The Importance Of Nutrition Education

American philosophy thus far has been to educate children once they have entered into the school system. From cute cartoon vegetables, to flashy internet games, hoping to convey the importance of eating nutritious food to kids, there have been many attempts to influence what American children are eating. According to a 2007 USA TODAY article by Martha Mendozab who is an Associated Press writer and has won a Pulitzer Prize for her work in investigative journalism, the Associated Press reviewed 57 government programs dedicated to nutrition education. Just four showed any real promise, and had a lasting impact in the child participants ' diets. All of this for the small sum of one billion dollars of taxpayer money spent by the Federal Government

In any given school day, parent 's are responsible for providing the other two meals, but often fail to present meals which are nutritionally balanced. Currently, state laws exist as to what food can be served at school to counteract the lack of nutrition that children are receiving at home, but according to Carol Ogden in her 2014 JAMA paper entitled “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012”, “in 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese”. With statistics like these, it is clear that our current system is not working. Parents are responsible for the overall nutrition of their child. They do the shopping, the cooking, and then present a meal in which they hope that their child will eat. Unfortunately, the majority of parents ' in the United States are unaware that focusing on good nutrition should be a priority well before a child reaches elementary school, and being ill informed jeopardizes a controllable aspect of their child 's health. Focusing our energy and money on further educating and helping parents discover what proper nutrition looks like for each stage of their child 's life is

Allan Walker and Courtney Humphries, in their 2006 book entitled The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy, “argue that good nutrition starts in the womb”(19) and that “Your role as a prospective parent begins with the choices you make while you 're pregnant”(19). Potential parents need to learn how to take care of themselves before they have children, because here again, a lack of information can unwittingly cause mothers ' to make poor decisions during pregnancy that will affect their child 's health later on in life. Unless one is a pediatrician or a nutritionist, the average pregnant mother 's knowledge of how much and what types of food they should be consuming may be woefully inadequate. Thankfully, it is common knowledge in America that drinking alcohol, smoking, or doing drugs is harmful for a baby while in its mother 's womb, but a lack of nutritious food can be just as damaging to an unborn child. According to the Association of Nutrition, which is based in London, article “Maternal nutrition: Building foundations of long-term good health” by Cathryn Salisbury and Claire Robertson in 2013, lower birth weights and how much a child weighs at the age of one can “be associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes and glucose intolerance” (250). The whole case for teaching our children about nutrition in schools so that we can spare them from these specific medical issues