3. Teach Good Nutrition

When it comes to healthy eating, the food that students are served in the cafeteria needs to be connected to what they learn in the classroom. Many schools have reported that students are more likely to choose items from the cafeteria salad bar when they have learned about the principles of good nutrition in class. For instance, studies have shown that children who receive nutrition education are twice as likely to choose items from the cafeteria salad bar as those who do not receive nutrition education. Thus, rather than simply banning certain foods, schools should teach students what constitutes a healthy diet and encourage them to substitute healthier alternatives. Students should understand how the foods they eat shape their health, development and ability to learn and how the habits they learn in childhood affect their well-being into adulthood.

Challenges

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Nutrition education has received limited attention in schools, typically relegated to a brief introduction to the food pyramid during health class. Few schools address nutrition education in depth. But it takes much more than a once-a-year class addressing the food groups to teach children to make good food and lifestyle choices. In addition, few faculty are trained or provided with adequate materials to teach the subject.

Standards

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There are no federal standards for nutrition education, although there are a number of authoritative Guidelines that can point you in the right direction. You should also check for applicable state laws, guidelines or policies. The Healthy Schools Campaign recommends that schools adopt the guidelines included in the model wellness policy from NANA, which calls for a combination of nutrition education and nutrition promotion that:

Is part of not only health education classes, but also classroom instruction in subjects such as math, science, language arts, social sciences, and elective subjects;

Includes enjoyable, developmentally-appropriate, culturally-relevant, participatory activities, such as contests, promotions, taste testing, farm visits, and school gardens;

Promotes fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, healthy food preparation methods, and health-enhancing nutrition practices;

Emphasizes caloric balance between food intake and energy expenditure (physical activity/exercise);

Links with school meal programs, other school foods, and nutrition-related community services;

Teaches media literacy with an emphasis on food marketing ;

Includes training for teachers and other staff.

Guiding Principles

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(Click on any of the items listed below to read more)

1. Maintain the gains

Classroom learning should be reinforced with ongoing promotion that increases awareness of good nutrition and encourages students to make healthy food choices in real time. Include food literacy (the ability to understand food labels and marketing claims) in the curriculum.

CONNECTING SCHOOL LUNCH TO THE CURRICULUM HARD TO IMAGINE?

Think about this: eating is a series of relationships. If food is the overarching idea, is it feasible to design a curriculum that integrates science, health, history and social science, and math around social and environmental issues? Understanding eating relationships lies at the heart of an integrated school lunch curriculum. Exploring these relationships means looking at food—from field to table—and how it is linked to culture and behavior.

From: Rethinking School Lunch [pdf], Center for Ecoliteracy.

2. Make it fun

Nutrition education lends itself to fun, creative, hands-on learning activities, such as contests, taste-tests, cooking classes and field trips. By making learning involving and fun, you have a better chance that the lesson will stick.

3. Be sensitive to culture

Good nutrition can take many forms. Every cultural and ethnic tradition has healthy dishes that can be incorporated into a sound diet. Connecting your lessons with students’ cultures and celebrating their heritages strengthens the relationships between home and school.

4. Address the total environment

To make lasting changes, it is important to gain support from school stakeholders as well as commitment from the school and/or district by bringing them in from the very beginning. (See Who's Who in School Wellness.) Conducting an assessment of your current program, developing a wellness plan, measuring progress and celebrating success are important steps in this process. For detailed guidance and tools in this area, see Long-Term Success.

Action Areas

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(Click on any of the items listed below to read more)

Health Education

Nutrition education should be provided each year to students, as part of a sequential, standards-based program coordinated with comprehensive health education curriculum. Unfortunately, many school health curricula fail to provide adequate attention to this important subject. The CDC is developing a tool for evaluating health curricula which will be available in the near future. For recommended nutrition curricula and support programs, see the Box or visit Documents and Resources.

NUTRITION EDUCATION RESOURCES

National Dairy Council offers a popular curriculum for grade school students. Little D's Nutrition Expedition, a 10-activity program for 2nd grade, and Arianna's Nutrition Expedition, an eight-activity program, both feature hands-on learning about nutrition and the value of physical activity, support MyPyramid and can supplement language arts and health curricula.
Team Nutrition is an initiative of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service to support the Child Nutrition Programs through training and technical assistance for food service, nutrition education for children and their caregivers, and school and community support for healthy eating and physical activity.
Healthy Families/Healthy Communities: In 2005, the American Dietetic Association Foundation and the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition published "Healthy Families, Healthy Communities, A Blueprint for Action: Community Connect," which outlines ways to reach the African-American community, through both nutrition and physical activity, to help people make healthier lifestyle choices. To download a copy of the report, visit http://www.acfn.org/resources/CommunityConnect.pdf.
Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE): The LiFE curriculum has been developed to make scientific literacy a realistic goal for children living in urban poverty. In LiFE, children, along with their teacher and parents, study food -- from production to processing to waste and transporation -- and how it nourishes their body. For more information, visit http://www.tc.edu/cfe/overviews.html.

Click here to find out more on School Health’s website

Teaching children how to be smart from the inside out!
Click here to find out more . . .

Nutrition in the Classroom

Nutrition education can be integrated into the standards-based lesson plans of other subjects. For instance, calories and nutritional requirements could be used as an interesting math exercise. There are a number of resources available to help schools meet this goal. See box or Documents and Resources.

Other Learning Opportunities

A combination of classroom instruction, nutrition education in the cafeteria, health fairs, field trips or assemblies can provide students with opportunities to learn about the importance of nutrition. A number of resources are available to help schools meet this goal. See box or Documents and Resources.

CREATIVE WAYS TO TEACH NUTRITION

1. Cooking Classes: Teaching children to cook is an excellent way to increase their appreciation for fresh, wholesome foods. Some schools are offering cooking classes as part of their after-school programs and even providing opportunities for parents to join students in family cooking classes.

2. Learn About Local Food Systems: Many children, especially those raised in major urban areas, don’t truly understand where their food comes from or what it takes to get it to the table. Teaching students about food systems, taking field trips to farms, and introducing them to local farmers are all good ways to “personalize” food and encourage consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.

3. Share Traditions and Heritage: Invite students to bring in foods that reflect their cultural or ethnic traditions and heritage. By tasting one another's foods and sharing their stories, students gain an understanding of the role special and everyday foods play in celebrating family relationships and maintaining community bonds.

4. Meet the Chef: In a number of cities, professional chefs as well as amateur cooks are reaching out to share their knowledge of food and nutrition with young people. Invite one or more cooks from the community to visit your school, provide a cooking demonstration or tasting and talk about their approach to food.

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