Policies to promote on physical activity and healthy eating in kindergartens from theory to practice

Abstract

Accumulating evidence shows that there seems to be a relation between the existence of a policy and at least some health behaviours of children. The purpose of this paper is to give a brief account of the value of policy as a tool that can be used at local level to guide action to promote healthy lifestyle in kindergartens. A policy can be defined as a set of adopted principles that guide the work of an organization and aim to achieve a well defined goal, but only policies that rely on the active participation and involvement of concerned actors will be efficient. A number of studies suggest that local level policy on nutrition and on physical activity seems to have the potential to work as a good frame for the organizational efforts that the kindergarten undertakes in order to promote healthy eating and physical activity among children in kindergarten. However, kindergartens need to make the policy tool an active vehicle for an improvement of children's lifestyle behaviour and thus a dynamic instrument.