The Sad State of Nutrition Education
So a friend of mine that was on campus at the university here today sent me a text message that perfectly sum’s up how screwed up and hypocritical our society is when it comes to nutrition ’education’ vs ‘application’
This is the message she sent me:
“The student nutrition awareness program is giving away candy treat bags for correctly answering nutrition trivia questions…Oh the irony”
This is a perfect example of the big problem with ‘nutrition’ and ‘nutritionism’ information/education.
You and I can read all we want about nutrition, but putting it into practice is a whole different ball of wax. Most people don’t even follow their own advice when it comes to nutrition.
As if the “Student Nutrition Awareness Program” was giving away bags of candy to reward students for knowing something about nutrition. Am I the only person that finds this wholly ironic and completely hypocritical?
As far as I can tell they are missing the whole point of their purpose by doing this.
The only lesson they are teaching here is that an indulgent overly processed lump of sugar and fat is a great tool for a reward mechanism.
This also reminds me of how backwards it is when parents use dessert as a reward mechanism to force their children to eat their whole dinner plate of food first. In this case the parent is reinforcing overeating with overeating.
In other words, the parent is telling the kid to eat more of the food they don’t like and then they will be rewarded with even more food that tastes better…no wonder there is a childhood obesity epidemic.
[I swear some people should need to pass a licensing exam to raise children...but that's for another post...or dozen]
Anyway, this is your friendly and ironic pre-halloween reminder about our messed up societal relationship with food is. If you’re gonna eat Halloween candy, go for it and enjoy it. Then get back to sensible eating on Monday.
Enjoy Halloween, and I’ll be back on Monday.
John
4 Responses to “The Sad State of Nutrition Education”
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October 30th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Hi John,
Do you see any problem with fasting 24 hours two days back to back ,with a dinner break between the fasts. (Id assume there wouldnt be a problem if fasting 48-72 hours every once in a while poses no issues, but I thought I would ask for your feedback) (Sometimes this would be the only way for me to fit in two 24 hour fasts in a week)
October 30th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Hi John, i get your point, but isnt part of the philosophy of eat stop eat (which i follow) to allow yourself to eat the foods you like from time to time? eat stop eat is not against sugar or fat, its a calories in vs calories out kind of diet (plus the benefits of the fast), so i dont see why candy is the devil, as long as theyre moderated. The problem is not the candy, is the amount of candy one eats…as with every other food.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Mike,
I good point, I think some clarity on my part is required.
I’m right there with you about eat stop eat. Candy isn’t the devil and I never said it was, and if you like it, go ahead and eat it.
My point was the use of food as a reward mechanism, and specifically using highly palatable ‘treat’ type items as something other than food.
The idea that candy was being given away as a reward by a group that is supposedly teaching nutrition awareness seems backwards.
The act of using food as a reward mechanism was really the point I was getting at.
JB
November 18th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Hi
I am losing weight by improving my nutrition and exercise, lowering my weekly calories and doing some ESE fasts, from lunch to lunch. I have found so far that that timing fits my schedule best and I have not found it too hard. I am thinking of moving from one fast a week to two, as I have quite a lot of weight to lose and am keen to keep up the momentum.
One thing that surprised me,reading about nutrition, was that the standard advice is men need about 300g of carbs a day — that is loads! There is no way I need to eat that. Without going to extremes, I think I find keeping carbs quite low is helping me lose weight and also helps keep my appetite under control. However I think sometimes I have gone a bit too low and that makes me a bit light-headed sometimes. I read that is probably due to ketosis and it doesn’t suit some people.
Oliver