Does food and health education in school influence students’ everyday life?

Cecilie Beinert,Anne Cathrine Sørlie,Frøydis Nordgård Vik,Päivi Palojoki,Gun Åbacka

doi:10.1177/00178969211045722

Cecilie Beinert, Anne Cathrine Sørlie + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/00178969211045722

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Abstract

Objective: The Norwegian National Action Plan for a Healthier Diet calls for discussion of new ways to communicate health information. An already established and important arena in which to do so is school, in the Food and Health (FH) subject in particular. The aim of this study was to investigate how Norwegian students experience the FH subject, and how they believe it impacts on their everyday lives. Design: Qualitative study using focus group discussions Setting: Three public schools in Norway Methods: Focus group discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Results: The students reported the relevance of the school subject FH to their everyday life. However, how much FH was experienced as having impacted on their everyday lives with respect to cooking at home, food choice and food hygiene varied. Conclusions: More research is needed to explore how FH can have a stronger impact on students’ actual food choices and cooking practices. This is important in order to tackle contemporary dietary challenges among children and adolescents. Rather than discussing new channels of health education, we suggest that the FH subject area should be strengthened in schools by increasing teachers’ competence and focusing more strongly on how best to influence students’ food choices.

Highlights

A healthy diet is fundamental to living a long and healthy life (Afshin et al, 2019)
Some said that Food and Health (FH) had influenced their food choices in that they are more aware of what they ate and that they ate healthier than before because of what they had learned in the FH lessons: Student: And the other day we learned about, a handful of fruit or a glass of juice, that it somehow is important, because you get more nutrients into your body
Students participating in this study described the relevance of FH to their everyday lives

Summary

Introduction

A healthy diet is fundamental to living a long and healthy life (Afshin et al, 2019). Action on food and nutrition related challenges is high on both national and international political agendas (Ministry of Health and Care Services, 2017; United Nations, 2017). In Norway, the National Action Plan for a Healthier Diet outlines 13 quantitative targets and indicators for change, some of which are addressed to children and adolescents such as an increased intake of fruit, vegetables and fish, and a decreased intake of sweets and soft drinks (Ministry of Health and Care Services, 2017). Changing a health-related behaviour such as diet requires the use of ‘careful, thoughtful science that leads to a deep understanding of the nature of what motivates people and the social and economic pressures that act upon them’ (Kelly and Barker, 2016: 114). With respect to food and nutrition education, the World Health Organization (WHO, 2006) and the European Commission (2014) recommend a comprehensive approach which includes a focus on cooking, nutrition and developing a healthy lifestyle alongside various awareness raising learning activities

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