Due to the great increase of childhood obesity cases in the U.S. over the past 30 years, the critical need to achieve healthy eating habits and gain sufficient nutritional knowledge has been raised. Overweight and obese children are at risk for developing medical problems that affect their present and future health, as well as overall quality of life. As children continue to grow in a world fueled by various factors that affect their dietary intake, they lack nutritional knowledge and begin to assume that unhealthy eating behaviors are the norm. The continuance of such behaviors lead children to face the same chronic diseases and health issues that overweight and obese adults face. If sedentary behavior, followed by unhealthy eating and a deficit in nutritional knowledge continues, it can be predicted that today’s children will keep facing an obesity epidemic and its health-related consequences.
With the daily participation of over 40 million children in the School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program, schools have the ability to promote the consumption of nutritious foods and teach the importance of physical activity (Clark & Fox, 2009). Though the state of Ohio requires that health education (focusing on the nutritive value of foods, the relation of nutrition to health, and the use and effects of food additives) be incorporated into school curriculum, there have been financial and time restraints on nutrition education because of the intense pressure for schools to raise standardized testing scores (“State School Healthy Policy Database: Health Education”, 2008). Teachers must incorporate nutrition into their curriculum even without having the background knowledge on whether to decide what information is important or accurate.
Discovering that over nine million U.S. children were overweight in 2006 helps to mentally grasp the growing problem of childhood obesity, as well as how children lack valuable knowledge about nutrition and proper dietary intake. An extensive review of literature will be conducted to help solidify the need for preventative measures against factors that negatively affect the nutritional knowledge and dietary intake of children.
The lessons of READY, SET, LEARN will give students an in-depth look into the importance of having a balanced diet and understanding exactly why it is needed.