Taste workshops for children: importance of being hydrated.

Abstract

Introduction: Spanish Nutrition Foundation (FEN) and the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy (RAG) were the pioneers to present the idea of including gastronomy and healthy eating habits into the European education system. This initiative was approved on 12th march 2014 by the European Parliament and since then, both institutions, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, have been working on innovative audiovisual and multimedia materials for children. Nutrition education contributes to children′s improved understanding and practice of healthy lifestyles behaviors. One essential topic consist of having a well hydration status, and children are a vulnerable population much more prone to dehydration than adults. Objective: To develop a serial of videos for children between 3 and 9 years old with cooking and nutrition lessons and recipe demonstrations to be used as educational resources in the official curricula. Method: Videos focused on food groups, nutrients, gastronomy, active lifestyles and importance of being hydrated. A nutritionist, a cooker and two muppets participated in them. Results: The videos include five sections: introduction, theory class, recipes –in case of hydration we recorded recipes with different water content foods-, video summary and final test. We have presented a summary of them in Spain Pavillion in Expo Milano 2015 and will use as an education tool for teachers. Conclusion: Videos can be used as nutrition education tools to reinforce language, listening and motor skills as well as food and nutrition concepts, specially, the importance of being hydrated.