elimination of malnutrition in their own communities due to ignorance and/or misinformation related to nutritional health. Unquestionably, many school sys­tems are attempting these approaches and others of even more significant mer­it and potential. The very fact that in some areas of the nation, particularly where the National Nutrition Survey was conducted with the support and assis­tance of local school districts, education­al agencies are recognizing the increased role they can play in further assuring the well-being of their school populations is the beginning of a break-through in at­tacking this serious problem. It should be clearly understood, however, that this is not an easy accomplishment. Increased community pressure is being exerted from all directions to upgrade and broad­en more so-called academic subject mat­ter opportunities for students. Budgeting

must be earmarked for better salaries, increased school construction, expanded transportation, and equalization of edu­cational opportunities through ever-wid­ening comprehensive programming.

When boards of education and school administrators understand that their schools do, indeed, have a key role to play at this particular time in educating children in nutritional health and that this role is related not only to the growth and development of the children but also to the welfare and progress of their com­munities, we can expect that the chal­lenge will be met irrespective of the time, effort, and expense involved.

Over the years, a sense of gratification and self-indulgence has lulled us into be­lieving that serious malnutrition could not exist here. The fact is that it does exist on an unbelievable scale affecting

CAN TEACHING GOOD NUTRITION BE BAD? Teachers of nutrition are interested in new approaches but sometimes fall into ruts. Here is a series of ideas for keeping classroom nutrition education timely and interesting.

When you take a poll of nursing and medical students about their feelings concerning nutrition, a great majority of them think it is a drag. High school as well as junior high students make ugly faces and say, "yuck."

The truth, it seems to me, is that nu­trition is both fascinating and exciting. It is moving as fast as any science. What, then, is the problem?

In the musical "Man of LaMancha," Don Quixote said "Facts are the greatest enemy of truth." I don't often remember a good line, but that one is special. Do our facts hide the truth from students? Nutrition is essential to life. Are we us­ing life to teach it or are we repeating seemingly irrelevant facts?

We cannot be satisfied with present­ing facts to students unless by our facts the students are moved to action. We cannot assume that we have taught un­til somebody has learned. We cannot as­sume that somebody has learned until he has modified his behavior.

Students are bombarded daily with facts which they may accept or reject or ignore. If the television does not please

THE AUTHOR is Nutritionist, Adoles­cent Clinic, University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver, Colo. 80220.

SUMMER. 1970

them, they change channels. They can take or leave the facts. Often they leave them. We cannot educate a student. He must educate himself. We are charged with helping him with the means. I be­lieve that we can be much more creative and make nutrition education more meaningful to our students. (See Table 1.)

I believe nutrition education can be made exciting to the average student. I think, however, that it must be integra­ted into his life experience. Here lies the problem: integration into life. How does a teacher integrate anything into the lives of oftentimes disinterested stu­dents?

There must be some methods to suit e:l.ch situation. Food, love, and sex are basic. Somewhere inbetween all of these is nutrition. When we can't reach stu­dents any other way, we can do it through food, love, and sex. If we can help them see nutrition as these basics, they will at least listen and hear us.

Many students think of nutrition as "protein," "no time for breakfast," school lunches to gripe about, a boring class, a mother fussing about being late for supper or not eating right. This is sad. Nutrition is love. It is a candlelight

millions of our fellow citizens. A continu­ally uninformed and misled citizenry in such a vital area of personal health as nutrition would only compound the per­plexing situation that exists and further weaken efforts to resolve it regardless of the size of a family's income and how­ever its crucial importance. Time, of course, is the essence. There is much to do by responsible leadership in an over­whelming number and variety of estab­lishments. The thought advanced here is that with understanding, concern, vis­ion, and action, future generations of Americans need not be victims of ignor­ance in health matters pertaining to what the nutritional intake of their bodies should be, health matters vitally associa­ted with mental and body development throughout their entire lives. Over-dra­mati2!ation? Unfortunately, the ·facts be­ing uncovered prove differently.

Joan Parker MacReynolds

dinner. It is your favorite dish prepared by someone who did it especially for you. It is proper diets for women of child­bearing age so that their babies will be healthy. It is a diet which sets the mind of the mother of a celiac baby at ease. It is much more than boring facts.

Food and eating belong to our most cherished aspects of life. We include food in our celebrations of life. Eating means much more to us than health even though nutrition may be a matter of life and death. Teachers must help see that good nutrition is integrated into our family traditions. We must all help see that poor nutrition is rooted out. We must make good nutrition a habit.

Nutrition is vital from conception to death. There are many ways to make it an adventure, a fascinating subject, and a happy part of life in the family. I am not referring to an overconcern or to food faddism but to ideas for making good nutrition family tradition.

One basic area of life is pregnancy. Pregnancy is a timely and important sub­ject. The main reason why high school girls drop out of school in the United States is pregnancy. Also, chances are good that most girls will be pregnant at some point in their lives. Pregnancy can

JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION / 13

be used to integrate valid nutrition infor­mation into the workable knowledge of children, too. Watching a birth scene and the first feeding of a pet or animal on a farm is fascinating.

