1. Food selection
2. Food preparation
3. Advocacy

Food selection

Key factors in developing skills to select nutritious foods include practice in the use of food selection models such as the Healthy Diet Pyramid and the Target on Healthy Eating and general knowledge about nutrition and dietary guidelines.

The empowerment process as previously described presents students with ideal opportunities to develop food selection skills and knowledge within a framework that is relevant to them. In this process, students collect and analyse information relevant to their own behaviours - so they might collect information about the snacks they eat, their breakfasts, the fast food they eat, or their total diet. When the students analyse the information to see if the foods are health promoting or otherwise, they are learning skills for informed food selection.. They need to learn processes to do this - to use models or guidelines such as the Target on Healthy Eating, the Healthy Diet Pyramid or the Dietary Guidelines. Teachers will need to teach students how to perform these analyses.

When they analyse this information, and then make judgements about the analyses, they find out ways in which the foods are good for them, and ways in which they are not so good, and what may happen if they continue with this type of food intake. In addressing this last point - what may happen if they continue with eating these types of food - they need to explore concepts of nutrition by asking questions such as:

• What if I keep eating a lot of lollies?
• What if I continue to eat a variety of vegetables?
• What if I keep eating so many pies and sausage rolls?
• What if I keep eating a lot of saturated fat?
• What if I increase my calcium intake?
• What if I continue eating too many foods from the top of the Pyramid?

Similarly, if exploring a societal issue, in their evaluations of the data they have collected, students will ask questions like:

• What will happen to people who watch this TV show if the show continues to promote the consumption of soft drink?
• What will happen to people who watch TV if the station continues to advertise these high fat-low fibre foods?

The students will learn valuable information and valuable skills, and the learning will be more permanent because they have learnt it in a meaningful context - their own lives. As students go through the process several times considering different foods, or different issues, then they will develop a comprehensive understanding of basic nutrition and food selection skills which will help them make healthy food choices.

Food preparation

Skill and confidence in the ability to prepare health promoting foods are important contributors to students' capacity to modify food-related behaviours. The number of basic skills needed to prepare health promoting foods are relatively few, for example- chopping, slicing, grilling, steaming.

Food preparation skills can easily be introduced into empowerment-based units of work.

Firstly, consider a unit aimed at students making some personal changes in their diet. When the students set goals for change, it is appropriate for students to investigate foods that they could eat to support their goals, and for them to devise and prepare snacks or meals which use these foods. So if a student was aiming at reducing the intake of high-fat snacks in the diet, then it is appropriate in classtime to practise investigating, devising and preparing low-fat snacks. If a student is trying to increase fruit and vegetables, or increase calcium, or increase iron in their diets, then it is appropriate to investigate, devise and practice preparing dishes that contain fruit and vegetables, calcium and iron respectively. Students should evaluate the foods that they have prepared in terms of the goals that they have set. Typically, students will all be preparing different foods to meet their own needs.

Secondly, consider a unit aimed at bringing about change in the environment - the school canteen, TV show, magazine etc. In these cases it is appropriate for students to investigate, devise and produce foodstuffs that could be sold at the canteen, used in the TV show, or promoted in the magazine. Students could practise preparing the foods in class and then send the recipes, along with evaluations, photographs etc. to the canteen, TV station or magazine. Again, groups of students would typically be preparing different products to match their goals.

As already indicated, few food preparation skills are needed but students do need to be adept and confident in using them. Whilst food preparation resources may be limited in primary schools, a good range of foods can actually be prepared with very little, if any actual cooking.

Advocacy

Advocacy involves influencing other people to make personal or organisational change. This is very important in creating an environment in which healthy choices are easy choices.

Advocacy can be undertaken by individuals, such as when a child asks his or her parents for a particular food item that is not usually available in the home. It can also be undertaken by groups, for example the student and parent body lobbying for certain foods to be sold at the canteen.

Advocacy involves good communication skills, and often these need to be developed by students. Students may need time to learn and practise (eg. role play) how they will communicate with the people who provide them with food - parents, boarding school matron etc. or how they will advocate to their friends that they change their routine of what they eat when they get together. Developing such skills may not be seen by some as part of traditional nutrition education classes, but the skills are very important if students are to develop control over their food choices.