Please make a note in your diaries.
Program details to be announced before the end of 2002.
Speakers
Keynote speaker: Rosemary Stanton
Topic: Can one person make a difference?
Rosemary generously shared with us the story of her life, focusing on the
people and events that made a difference to her and some of the ways that she
has made a difference to the world of food and nutrition. She made suggestions
and recommendations to assist others in their work how they might make a
difference.
As a child, being useful and happy was important to her. During her early
training in the science of nutrition she gained experience in writing
educational materials, writing for magazines and running classes. During this
time she met Jo Rogers. Jo was very influential in helping Rosemary in her
mission to change the poor eating habits of many Australians so that they might
have healthier diets, enjoy their food more and create less environmental
damage.
While becoming the public face of nutrition has been useful and has been a
powerful tool in reaching a wide audience, it was never Rosemary's goal.
She suggested that by working together, organisations such as Nutrition
Australia, the Dietitians' Association of Australia and the Heart Foundation can
make a difference. The area of GM labelling was a great example of people
getting together and lobbying for labelling of GM foods.
Rosemary gave an overview of food industry power agreeing that some sections of
this industry are great and aim to offer quality and nutritious food choices,
while others continue to promote issues such as:
- functional foods are important to fix health problems;
- restrictions on children's advertising are inappropriate in the 'real
world'.
Media and some sections of the food industry refer to nutrition professionals
as the food police and criticise us for 'always changing our minds'. However,
Rosemary pointed out that this is not true, since the advice of what constitutes
a healthy well-balanced food intake has not changed for 50 years. For 50 years
we have been promoting vegetables, fruit, wholegrains and fish.
Sustainability and health is area where there is an opportunity to educate
people and make a difference. We need innovative ways to get our messages
across.
(This topic is the focus for Nutrition Week, October this year)
Some approaches for the future:
- Networking on food, health and environmental issues.
- Promote eco-sensitive organic products.
- Minimal use of pesticides.
- Teach respect for foods, especially local foods and products in season
- Teach about unnecessary packaging.
- Consider environmental costs of production. eg transport of milk, into and
out of states within Australia.
- Environmental sustainability - relevant everywhere.
- Teach food, literacy and cooking skills - get this back on the education
and health agenda - work more with chefs.
- Promote programs that have been successful in changing poor eating habits.
- Look at what has been successful in other countries.
Cate Burns - Lecturer in Public Health nutrition, Deakin University,
Melbourne
Topic: Identifying a target audience and meeting their needs.
Plan of attack
- Pinpointing target audience
- Understanding target audience and needs
- Match needs with level of interest, resources, previous education in area
- Provide critical analysis framework, ie knowledge and skills for audience
to tackle issues in future
Meeting Needs
- Goals and outcomes must be clearly identified
- Goals and educational strategy must be matched
- Learner centred behavioural approach
Cate showed how to apply these two stages through a weight management project
with which she is involved. She gave advice on the selection of literature, data
and web sites. Translation of knowledge into habit change can be found from many
disciplines, sources and behaviours: psychology literature, social factors, life
skills, newspapers, magazines, thinking about your own habits and attitudes,
watch in supermarkets, shopping and cooking.
Food education is largely experiential.
Jackie Brien
Coordinator of Food facts for Preschoolers program for Kindergarten Parents
Victoria and lecturer in child studies.
This project has been devised to:
- Increase relevant nutritional resources to preschools and child care
centres.
- Increase nutritional knowledge and skills of preschool teachers, child care
workers and parents.
- Inform and develop a strategy to increase the nutritional training of
undergraduate preschool teachers.
This project is funded for 3 years by the Commonwealth Department of Health and
Ageing under the National Child Nutrition Program.
It is sponsored by Kindergarten Parents Victoria which is the peak body for
preschools in Victoria.
A kit has been developed and was sent in May 2002 to approximately 3000 early
childhood services in Victoria. It has also been widely distributed to all early
childhood departments at universities and TAFE colleges, all Victorian Nutrition
programs, interstate statewide programs, all DHS specialist children's services
regions, dietitians involved in training delivery.
The kit includes:
A scenario workbook for staff to consider and work through.
A copy of the Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents.
A copy of the Kindergarten Parents Victoria Model Policy on Nutrition that may
be adapted to meet the needs of individual early childhood services.
A tip sheet called" Talking about food to families from culturally and
linguistically diverse backgrounds'.
Copies of the Department of Human Services tip sheets :
- Healthy eating for preschoolers
- Eating for older toddlers
- Sweet drinks for children
(These may be p/copied and given to parents)
Jackie talked of how this program can be used in local situations and how it is
a time saver for staff. They have run training sessions to over 300 staff in 18
locations to date.
