IN A quiet corner of Stracathro Church yard is the grave of Sir John Boyd Orr, a world authority on nutrition whose research is helping educate a new generation of children that they are what they eat.

The scientist, who founded the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, became Baron Boyd Orr of Brechin Mearns and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949. He died in 1971.

The scientists who keep his legacy alive at the Rowett say his research 70 years ago, which showed that the cost of a diet fulfilling basic nutritional requirements was beyond the means of half the British population, is just as valid now.

Ironically, his findings are now being used to tackle obesity rather than malnutrition.

A recent NHS study has revealed that a third of all 12 year-olds are overweight, and one-in-10 are severely obese.

A teaching pack, developed by the Rowett in conjunction with Aberdeen Environmental Education Centre, is being introduced to schools across the north east. Much of it is based on the work Boyd Orr was doing early last century when he first made the link between what people ate and their general wellbeing.

The new Getting-in-Shape project aims to introduce nutrition into all aspects of the curriculum.

Children studying arithmetic might learn about numbers and nutrition by comparing labels on different kinds of food. The hope is that pupils will not only remember division and multiplication but also why beans on toast might make a better snack than some sweets.

Science classes could measure which variety of potato crisp burns longest because it contains most fat; in English and history they will be encouraged to study food diaries completed by 1200 people of all walks of life for Boyd Orr’s research in the 1930s. The minds of younger children will be stimulated by a range of games which have a nutritional message.

Sue Bird and Allan Paterson, who co-developed the project with the environmental education team, had hoped eight or 10 schools might be interested in a pilot scheme. Within 12 hours of sending out their invitation, 72 schools expressed interest.

About 50 have signed up for the pilot.

If the system is successful it could be rolled out across Scotland in the national drive to raise awareness of healthy eating.

In his student days Boyd Orr worked hard at his arts curriculum, but his most vivid recollections were of the sights and sounds of the old Glasgow slums.

He found teaching neither financially profitable nor intellectually satisfying and gained degrees in medicine and biological scenes.

In 1914 he assumed direction of the Nutrition Institute which later became the Rowett. His work was interrupted by the first world war, during which he earned two decorations for bravery in action.

Back at the Rowett his research was mainly in animal nutrition, but in the 1930s—after experiments with milk in the diet of mothers, children and the underprivileged, and after large-scale surveys of nutritional problems in many nations—his energy focused on human nutrition, not only as a researcher but also as a propagandist for healthy diets.

His 1936 report Food, Health and Income revealed the “appalling amount of malnutrition” regardless of people’s economic status, and became the basis for the British food policy during the second world war, which ended with the nation healthier than at the start, despite the food shortages.

He is credited with the groundwork for free school meals and free milk for pupils, and was also one of the first to identify that different people have different nutritional needs.

In 1945 he became rector of Glasgow University, an MP for the Scottish universities, and first director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

For three years he devoted much of his time and energy in scientific and political circles to promote a world plan promoting a fair distribution of food for all nations. He was rejected by Western governments and this caused him to resign from his post.

He continued to be a powerful voice internationally and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949 for his efforts to eliminate world hunger. He was knighted in 1935 and received a barony in 1949, the year he was also given the Freedom of Brechin.

He died at his home at Newton of Stracathro, by Brechin, in 1971, aged 90.

Members of his family still live in the area and those who remember him believe he has has not received the recognition locally that he deserves.

“He was a man ahead of his time,” said Brechin councillor Ruth Leslie Melville. “If we had listened to what he said then, we would not have the problems of food management we have in the world today.”