foods that contain chemicals, preservatives and corn syrup that have a detrimental effect on the body,” she said.

According to Ms Gardiner, who moved to Bermuda from Scotland 15 years ago, information about nutrition is lacking from children’s education.

But because it is a complex topic, she said it needed to be broken down into a simple format.

“They need to be able to make that conscious, good decision,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realise they’re being affected by a bad diet.”

Ms Gardiner is stressing the effects of sugar and where it is hiding as part of her programme.

“Lately, sugar has been in the news almost weekly,” she said. “It is the main driver of weight gain, diabetes, heart disease; conditions which are treatable and manageable by modifications to diet and lifestyle.”

Sweetened drinks, cereal, confectionery and fruit juice are some of the main sources, she added, as well as sugar in the form of pancake syrup or jellies.

According to Ms Gardiner, children aged 4 to 6 should have no more than 19 grams of sugar per day, children aged 7 to 10 24g and children aged 11 and up at most 30g. But she said many people were consuming up to three times the recommended amount, leading to more obesity and other chronic conditions.

“Something has to be done to help decrease these numbers and increase the longevity of the next generation,” she added.

Ms Gardiner, who happily shares her healthy recipes and includes them in the club’s e-mail newsletter, has given five presentations to three sets of parents and all of the children and was pleasantly surprised by their reaction. She is now working on implementing food diaries and buddy system so the children can encourage each other. She will be taking a break in June but a refresher presentation is already in the works for August, when the football season begins.

And Ms Gardiner said she would be happy to volunteer with any other clubs that approach her.

According to Cal Blakendal, the youth technical director for football, North Village Community Club has embraced the opportunity to work with Ms Gardiner.

Mr Blakendal said the nutrition programme was teaching the young athletes that their “lifestyle choices will dictate their success” and will help them progress further.

He explained that Ms Gardiner gave parents the opportunity to review the information first, which was helping whole families make positive lifestyle changes.

“Healthier parents make healthier children,” he said, adding that the programme “is not just a winner for the athletes, but Bermuda as a whole”.