#1 Nutrition and Healthy Eating
An area related to health and wellbeing of young people.
Throughout my degree, I have completed many assignments on subjects involving the health and wellbeing young people. One topic in which I think is a priority that needs to be addressed is nutrition and healthy eating. Healthy eating can be defined as the consumption of all the different groups of foods in the right quantities, in order to lead a healthy lifestyle. This is known as a balanced diet, which is the crucial part of healthy eating. There are 5 main food groups which need to be addressed in healthy eating:
I believe that students, and their families, do not receive enough information on how to prepare and eat a healthy, balanced diet. This knowledge and understanding is a crucial life long skill to have. Students and families tend to reach for the easiest, cheapest and tastiest foods as opposed to the foods which are good for them. This needs to be addressed and discussed.
Examples and reasons to support.
There are a number of articles out there to support why healthy eating in schools should be addressed, and how to address it. There is also a number of articles about why healthy eating is important to adolescent health. The articles which I found to support my area to prioritise in are:
There have been many changes recently which affect the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. These changes assume that modification of the nutritional serving practices in school cafeterias will result in improved childhood nutrition in the school environment. Williamson, Han, Johnson, Martin and Newton (2013) suggested that changes to the school cafeteria environments would yield beneficial changes in childhood nutrition and healthy eating in the school lunch environment. They addressed food intake of children, and the association of participant characteristics and changes in nutrition and healthy eating. This article confirmed that interventions that modify the school cafeteria environment can have a beneficial impact of childhood nutrition.
Healthy eating does not start in schools, as many people think it might. Healthy eating starts at home, as early as toddlers. Toddlers most often develop healthy eating habits through parent modelling. However, with the prevalence of overweight children and adults steadily increasing, research into possible interventions for all ages has been addressed. Helfrich, Fetsch and Benavente (2011) highlighted in their article, that parents of overweight or obese children have identified barriers that affect their ability to model healthy eating behaviours for their children. The greatest barrier to developing healthy eating behaviours being lack of knowledge, training and experience. With this being said, parents have reported that they lack the knowledge about nutrition, so this stunts their ability to buy, prepare and introduce their children to healthier foods. This article confirmed that nutrition programming should be included in homes, and in schools to address both nutrition and parenting issues together.
It has been highlighted that poor nutrition is a major risk factor which affects the proper growth and development of children. Ron and Adina (2009) addressed early childhood professionals and their individual work with children at risk, and the findings were surprising. Results highlighted that there was less emphasis placed on nutrition related components, in comparison with psychosocial educational components. This article also highlighted that the barriers to providing nutrition information is lack of knowledge and lack of financial support. This is becoming a common theme among the articles in which I have researched. The results of this article highlighted that education and training programs should be provided to professionals to enable them to reduce the barriers and be able to provide the knowledge and information to children and their families. Reducing these barriers will allow for the integration of nutrition related components into their individual work.
From these articles, it can be addressed that there are common barriers to healthy eating and nutrition education in schools, and in family life. Modifications, and educational information need to be highlighted and addressed in order to improve the overall health of our children and our society.
Recommendations and ideas.
Click Here: References
Click Here: Teaching Resource File
Throughout my degree, I have completed many assignments on subjects involving the health and wellbeing young people. One topic in which I think is a priority that needs to be addressed is nutrition and healthy eating. Healthy eating can be defined as the consumption of all the different groups of foods in the right quantities, in order to lead a healthy lifestyle. This is known as a balanced diet, which is the crucial part of healthy eating. There are 5 main food groups which need to be addressed in healthy eating:
- Whole grains
- Fruit and vegetables
- Protein
- Dairy
- Fat and sugar
I believe that students, and their families, do not receive enough information on how to prepare and eat a healthy, balanced diet. This knowledge and understanding is a crucial life long skill to have. Students and families tend to reach for the easiest, cheapest and tastiest foods as opposed to the foods which are good for them. This needs to be addressed and discussed.
Examples and reasons to support.
There are a number of articles out there to support why healthy eating in schools should be addressed, and how to address it. There is also a number of articles about why healthy eating is important to adolescent health. The articles which I found to support my area to prioritise in are:
- Modifcation of the school cafeteria environment can impact childhood nutrition
- Program review: raising healthy eaters
- Integration of nutrition-related components by early childhood education professional into their individual work with children at risk
There have been many changes recently which affect the nutrition standards for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. These changes assume that modification of the nutritional serving practices in school cafeterias will result in improved childhood nutrition in the school environment. Williamson, Han, Johnson, Martin and Newton (2013) suggested that changes to the school cafeteria environments would yield beneficial changes in childhood nutrition and healthy eating in the school lunch environment. They addressed food intake of children, and the association of participant characteristics and changes in nutrition and healthy eating. This article confirmed that interventions that modify the school cafeteria environment can have a beneficial impact of childhood nutrition.
Healthy eating does not start in schools, as many people think it might. Healthy eating starts at home, as early as toddlers. Toddlers most often develop healthy eating habits through parent modelling. However, with the prevalence of overweight children and adults steadily increasing, research into possible interventions for all ages has been addressed. Helfrich, Fetsch and Benavente (2011) highlighted in their article, that parents of overweight or obese children have identified barriers that affect their ability to model healthy eating behaviours for their children. The greatest barrier to developing healthy eating behaviours being lack of knowledge, training and experience. With this being said, parents have reported that they lack the knowledge about nutrition, so this stunts their ability to buy, prepare and introduce their children to healthier foods. This article confirmed that nutrition programming should be included in homes, and in schools to address both nutrition and parenting issues together.
It has been highlighted that poor nutrition is a major risk factor which affects the proper growth and development of children. Ron and Adina (2009) addressed early childhood professionals and their individual work with children at risk, and the findings were surprising. Results highlighted that there was less emphasis placed on nutrition related components, in comparison with psychosocial educational components. This article also highlighted that the barriers to providing nutrition information is lack of knowledge and lack of financial support. This is becoming a common theme among the articles in which I have researched. The results of this article highlighted that education and training programs should be provided to professionals to enable them to reduce the barriers and be able to provide the knowledge and information to children and their families. Reducing these barriers will allow for the integration of nutrition related components into their individual work.
From these articles, it can be addressed that there are common barriers to healthy eating and nutrition education in schools, and in family life. Modifications, and educational information need to be highlighted and addressed in order to improve the overall health of our children and our society.
Recommendations and ideas.
- Healthy school canteens everyday, or at least 4 out of 5 days a week
- Nutrition seminars on healthy eating for students and families
- Shopping tours for students and families to learn more about what they put in their trolley
- More assignments focused on nutrition and healthy eating, as this will improve the students knowledge base
- More emphasis placed on teachers developing their knowledge in the areas of nutrition and healthy eating.
- Incorporate snack breaks into classrooms - where students have to bring in a piece of fruit to eat for morning and afternoon tea during class
- Parents need to learn to set limits for food consumption, and not reward feed their children
- Financial support from local, state and federal governments
Click Here: References
Click Here: Teaching Resource File