Food Education

27.4% of Australian children are overweight, and this may be attributed to several lifestyle factors including a lack of exercise and poor diet. A recent study on South Australian children found that on average, 45% of their daily energy requirements are met by energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods, or foods that were high in saturated fat, sugar and salt. Furthermore, less than 20% met the 5 core food requirements set out in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (1). Junk food is especially attractive to people of low socioeconomic status, as it is cheap, and readily accessible. As a result, people of low socioeconomic status and rural communities experience higher rates of diet-related illness such as coronary heart disease (2). Furthermore, childhood obesity is of particular relevance to developing countries, where rates have been increasing by 30% more than in developed countries (3).

Short Clip “School Lunches” from Where To Invade Next — Michael Moore 2015

Poor diet is a risk factor for non-communicable diseases. Since attitudes toward food are learned in childhood, a pertinent solution is educating children about food. In Michael Moore’s documentary ‘Where to Invade Next’, he compares the school canteen system of America which is known for its high fat and low nutrition canteen lunches, with the canteen system of France. In stark contrast, France’s school lunches are much healthier. All schools regardless of socioeconomic status, provide lunches of multiple courses, and school chefs often liaise with local politicians and dieticians to design menus. France also has one of the lowest rates of obesity in the world, ranked at 122nd by average body mass index in 2014 (4).

Australia is in a different situation to America and France, as school culture has evolved such that canteens are not used by the majority of schoolchildren. This is the same for many other countries, where the responsibility of children’s health is placed on parents.

Jamie Oliver’s Ted Talk on his Food Revolution

The main message of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution movement was that children should be properly educated about proper nutrition, and cooking. It is a little strange to think, that for an animal that requires nourishment three times a day, and has evolved to develop many kinds of food and many different methods of cooking, we do not teach our children about proper ways to eat. One recent Australian study found that the strongest predictor of developing type II diabetes was parental education. Participants with low parental education were at higher risk of developing type II diabetes, and parental education was a stronger predictor than current socioeconomic status, or current occupation (5). If formal education does not include programmes to educate children about food or canteens to provide food, then the responsibility rests with parents. However, this has been ineffective, as rates of obesity have been steadily climbing both in developing and developed countries. As Jamie Oliver says, we need to “teach every child about food”, which may entail formal education programmes, or initiatives to increase both parent and child awareness of the importance of food.

References:

1. Whitrow MJ, Moran L, Davies MJ, Collins CE, Burrows TL, Edwards S, Moore VM. Core food intakes of Australian children aged 9–10 years: nutrients, daily servings and diet quality in a community cross‐sectional sample. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 2016 Aug 1;29(4):449–57.
2. Microdata: Australian Health Survey, Core Content — Risk Factors and Selected Health Conditions, 2011–12. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Available from: http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4324.0.55.003main+features12011-12. Accessed [24 Feb 2017].
3. World Health Organisation (2014). Facts and figure on childhood obesity. Available from: http://www.who.int/end-childhood-obesity/facts/en/. Accessed [24 Feb 2017].
4. World Health Organization. Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2014. World Health Organization; 2014.
5. Williams ED, Tapp RJ, Magliano DJ, Shaw JE, Zimmet PZ, Oldenburg BF. Health behaviours, socioeconomic status and diabetes incidence: the Australian Diabetes Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). Diabetologia. 2010 Dec 1;53(12):2538–45.

See Also:

“Where To Invade Next” — Documentary by Michael Moore, 2015.