NUTRITION EDUCATION AND THE TECHNOLOGY LEARNING AREA PART A NUTRITION EDUCATION KEY CONCEPTS FOR HEALTHY BEHAVIOURS

KEY CONCEPTS

Health is multi-dimensional and when making healthy food choices, students should aim at maximising positive effects across all dimensions of health. An empowerment-based learning process enables students to have control (autonomy) over their individual behaviours with respect to food, as well as to take actions which will create an environment supportive of health promoting food choices.There are specific learning and teaching strategies which promote autonomy. There are specific learning and teaching strategies which promote autonomy. Students should develop key skills in food selection, food preparation and advocacy for healthy food choices. Learning should be underpinned by principles of inclusiveness which encourage the full range of students to make health promoting food choices.

 KEY CONCEPT 1: HEALTH IS MULTI-DIMENSIONAL

Students should be able to make nutritious food choices which also support their social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual dimensions of health. Typically, most students do not eat food just because of its nutritional value. They eat because they are hungry, because they like the taste, because "it’s time". In most instances, they eat food in some kind of social setting, usually with their families and/or friends. Their social needs are being met as much as their physiological need for food, and often the social need is more important to them. As one researcher asked, what is more important to thirteen year-olds - going to the fast food outlet with mates, or having a heart attack when they are forty? Students also eat, or not eat as the case may be, when they are happy, excited, lonely, bored, or upset. Taste is another very influential factor. Similarly, the foods they eat are also influenced by spiritual or belief systems. Again, it is often other needs which drive their eating habits rather than their physiological needs for food.

It is unlikely that educators will be successful in promoting healthy eating if we try to encourage students to adopt nutritious food behaviours at the expense of their social, emotional or spiritual needs. As educators, we need to be aware of the many influences on students’ lives, and be able to develop learning experiences for them which enable them to learn how to make nutritious food choices without compromising their social, emotional or spiritual needs.

KEY CONCEPT 2: AUTONOMY and EMPOWERMENT

	As explained previously, many factors influence what people eat. They know, or can learn, which foods suit their nutritional needs, but this is only part of the story. They need to learn how to consume those nutritious foods despite the many obstacles - time, cost, availability, culture, advertising and so forth. That is, they need to be in control of their own actions, to develop autonomy with respect to food choices. This should happen at two levels.
Control over what they eat	Firstly, they should have a sense of control over what they eat; they need to be able to "manage" the many factors which influence their food choices and learn skills to enable them to make healthy choices despite negative influences. They need to learn what to choose and how to deal with the many factors which make it difficult for them to actually eat those foods.
Control over factors that influence what they and others eat	But at another level, students need to learn how to challenge those factors which impact negatively on their and others' food choices - what is available at home or at the school canteen, cost of nutritious food, advertising. They need to learn how to take action to redress these problems such that “healthy choices become easy choices”. It is important that they develop a culture of being able to take action to redress problems rather than blaming these many factors for poor eating habits.
	That is, they need to be able to develop autonomy which enables them to promote a supportive environment for themselves and for the good of the community. So, they need to develop autonomy to: eat a personal diet that is nutritious; and create a society that enables them and others to have a healthy diet.
Autonomy can be developed at school	Such autonomy for both personal and societal action can be developed in the compulsory years of schooling. The amount of control a person has over their own behaviours, including food-related behaviours, is developmental. People develop autonomy as they learn new skills. For example, a student who learns about nutrition and food preparation is in a better position to be in control of choosing healthy foods than before they learnt the knowledge and skills. Similarly, a student who develops good communication skills and good interpersonal skills is in a better position to be able to make good choices _ they can, for example, talk to parents about the foods they want to eat, or resist peer pressure to make unhealthy choices. But the research has found that knowledge and skills about food and nutrition on their own are not sufficient.
There is an approach to help develop student autonomy - an empowerment approach	An approach is needed to assist students develop a sense of control over their eating habits. An empowerment approach can be used across the years of schooling so that by the time students leave school, they have developed food-related autonomy.

Students can develop skills in each stage of the empowerment process and learn and follow this process.

Empowerment

The empowerment process involves students working together to: Find out what the problem is (Is there anything wrong with my diet? Does advertising promote unhealthy food habits? Does the school canteen promote healthy eating? etc). Work out the real causes of the problem (I don't know what a healthy diet is. I don't know how to prepare healthy food. I eat what my friends eat. I eat what my family eats. I'm too busy to eat properly. I like fatty foods. etc). Take action to address the real causes of the problem.

The following steps were developed by the National Nutrition Education in Schools project. They form an empowerment process which students can follow to enhance their control over both their own eating behaviours, and over factors in the community which may be impacting negatively on food choices:

An empowerment process for students

Gathering, analysing and evaluating information related to either their own diets, or to societal factors which impact on food beliefs and habits. Deciding (as a result of the evaluations) whether or not action is necessary and setting associated goals. Identifying barriers and enablers in relation to the goals that have been set. Planning and acting to overcome the barriers and to achieve the goals. Reflecting upon what happened. (See Figure 1 below)

The steps in the process are linked

These steps are considered as a cycle in that they are both sequential and continuous. The gathering and analysis of information provide the basis for the setting of goals. Barriers and enablers will relate to what will hinder and what will assist the achievement of goals. The planning and action relates to the goals set, including planning to over come barriers. And the reflection considers why the goals were or were not achieved. Reflection can also lead to the gathering of new information, or the setting of new goals.

In general, the above cycle is quite lengthy and research shows that it may typically take several weeks. For example, in the planning stage, students may need to learn important new skills to enable them to overcome barriers in order to achieve their goals. This process could involve students, for example:

• engaging in role play to resist peer pressure;
• learning how to write letters to the media;
• learning certain food preparation skills to enhance their goal achievement

- all of which take time.

It is, however, considered essential that students recognise the importance of why these skills have to be developed. They should then develop and enact them in the context of their own action plans in order for them, as students, to be empowered to take further similar actions in the future.

Students should develop these skills in relation to both their own behaviours, as well as with respect to the societal context.