Why is nutrition education not working？

Too many choices

You’d think that with all the educational programs, government advice and medical informational material telling people to eat better and take proactive care of their health, peoples’ nutritional behaviour would be improving. The fact is, it isn’t. As long as people have choices, they tend to make the decisions directly linked with pleasure and short term contentment. Taking the long term view, eating at regular intervals, and making sure to keep up with the nutritional supplements and vitamins that suit your body needs careful thought and regular practice.

Can we still learn to be healthy instinctively?

In recent years, the government has really started to put a lot of effort into educating people about how to eat well, with a good balance of fruit, vegetables and proteins, either as meat or as beans, eggs and tofu. In the past, this wasn’t necessary. There was less choice about what to eat. Eating was a social thing: you ate what your family ate, and you can bet your grandma was making sure the menu was balanced. People learnt instinctively about nutrition without even knowing the words vitamins, dieting and nutritional supplements. So when the government spends billions of dollars a year to teach kids that celery sticks are good, fatty fries are really bad, and vitamins have an alphabet too, you might think that the role of grandma in society has been filled by a well informed public health information service, and is likely to be money well spent. Your kids will grow up with a range of choices your family didn’t have in previous generations, and they will know how to steer a confident path between health and choice.

A positive feeling about fruit and vegetables is not enough

Nutrition knowledge of what is good doesn’t necessarily make a difference. Programs may change how kids FEEL about fruits and vegetables so that they really have a more positive attitude. But, programs are shown to be less good at changing behaviour. Although it’s hard to believe, last year a major federal pilot program offering free fruits and vegetables to school children showed fifth graders became less willing to eat them by the end than they had at the start. They just didn't like the taste. And in Pennsylvania, researchers went so far as to give prizes to school children who ate fruits and vegetables. That worked while the prizes were offered, but when the researchers came back seven months later the kids had reverted to their original eating habits: soda and chips. With obesity affecting more kids than ever, nutritional education has a real mission to help kids overcome their problems. The medical consequences of obesity in the U.S. — diabetes, high blood pressure, even orthopaedic problems — cost an estimated $100 billion a year. So, the government has its reasons to act as grandma.
Strong health routines and family support
Another problem is: nutritional education really isn’t getting through to those who need it most. If a child grows up in a family that isn’t mindful about what they eat and the vitamins and nutritional supplements they take, they will soon enough find themselves with an unhealthy eating habit. And in some cases, where there isn’t much fresh produce in the local stores, how will a child realise that fruit and vegetables can be naturally included in one’s daily diet or that they can be supplemented by vitamins? Most kids learn what tastes good and what tastes nasty by their 10th birthdays. Doctors who are puzzling over how to get through to people believe that family support and a strong routine are very significant factors to a healthy diet. One part of a strong heath routine can be taking vitamins and other nutritional supplements.

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