Kindergartens are an opportune setting for nutrition education to begin and for
information to be disseminated to parents.
Kim Weston.
Home Economics Teacher,
Full report not available.
Kim gave an example called ' post cards' through which she encouraged students
to express food and nutrition concerns in a succinct style (ie - as would fit on
a post card). Students 'posted' the cards to their teacher.
Sherry Clewlow
Chef: Food Lovers Workshop.
Topic: The Real Flavour of Food
In her individual style Sherry immediately grabbed the attention of the audience
by asking them to think of something sexy and to focus on it for a minute or
two. Then she said, well now you have that off your mind we can concentrate on
the topic at hand - the enjoyment of food - the real flavour of food.
Choosing the best possible ingredients, mostly fresh is cost effective,
nutritionally effective and very satisfying to the taste sensations. Sherry
quickly prepared two similar dishes, one with thebest ingredients and one very
basic. These were handed around the audience for people to check the appearance
and the aroma (there was not time for a taste test), other ingredients were also
handed around to check aroma and feel. Sherry has the knack of helping nutrition
educators to improve their enthusiasm for food and ways of presenting it. This
linked in very well with Rosemary's suggestion of improving our food literacy
and cooking skills and Cate's recommendation to shop and cook.
Overview of Workshops
FoodScan
Harry Wright
FoodScan is based upon the AUSNUT Food and nutrition database published in 1999
containing some 4 500 food items and 28 nutrients / attributes.
The program is designed to provide easy access to this large amount of data to
answer questions such as the following, which will be illustrated by example:
- Which food items provide specific levels of vitamins and minerals (relative
to RDIs)
- In selected food groups eg Mc Donald's brands, meats or soy foods, what are
the relative amounts of specific components - protein, fat, cholesterol.
- What is the full nutrient / component data for a specific food.
Reviewing the dietary intake analysis facility in FoodScan will cover:
- Entering personal details, age, weight, activity etc.
- Determining an appropriate activity level estimate.
- Selecting foods for a daily intake and multiple days.
- Reviewing the balance of food choices by type, cereals, vegetables, meats
etc.
The Recipes feature - value of creating your own recipes as food items will be
illustrated.
A review of the important practical aspects of handling student data securely in
the classroom environment will cover how to install FoodScan and deal with
archiving student data for on-going use.
Food Variety and Physical Activity
Virginia Wayte
This workshop was based on the Nutrition Australia kit of the same name
(available on our order form). It presents a variety of approaches to this topic
suitable for groups from upper primary school to adult fitness classes. The
activity 'Eat a Wide variety of Foods" was featured in the workshop.
Meeting the needs of vegetarians
Sibilla Johnston
People who follow or wish to follow a vegetarian diet need to be aware there are some key nutrients that can be of concern, especially in groups
considered 'at risk'. Meeting these needs is the focus of this workshop.
Including minimizing resistance to learning, teaching methods, types of presentations and choosing material appropriate to the audience interest,
income and skills.
From Science into Everyday Language
Ruth Riddell
Translating science into everyday language is a major role of nutrition
Australia. It is demonstrated in our wide range of publications.
Some translations are easy:
For example: Dental Caries = tooth decay
Using the draft dietary guidelines for children and adolescents and those for
infants the group looked at the guideline:
'Enjoy a wide variety of nutritious foods' and what needs defining in this.
Sounds simple but what does variety mean? And : What is meant by ' nutritious
food'?
The Healthy Eating Pyramid is our way of translating variety
What is meant by enjoy a wide variety of nutritious food?
Discussion on this - it is an attempt to be positive but is it? It is our task
to take away the negative - people can be encouraged to eat lots of different
foods. Would: Eat a wide variety of nutritious foods be better? Is it any less
instructive?
- Refer to our new book Teaching Nutrition page 17 Being Sensitive to Needs and
Suggested Approaches page 13.
A very complex passage and a suggested translation is looked at in small group
discussion where participants worked on a translation and application task.
Pyramid Power
Jodi Phillips
The group explored the effectiveness of the Pyramid in overcoming current
nutrition education challenges.
Aim of the workshop was to investigate ways to use the Pyramid in nutrition
education to:
- Increase consumption of foods from plants and decrease consumption of foods
from animal origin
- Increase consumption of fresh fruit
- Increase consumption of vegetables and decrease consumption of high fat, high
sugar foods at the top of the Pyramid.
Three target groups identified in the workshop were:
- Primary school children
- Secondary school children
- Older Australians
1. The facilitator explored how people currently use the Pyramid and the level
of the groups' awareness of the Pyramid Power Kit (available on our order form):
- This initiated good discussion and debate about the use or otherwise of serve
sizes. The general consensus of the group was that they used combinations of the
government resource the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and the Healthy
Eating Pyramid.
