Food is an important component of our everyday life. We eat food, talk about food, buy food, make food, the list goes on! Food provides us with nutrition, giving our bodies the energy it needs for health and development. Since food plays such an important role in our health, it would make sense to include an important concept such as nutrition into the education system. However, this is not the standard in many school curriculums. So what could be some benefits of nutrition education? Why should nutrition education matter? Here we present some benefits of teaching nutrition, including examples from the nutrition team at Dairy Farmers of Canada.
1. Nutrition education helps build life and academic skills
Learning about nutrition and applying this knowledge through cooking and food incorporates many useful skills for students to possess. Using recipes can promote a student’s understanding of literacy, numeracy, and science while exploring a student’s own food traditions and cultural foods can offer an enriched view of social sciences and culture. Understanding how food is grown and how different recipes can be made with simple food items can facilitate student-directed learning and the willingness to try something new.
Beyond just nurturing food literacy in students, learning about food and nutrition builds life-long habits to promote healthy living. These can include important skills such as time management, planning, and fostering independence when it comes to making meal and snack choices.
2. Nutrition education promotes student wellbeing
Cooking and learning about the foods we put in our bodies can be a self-empowering and connecting journey. This is especially helpful for students in school to build upon their motivation and confidence to succeed. The goals of nutrition education include facilitating students' ability and confidence in being able to care for themselves, within the resources they have access to and their values.
Additionally, food and nutrition education provides opportunities to facilitate discussion among peers and community members, to help further encourage students in building healthy support systems. A study that investigated many different nutrition intervention programs found that most had been successful in increasing fruit and vegetable intake, and noted that comprehensive strategies had the best chance to be successful (Pem & Jeewon, 2015). Fruit and vegetable intake has been shown to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity (Slavin & Lloyd, 2012), so introducing nutrition interventions in school could help children make healthier choices early in life.
3. Nutrition education is already incorporated into some curriculums in Canada
Alberta has already taken charge in including learning outcomes related to food, eating, and nutrition into every grade level. It is time that nutrition is not just provided as an additional resource but as an essential learning component in school curriculums across Canada.
Nutrition education teaches essential life skills and builds meaningful connections between teachers, students, and community members. Nutrition education has the power to connect different components of wellbeing such as physical activity and mental health, and even introducing topics related to health and sustainability. The role that nutrition plays in our lives should not be underscored, and neither should it be in school curriculums.
References:
Pem, D., & Jeewon, R. (2015). Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Benefits and Progress of Nutrition Education Interventions- Narrative Review Article. Iranian journal of public health, 44(10), 1309–1321.
Slavin, J. L., & Lloyd, B. (2012). Health benefits of fruits and vegetables. Advances in
nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 3(4), 506–516. https://doi.org/10.3945/an.112.002154