Imagine a world where children clamor for carrots, beg for broccoli, love leafy greens and happily eat whole grains! Imagine, too, a world where type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases are rarely seen. This was the world of humanity’s past and it can be reclaimed as our future.
Eating whole, minimally processed foods in community with others as well as being active, with activities like gardening, have been included in many cultural traditions over multiple millennia. Even in modern times, these are the characteristics of cultures with the longest lived populations. We have gotten away from those types of lifestyles and need to return to it to reclaim our health.
Part of the path includes nutrition education. We know that with enough behavioral-based nutrition education can help people have a different relationship with food and make better food choices. This is especially needed for our children. They are faced with an eating environment filled with inexpensive, quick and calorically dense tasty food. While having fun choices is great, too often these become the default choice.
After over 30 years of advocacy, lead by efforts of Mayor Adams’ administration and the Office of Food Policy, New York City Public Schools are formally exploring including food and nutrition education into the curriculum as a standard part of the school day. We are so excited for this effort!
Here's another recent study authored by our researchers showing the benefits of nutrition education: https://doi.org/10.1177/00178969231178593
Our website offers lots of resources that educators can use to craft their own curriculum, including our most recent addition, which is a mapping of nutrition education to science education standards. We invite you to explore the options available here! Check out our Food Ed Hub Food and Nutrition Curricula.