Healthcare- Nutrition

Reading Response Essay

Assignment Overview

The ability to review existing literature on a topic, and respond to that research is an essential skill for a developing writer and academic.

Assignment Instructions

Choose a topic related to issues within health or health care that interest you.
Sample topics could include the importance of teaching nutrition in early childhood education programs, or the rising popularity of “Memory-Care Communities” within Alzheimers support programs.
Research your topic thoroughly within multiple sources.
Aim to find four sources of information total, with two of those coming from academic, peer-reviewed journals or texts within the past 10 years.
The sources should have a direct relationship and relevancy to the topic.
When you feel like you have a grasp of the issues and positions on your topic, write an essay summarizing the topic.
Focus on the research and commentary contained within the sources.
Then, respond to the issues with your own interpretations and ideas.
How valid are the ideas presented in these readings?
How does this topic and information impact your own personal, academic, or professional experience?
The purpose of this essay is to respond to the topic and research, not to persuade the audience to take a particular stance or to take action on the issue.
Be sure to include a comprehensive introduction and conclusion for your paper.
Assignment Requirements

                                                     Answer

Importance of teaching nutrition to the early childhood education program
Nutrition refers to the practice and science of consuming and utilizing food. It’s a science
that explains how food substances interact with the nutrients concerning growth, maintenance,
reproduction, diseases of an organism and health. Nutrition plays a significant role in the growth
and developments of children and also it has an impact on their education. Lifestyle and diet go
hand in hand, and everybody should aim at balancing the two. A healthy lifestyle is highly
endorsed as it helps to avoid a lot of health complications to both young and old. This paper
provides a comprehensive explanation of importance of teaching nutrition in the early childhood
education
Nutrition learning provides essential knowledge that promotes academic success.
Through nutrition education, the students acquire knowledge of healthy eating. They can know
what to include in their diet at different times of the day and the significance of each content in
the diet ("Teach Nutrition | Teaching Nutrition | Tools and Resources for Teachers," 2017).
Health food promotes happy living which in turn have an impact on the student’s academic
performance. “Healthy Nutrition equals a happy student with a less problem to overcome so they
can learn”. Diets also play a significant role in boosting of memory and concentration. Poor
feeding of young ones may affect their growth and development both physically and mentally.
Nutrition education will promote a healthy life. Lifestyle is the great determinant of the
expectancy level in a country. Healthy eating plays a primary role in enhancing a healthy
lifestyle by knowing how to eat a balanced diet. Nutrition as a health section focuses on planning
and choosing a variety of pyramid for food guide, reading food labels, food safety, maintaining
the standard weight, eating patterns and adhering to the dietary guidelines. Educating the
children on the issue of nitration helps to improve their lifestyle into a healthier one. Some

diseases like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes mostly depend on the lifestyle of the
individual. Knowing how to prevent such diseases is a significant step toward fighting against
the risks of unhealthy living.
Also by teaching a topic left out of the standard curriculum, increases the quality of the
student’s education. As students aim at improving their results, it is also good to balance their
life with other extra curriculum essential learnings. Teaching the students on a diet and the
different types of foods promote their quality of student’s education. It will boost not only the
quality of the education but also the quality of life of this student. The students will have
knowledge of how to make his food timetable in such a manner that it is balanced and health
friendly.
Teaching nutrition education to students is essential as the students will apply it in their
real-life situation. One cannot separate food and life (Oklahoma. Child Nutrition Programs,
2012). We eat to live and having a vast knowledge on what we are consuming is an added
advantage to the life of the young. Malnutrition is a common problem caused by unhealthy
eating and education on the nutrition can help to solve the problem.
Education on nutrition can be integrated on others academic disciplines so that the
students do not only view it as a diet learning only. For example, it can be linked with
mathematics in that the teacher can teach the students on how to calculate the calories,
carbohydrates, proteins and fat intake. In this, the students can understand the benefits of
regulating the level of this food contents ("Teach Nutrition | Teaching Nutrition | Tools and
Resources for Teachers," 2017). On the English subject, the teacher may teach an article relating
to nutrition and the students will be confident to raise out the points of discussion since they
already have the background information.

IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING NUTRITION TO THE CHILDREN
Having a comprehensive academic program in the school is important. Installing the
children with the health decision-making skills is vital and a responsibility of the school. The
primary goal of the nutrition based program in the school is to enhance a healthy eating to the
students. The community also plays a role in promoting an academic nutrition program by
trying to make the students more aware of the things that add value to their lives (Dean &
Pinellas County Schools, 2012). The health program may include the following areas: for
physical classes, the area that affects nutrition, for nursing the school health service,
environment, cafeteria need to know about nutrition, psychological services, parents or
community coaches and teachers. Society, parents and the school administration need to work
together to make this program successful.
U.S Department of Health and Humanity Services reported that poor nutrition and lack of
exercise are the causes of premature deaths with more than 1200 deaths a day worldwide. The
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) points out diet as a risk which is facing the developing
countries today. Health education is identified as a good remedy for this premature deaths. A
heart attack is one of the common leading cause of premature death which is caused by
unhealthy living (Lucien, 2013). According to the CDC report, when young ones have unhealthy
eating habits they tend to conserve and maintain these behaviors into their old age. Physiological
and behavior risks are considered to be hard to alter once an individual establishes them at the
young age.
Nutrition education provides a lifelong habit and lessons that students acquire from the
health program do not only relies on eating healthy foods. The program goes a step further and
advances the understanding of the source of the food material and the natural process or cycle
that produces it. They are some hidden curriculum that can display to the students the way the

school believes on matters pertaining food, for example, the way the food is cooked and served.
Does the school give eating breaks enough time to take the meals, or it provides short lunches?
The school should display a culture that embraces healthy eating by providing balanced diets and
sufficient time for eating breaks.
Also, nutrition knowledge will help to erase the mentality of children that if something is
not sweet is not good to eat. Most little ones prefer foods according to their tastes rather than
their nutrition value. This health program of educating the students will reduce this notion of
eating foods based on taste. Research has it that these sweet products have an adverse impact on
our health and poses a threat of obesity ("Importance of Nutrition Education and Why It Is Key
for Educational success | ecoliteracy.org," 2017). The students also will be in a position to accept
meal changes in the school to healthier diets but not based on the taste.
This topic of Nutrition has a great impact on my knowledge in both at a personal level,
academic and in my professional experience. I have understood into details the relationship
between diet, and the school performance and how healthy eating can boost my mental ability,
memory and academic success. Also as this topic is highly applicable in the real-life, I have
gained additional skills not only in healthy living but also on how to maintain the health fitness.
In conclusion, nutrition education programs in school have a lot of short term and long-
term benefit to the students. Some of this short-term benefits include boosting academic success,
maintain body fitness among others, and the other hand, long term benefits include long, healthy
life, and reduced risk of premature deaths. However, implementing and sustaining this program
requires a collective collaboration among the administration, teachers, parents and the
community. The governments also need to come in to support and promote the effeteness of this
programs.

IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING NUTRITION TO THE CHILDREN

References

Dean, K., & Pinellas County Schools. (2012). Healthy living. Largo, FL.: Pinellas County
Schools.
The Importance of Nutrition Education and Why It Is Key for Educational success |
ecoliteracy.org. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.ecoliteracy.org/article/importance-
nutrition-education-and-why-it-key-educational-success
Lucien, L. (2013). Student brain food: Eat well, study better.
Oklahoma. Child Nutrition Programs.;. (2012). Child nutrition programs in charter schools.
Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Teach Nutrition | Teaching Nutrition | Tools and Resources for Teachers. (2017). Retrieved
from https://ontario.teachnutrition.ca/teaching-nutrition.aspx