- The Pyramid was generally viewed as the simplest tool to use when first
introducing nutrition education to a group. Most of the group did not use it as
a diet analysis tool or interactively.
- Most participants were not familiar with the detailed content of the Pyramid
Power Kit.
2. A quick overview of the Kit was presented focusing on the changes of the
Pyramid since its inception in 1981.
Points for discussion were:
- Why nuts were moved to the Eat Most group.
- The differences between the vegetarian pyramid and the regular pyramid.
- Different formats of the Kit were shown and different uses for each were
explored.
- Supportive material available: The Healthy Eating Pyramid video is a great
tool to accompany the kit.
Other Nutrition Australia resources to use in conjunction with the kit included:
- A Student's Guide to Studying Nutrition (book).
- Teaching Nutrition (book).
Primary School Children: General goals listed above plus teaching children to
be aware of the high amount of inappropriate food advertising that they are
exposed to.
- Use the regular pyramid as a photocopy handout for children to recall what
they ate the previous day and place a mark in the relevant part the pyramid.
Discuss the different results of the group.
- Use the Nutrition Australia website in conjunction with the Pyramid - www.nutritionaustralia.org.
- Build a simple pyramid, bring in different foods and ask students to place in
the appropriate section of the pyramid. Use foods in season and introduce
children to the huge variety of fruit, vegetables and grains. This is a good
opportunity to utilise different cultures within the group.
- Bring in children's magazines and place all food found within them in the
appropriate section of the Pyramid. This is a good way to makes students aware
of how much unhealthy food advertising they are exposed to.
- Encourage parental involvement - recommend a healthy eating day: "Veg
Out" day.
- For small groups - Paint a huge Pyramid hopscotch in the playground- this is
a great activity to encourage movement and learn about a variety of foods.
Divide each part of the pyramid into hopscotch squares and ask the children to
roll a stone and when they land on a square they have to mention an in season
food that fits into that group that has not already been said. If they do this
successfully they continue, if they do not then they are out.
Secondary School Children: General goals plus teaching about sustainable food
supply.
Include activities that involve self-assessment.
- Older students respond well to the computer version of the Pyramid.
- Use the regular Pyramid as a photocopy handout for students to recall what
they ate the previous day and place a mark in the relevant part the Pyramid.
Complete this again at the end of the nutrition education lessons and ask the
students to report back on changes that have occurred.
- Analyse the foods in the different groups of the Pyramid in terms of the
resources used to produce them and the amount of packaging.
- Choose a healthy eating website and have students write a critique on it
based on the principles of the Pyramid.
Older Australians: Uses self-assessment methods using the Pyramid as a guide
for them to analyze their own food intake.
- Focus on diary foods - explore the misconceptions that diary food increase
mucus and introduce them to others source of high calcium food.
- Teach them about different greens and simple foods to prepare for one e.g.
cous cous, polenta, pasta, rice, different types of vegetables - visit a market.
- Hold an interactive discussion group showing how the Pyramid proportions can
be used for people with diabetes and people eating a diet to reduce cholesterol.
Additional references
Great case studies:
www.fao.org
Sustainability and getting kids involved in food:
Should gardening and Nutrition Education Resources
www.cde.ca.gov/nsd/nets/g_ed_res.htm
Evidence based Planning Framework for Nutrition, Physical Activity and Healthy
Weight Range www.dhs.vic.gov.au/phd/hddev/hpropmo/hpstrat1/chapt3.html
.
Teaching Nutrition
Luci Dobson
Healthy eating is one of the essential elements that contributes to the health
and wellbeing of all Australians. This session investigated the use of Nutrition
Australia's latest resource 'Teaching Nutrition' to assist with nutrition
education for a variety of target audiences. The book is divided into 3 sections
encompassing teaching guidelines, basics of nutrition for lesson planning and
practical ideas that have worked in teaching food and nutrition.
Meeting the needs of a culturally diverse group
Madeleine Ward
Know your target group:
Demographics eg. socio-economic, age, gender
Health issues eg. vitamin D deficiency dark skinned Muslim women
Social influences on eating
Language considerations:
Interpreters
Language resources
Cultural foods:
Examples from each food group
Understand methods of preparation
Food taboos and beliefs
Useful websites
Nutrition Tools:
Healthy Eating Pyramid
Australian Guide to Healthy Eating
Core Food groups
Developing other tools:
Real food - tactile and sensory important
Pictures
Food containers
Plastic food
Workshop Activity
Using a giant pyramid, demonstrate how real foods, plastic foods, food containers, pictures of food can be used to convey a simple
message (this activity is described in Teaching Nutrition page 56)
