Nutritional education for pediatrics

09NUTRITIONAL E FOR PEDIATRIC D S UCATION

What is Nutrition Education?

Nutrition education is a set of learning experiences designed to assist in healthy eating choices and other nutrition-related behavior. It includes any combination of educational strategies, accompanied by environmental supports, designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of food choices and other food and nutrition-related behaviors conducive to health and well-being. Nutrition education is delivered through multiple venues and involves activities at the individual, community, and policy levels. Nutrition Education also critically looks at issues such as food security, food literacy, and food sustainability. In 1969, a recommendation from the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health stated that nutrition education should be part of school curriculums. It was authorized under the Children Nutrition Act. In 1978, the Nutrition Education and Training (NET) program was created.

What is the role of Nutrition Education?

Nutrition

education healthy-eating behaviors. The and work of

promotes exercise nutrition educators takes place in colleges, universities and schools, government agencies, cooperative extension, communications and public relations firms, the food industry, voluntary and service organizations and with other reliable places of nutrition and health education information. Nutrition education is a mechanism to enhance awareness, as a means to self-efficacy, surrounding the trigger of healthy behaviors.

What is the role of Nutrition Education in Schools?

Nutrition education programs within schools try to create behaviors that prevent students from potentially becoming obese, developing diabetes and cardiovascular issues, and forming negative emotional issues by educating students on the aspects of a healthy diet, emphasizing the consumption of lower fat dairy options and both fruits and vegetables. As most children eat between one and two of their meals at school, school-based nutrition education programs offer opportunities for students to practice making healthy eating decisions. However, due to influences outside of the school environment such as home, cultural, and social environments, there may be a lack of visible desired behavior changes. The National Center for Health Statistics October 2017 data brief, found that the prevalence of obesity among youth ages 2-19 has increased from 13.9 to 18.5 percent from 1999 to 2016.

& what is its role in colleges?

Dangerous eating behaviors such as: missing meals, overly restricting carbs, cutting out entire food groups, skipping meals, going gluten-free, eating no fat at all, trading meals for shakes or bars, working out too long and too intensely, and eating too much protein combined with a diet consisting of foods high in sodium, cholesterol and saturated fats, college students' dietary habits can potentially negatively affect their current and future health. A typical college student's diet does not contain enough vitamins, minerals, or fiber. Limited in both the consumption of fruit and vegetables, research has shown that enrollment in a university nutrition class, emphasizing the consumption of fruits and vegetables and certain dietary habits that prevent chronic disease significantly increased the

students' consumption of fruits and vegetables compared to their baseline consumption levels. Childhood obesity is a public health concern. Recent estimates indicate that 17% of youth aged 2 to 19 years in the United States were obese from 2011 to 2012. Besides nutrition education, environmental factors such as a decrease in physical activity and an increase in energy intake have led to more sedentary children. This increase in body mass index has led to hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes among other chronic diseases. Poor nutrition habits and lack of physical activity have led to this increase in obesity that leads from childhood to adulthood. A lack of funding and insufficient resources have led to poor nutrition education. Lack of funding has led to schools developing contracts with private companies such as soda and candy companies that allow vending machines and other products as well and has created a monopoly in public schools. Nutrition-based policies use trickledown methods: federal, regional, state, local, and school district policies. Teachers have a more direct influence on nutrition education. There are not a lot of studies that show how nutrition education policies affect the teachers in the schools they are meant to influence.

How is technology used to educate people about proper nutrition?

Fooya, a mobile health App by FriendsLearn is designed for children, to improve their awareness about healthy eating, while reinforcing the role of physical activity on health. It has been shown to have positive health outcomes through underlying methods of neuropsychology, health coaching and cognitive behavior therapy, as observed during randomized and controlled clinical trials conducted by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine Children's Nutrition Research Center.

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