Encouraging Healthful Nutrition

Helping students gain the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to develop healthy eating patterns is an important challenge for schools and communities and is a critical component of a coordinated school health program. Encouraging Healthful Nutrition is enhanced by nutrition education and school food service programs. The goals of this component are to…

  • Provide knowledge and skills to students through school nutrition services
  • Relate healthy eating to mental alertness and good physical health
  • Focus on key skills related to student learning
  • Improve academic achievement.

Evidence shows that dietary behaviors tend to stay constant over time, and poor eating habits established in childhood tend to persist through adulthood (CDC, 1996). Promoting healthy eating behaviors through education and food service programs positively affects the health of students for their lifetime. Schools are an ideal place for helping students learn about, and participate in, healthy eating. School meals that meet U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) dietary guidelines play a significant role in providing good nutrition. Students are more inclined to eat nutritious foods when meals are affordable and meet students' tastes.

Meals provided through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) are affordable and planned to appeal to students. They provide sufficient food for students to avoid hunger during the day and improve their total nutrient intake (Marx, Wooley, and Northrop, 1998). The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (Burghart and Devaney, 1995) found that students who ate the school lunch had higher intakes of key nutrients than students who made other choices. The focus of school meals has also turned to health promotion and disease prevention. Diet is linked to a number of physical health problems of childhood and adolescence including obesity, anorexia, bulimia, and dental caries. To reduce these physical health problems, the USDA requires that school lunch and breakfast menus be consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) and meet one-third and one-fourth, respectively, of the RDA for key nutrients (USDA, 1995c).

Children's brain function, and consequently school performance is diminished by even short term or periodic hunger or malnutrition caused by missing or skipping meals (Pollitt, 1995). Good nutrition supports cognitive growth and development. A study of low-income elementary students found that participants in the School Breakfast Program had greater improvements in standardized test scores and lower rates of tardiness and absenteeism than comparable nonparticipants (Meyers, Sampson, Weitzman, Rogers, & Kayne, 1989). On the other hand, research has shown that children's mental and physical performance are impaired by poor nutrition (Center on Hunger, Poverty, and Nutrition Policy, 1993; CDC, 1996).

Well-designed and effectively implemented school-based nutrition education helps students improve their nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Encouraging Healthful Nutrition means focusing on key skills related to student learning. Students should be directed toward understanding good nutrition, planning healthful eating, evaluating nutrition information, and setting goals for healthy eating habits. Classroom nutrition education should be integrated with foodservice staff in order to create the most comprehensive health experience. The school foodservice has the potential to serve as a laboratory to reinforce the lessons learned in the classroom. See our nutrition links to find information about nutrition programs such as Team Nutrition and 5-A-Day For Better Health.

Team Nutrition
Team Nutrition is an initiative in which schools become part of a network of public and private partnerships that promote food choices for a healthy diet through media, schools, families and the community. Team Nutrition supports the new policy updating school meals nutrition standards to reflect the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For more information, click here

5-A-Day For Better Health
The 5-A-Day for Better Health program is one of the first national nutrition programs to approach Americans with a simple, positive message - eat 5 or more servings of fruit and vegetables every day for better health. The program is jointly sponsored by the National Cancer Institutes in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Produce for Better Health Foundation, a nonprofit consumer education foundation representing the fruit and vegetable industry. The goal of 5-A-Day is to increase the average consumption of fruits and vegetables to 5 servings daily by the year 2000. Ultimately, academic achievement will be improved when combined with efforts at encouraging healthful nutrition in schools. Nutrition education, partnered with a positive foodservice, focused at following the USDA nutrition standards will lead schools and students to be more healthy and productive. For more information through the National Cancer Institute's 5-A-Day for Better Health, click here

 

Nutrition Links

Action for Healthy Kids
link: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/

Action for Healthy Kids What’s Working Database
link: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/AFHK/whatsworking/index.php

American Association for Health Education
link: http://www.aahperd.org/aahe

American Council on Science and Health: Nutrition and Fitness
link: http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/categoryID.5/category_detail.asp

American Dietetic Association
link: http://www.eatright.org

American School Food Service Association
link: http://www.asfsa.org

Ask the Dietitian
link: http://www.dietitian.com

Center for Science in the Public Interest
link: http://www.cspinet.org

Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
link: http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/consumer/nutrition.htm

Children with Diabetes
link: http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/index_cwd.htm

Children's Nutrition Research Center
link: http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/cnrc

Dole SuperKids
link: http://www.dole.com/#/superkids

Making It Happen: School Nutrition Success Stories
(A CDC-USDA project to document improvements in school nutrition environments) http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/Resources/b_toc.pdf

FDA Kids Food Page
link: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/kids/default.htm

Fight Bac!
link: http://www.fightbac.org

Food Safety
link: http://www.foodsafety.gov

Guide to Nursing Schools Children's Nutrition Guide
link: http://www.guidetonursingschools.com/library/childrens-nutrition

Harvard School of Public Health
link: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/

Healthy Choices for Kids Online
link: http://www.healthychoices.org

The Leafy Greens Council
link: http://www.leafy-greens.org/lessonplans.html

The Maine Guide: Supporting Healthy Changes in School Nutrition Environments
Link: www.maine-nutrition.org/CTSpage.htm

Maternal and Child Health Library
link: http://mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_childnutr.html

Mayo Health Oasis
link: http://www.mayohealth.org

NASCO: Food models
link: http://www.eNASCO.com

National Cancer Institutes 5-A-Day for Better Health
link: http://www.5aday.com

Nutrition.Gov
link: http://www.nutrition.gov

Nutrition Analysis Tool - NAT (University of Illinois)
link: http://www.nat.uiuc.edu/

Nutrition Explorations
link: http://www.nutritionexplorations.org

Nutrition Policy
link: http://www.cspinet.org/nutritionpolicy/

NYS School Food Service Association
link: http://www.nyssfsa.org

Smart Mouth
link: http://www.smart-mouth.org/

State Legislation Searchable Database
link: http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/DNPALeg/

Team Nutrition
link: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn

The Blonz Guide to Nutrition, Food & Health Resources
link: http://blonz.com/

The Food Allergy Network
link: http://www.foodallergy.org

The National Bone Health Campaign - Powerful Bones
link: http://www.cdc.gov/powerfulbones/

USDA Dietary Assessment
link: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/etext/000108.html

USDA Food Composition
link: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/etext/000020.html

USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center
link: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic

USDA’s Interactive Healthy Eating Index
link: http://147.208.9.133

Vegetarian Resource Group
link: http://www.vrg.org

You Are What You Eat: A Guide to Good Nutrition
link: http://nutrition.getschooled.com