Reading, writing, and eating well
Author: David J. Buechel
Buechel, David J. “Reading, Writing and Eating Well.” American Fitness, vol. 12, no. 2, Mar. 1994, p. 67. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9404280719&site=ehost-live.
- NUTRITION
Teaching nutrition in school is a healthy lesson plan for future generations.
Pick up a magazine or newspaper on any given day and chances are you will find something related to nutrition. People are hungry for nutrition news. But the statistics show magazine articles are not enough to teach nutrition to young people, who grow into adults thirsty for information. In the United States today there are reportedly 8 million people who have suffered or are suffering from eating disorders, 34 million people overweight, and an estimated 80 million cases of food poisoning annually. We live in a country with state-of-the-art knowledge in nutrition and medicine, yet we rank 11th out of the 15 industrialized nations for average life expectancy.
If you are in your late 20s or older, your nutritional knowledge probably came from one chapter in a ninth grade health book. Even in college, nutrition isn't required. Unless you choose it as an elective, or are pursuing a health-related degree, you will receive a college degree without a single class on nutrition.
According to a 1992 study by the Association of American Medical Colleges, only one-fourth of the 172 medical schools in the United States require a course in nutrition and two-thirds offer nutrition classes solely through electives. Doctors, whom we trust for diet and health advice, are guiding us in an area they might not be qualified in.
Lack of nutritional education all boils down to the almighty dollar. Ever heard the saying, "Health is your greatest wealth?" Consider the following:
- At the federal level lies a conflict of interest. If President Clinton signed a bill today initiating a nutritional education program, the Dairy Council and Meat lobbyists, among others, would be up in arms. Money and jobs might be lost if students learned the importance of a low-fat diet. They would consume less red meat and dairy products.
- Medical schools know doctors won't generate income by keeping everyone healthy. Doctors profit by treating the sick, so why bother teaching them nutrition?
- The public schools not only lack money to fund a nutrition program, but nutrition is not mandated by the State. Some school districts don't even receive enough money to properly maintain their existing programs.
Recognizing the importance of nutrition, many elementary schools solicit outside help in teaching its fundamentals. For example, the Dairy Council of California established itself in the school nutrition spectrum, offering free information packets and training for teachers. However, the information they provide may be slanted. The food pyramid provided by the Dairy Council shows the milk group at three full servings daily where as the US DA, who designed the pyramid, shows two to three servings.
That may not be such a big deal, but the Dairy Council also combines the fruit and vegetable groups, recommending only five servings from both categories while the USDA pyramid suggests separate servings of three to five for vegetables and two to four for fruits. The Dairy Council emphasizes the milk group and de-emphasizes fruits and vegetables.
At the middle school level, nutritional knowledge is critical. Busy parents depend on kids to feed themselves. The Los Angeles Unified School District's health curriculum requires a six-week health module for sixth grade students and an 18-week health class for seventh graders. Out of the 122 hours allocated for both of these classes, the curriculum only suggests 22 hours of nutritional study. Although it's better than nothing, is this the best the second largest school district in the United States can do?
At the secondary level, where most of the need for improvement lies, not all high schools are created equal. Several Southern California high schools still only teach basic nutrition fundamentals, according to a regional survey. Giving credit where credit is due, a major factor in nutrition education are the teachers themselves. If they have a strong background in nutrition, it most likely shows up in their classes. Many go above and beyond curriculum guidelines by providing key supplemental information. In most cases, however, teachers run short on time for addressing any special topics.
With budgets at the core of the nutrition education problem, the powerless Departments of Education play a limited, supporting role. For example, the new Health Framework curriculum in California merely serves as a guideline. The department is not empowered to mandate a health curriculum unless it is approved through legislative action, like the AIDS awareness program was. Individual school districts have the power to enact their own health curriculum in area schools. This means schools decide if our children learn decent nutrition lessons, or just the bare minimum. Considering it was 1986 when the California Education Code required nutrition classes for credentialed teachers, chances are the people making these decisions will have no nutritional background and fail to recognize its importance.
The nutrition education spectrum is like two bakers with one recipe. Somehow, from the same ingredients, they produce different tasting breads. The problem is schools are working without a recipe. California, among other states, needs to mandate a nutritional recipe for all schools to follow. What could be more important than maintaining optimum health?
If health is to be our greatest wealth, it's time to reprioritize educational requirements. We should make a nutrition course mandatory by law to guarantee consistent instruction in all districts nationwide. A handful of schools have combined nutrition with their P.E. programs since diet and exercise go hand in hand and most P.E. instructors currently have a background in nutrition. The elementary level could concentrate on food groups and balanced diets, prepping students for the secondary level, where nutrition would be driven home by credentialed instructors. Each state might even require students to pass a national aptitude test in nutrition in order to graduate high school.
Will teaching kids nutrition have an impact? "You can talk about eating healthy until you're blue in the face--kids are still going to eat what tastes good," says one teacher. That may be true, but at least students with a nutritionally-educated mind will know the hot dog they chomp on has 32 grams of fat and the double Whopper with cheese contains 61 grams of fat. They will also know, at 935 calories, 58% of the Whopper's energy comes from fat. When they mature, most will think, "I just had 61 grams of fat. I've got to eat lean for a while.'
New research studies continuously reinforce the need for basic nutrition instruction. With all the hoopla in the media today, an uneducated mind can easily confuse things. But the educated mind can sort fact from fiction and draw practical conclusions.
With a well-rounded education in nutrition, students would graduate from high school with a thorough knowledge on dietrelated diseases (atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, stroke and certain cancers), food-borne illnesses, eating disorders, vegetarianism, FDA, RDA and USDA, food labels and laws, vitamins and supplements, malnutrition, carbohydrates, cholesterol, digestion, metabolism, weight control, food additives, exercise, fatigue, fast foods, advertising and the media. Nutrition could easily fill a four-year course in high school.
Although a program informing students of the issues described above would sway most into a healthy lifestyle, not everyone will become health conscious. There will always be those who do not care about their health. The majority, however, will take to heart what they learn, resulting in short- and long-range effects. For example, we could count on less people being overweight, less eating disorders, less cases of food poisoning and less incidences of women media-influenced to think they need to lose weight.
High school students with more nutritional education will know preventive medicine. We could count on a reduction of diet-related illnesses like heart disease. And with less diseases comes less health-care expenses, which has a positive impact on our health-care system. Not only would life expectancy increase, Americans would stay healthy longer.
Clinton's Goals 2000 school improvement bill falls short in the area of nutritional education. But with all the buzz on health care and education reform lately, the time is ripe to reprioritize nutrition in the school system. It will take a proposition on a ballot or federal law to get a nationwide nutrition program initiated. If we did it for alcohol, drug, tobacco and AIDS awareness programs, we can do it for food. It could be a challenge, though. After all, we have a President who eats at McDonald's.
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