Leslie Kenton told a conference at Jordanhill campus last week that education is being “tapped only at the surface” and teachers have to transform their own lifestyles in order to help other people to transform theirs.

“The power to teach comes from within,” she said. “It comes not from what you say but from what you are. You become an ambassador for a way of being that not only empowers you to bring out the best of your own creativity but also empowers your students to heighten their health and become what they really are and to live at a very high level of well-being.”

The “Energy, Power and Well-being” conference was part of a programme run by Learning Tapestry, the multi-agency group committed to bringing leading-edge thinkers to Scotland. The Strathclyde event saw the launch of the third strand of the programme, the other two being brain-based learning and music and the mind.

John Laird, a member of the Tapestry advisory board, stressed the key importance of well-being in providing positive strategies for dealing with stress and making learning more effective.

Ms Kenton told the conference that an array of problems from heart disease and premature ageing to chronic fatigue and depression can be attributed to the high carbohydrate, low-fat, inadequate protein diet which people have been encouraged to take up in the belief that it was nutritious.

She said: “The most powerful tools for change rest in your own hands. You can make use of them right now to regenerate your body and mind in measurable ways.”

Mr Laird said that the objective was to put well-being in the same category as first aid and food hygiene. “This is the launch event of a programme that will last, we think, years. In the first year what we want to do is to have a whole host of workshops. We are going to train a group of trainers and we will try to recruit mainly college lectures, teachers and doctors.

“Through in-service we will then work with teachers and lecturers and encourage them to work with students and employers. We want teachers to work with their pupils so that they are getting through the curriculum, good ideas and good practice, and can look more positively at diet and exercise.”

The TES Scotland revealed last week that Teacher Support Scotland is to pilot a well-being programme for school staff in the Prestonpans area with the backing of East Lothian Council and Lothian Health Board.

This is intended to pilot an initiative which has been adopted by eight authorities in England. It aims to improve the well-being of teachers and other staff, enhance their capacity to deal with stress and, in the long run, make teaching a more attractive career.