Many zoos specialize in breeding cer­tain animals. For example, a zoo in a nearby city specializes in breeding gi­raffes. You stand fascinated watching those long-legged babies moving inside their placidly waiting mothers. There are usually knock-kneed babies toddling af­ter their mothers or eating their dinners. Animals are born regularly on schedule at these zoos; the zoo in your city might cooperate to allow you to be present. Wouldn't it be interesting to chat with the veterinarian about his work, prena­tal feeding, and baby animal feeding? Zoos must pay careful attention to the nutrition of their animals, particularly if they are breeding for sale to other zoos. If your city has no zoo, a local farmer might offer you the same privilege.

Then the newborn period : What does feeding mean to the newborn physiologi­cally? Psychologically? Would teenagers be interested in the primitive sucking re­flex and in the fact that a baby gets his first ideas about life and the world from the way his early feeding goes? Could the class visit a hospital or clinic and watch the babies being fed by bottle, tube, and breast? The nurses, physicians, or dieti­tians might be willing to spend some time talking about feeding.

Visiting nurses (public health nurses) generally know about baby feeding. They are educators. I imagine a public health nurse in your community would help provide a good class on feeding babies. You may even have a public health nu­tritionist available. Perhaps some young mothers would be willing to come and feed their babies for the class to watch. Feeding at different ages becomes a real

challenge when poor habits have been developed.

As the baby needs a wider variety in his diet, protein, iron and vitamins C, n, and A become matters of concern. His formula may have provided for all his earlier needs, but when food is added, it is well to know why and for what pur­pose. Since we were once babies and since we need the food for the same rea­sons the baby needs it, perhaps proteins and minerals would be more interesting from the baby-feeding standpoint. You would stress the common needs of adults, teenagers, and babies.

A visit to Head Start at lunch (they generally have two lunches each day for the morning and afternoon classes) might be fun. The students could notice the small portions, the raw finger foods, the small equipment for little people, the genial atmosphere, the table talk, and that food can be fun and soothing. A first grade teacher ora kindergarten teacher might reflect on what children like to eat and do not eat.

Feeding is so basic that many psycho­logical problems revolve about it. A psy­chiatrist or psychologist might present a program to the students concerning the importance of early feeding and later problems manifesting themselves as food and feeding difficulties.

We have found that many obese teen­agers develop from children who began to gain at some point in their life with a noticeable surge. Various drug and insurance companies give free height and weight charts. Working with a school nurse in an elementary school, older stu­dents might plot heights and weights and look for children who are above the normal for weight. They could find out what the child eats and perhaps make suggestions through the nurse for modi­fying the diet. Many adolescents have

TABLE I RESPONSIBILITIES OF NUTRITION

TEACHER AND LEARNER*

Teacher learner Example

I. Selects concepts Has experiences Where are my students in Uses resouces their development? Where

do I wantthem to go?

II . Thinks through Makes generalizations What kind of information is generalizations to Acquires understandings necessary to get them there? be developed What are their interests so

that I work through them?

III. Plans for resources I nternalizes ideas What changes did they make? and experiences

*Each teaching situation is different and the teacher must adapt to the needs she finds in her students. Their knowledge, potentials and needs will Invariably be different and therefore her goals will be to meet their needs.

14 I JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION

gained 50 to 100 pounds extra by 13 to 16 years of age. Losing pounds earlier is easier than suffering the problems of obesity during the teen years.

A diet club for anyone interested in losing weight might be effective. Teach­ers might be interested in including them­selves if they have pounds to shed. A dietitian or community nutritionist could explain to the class how to evaluate a diet so that each girl could evaluate and rearrange her own diet if she wished.

Student Interests I asked some middle to lower socio­

economic groups of high school students about what they were interested in from a nutrition standpoint and they were very verbal:

1. We hate proteins and vitamins -couldn'tthe teacher talk about bread and beef?

2. We hate to be told what to eat; give us the facts and let us decide to do it our way. We hate to be nagged.

3. The athletes wanted to know what they could eat to keep from becoming nauseated with afternoon exercise (they were eating three and four school lunch­es at a time).

4. The overweight people were inter­ested in dieting and losing.

5. All were interested in their own health.

6. Most wanted to know what to do if they felt that their mother didn't cook balanced meals but felt they couldn't change her habits.

7. Several wanted to know if poor people eat well.

8. Many spent 15 to 35 cents per day before school on food (pop, candy, do­nuts, and coffee) and said that if the school had a bre·akfast program, they would eat at school; time was a large factor in skipping breakfast.

9. There were several questions con­cerning TV advertisements on foods and drugs.

In high schools, the coaches might be interested in special nutrition programs. Generally, there will be some degree of food faddism practiced among the ath­letes of the school. Also, if the athletes are involved, the girls will be interested. The U. S. Army has done research for 25 years on physical fitness and nutrition. Their findings are available to the public and should be a hoon to coaches.

Finally, I would say, try asking your students what they like or dislike about learning nutrition or any other subject. They will tell you if they feel you are sin­cerely concerned. Nutrition is very excit­ing. It is so vitally important that teach-

SUMMER, 1970

ing nutrition becomes a prime opportu­nity for affecting the physical and mental health of society. We have to live our good or poor nutrition. We all live with our poor, mediocre, or excellent health.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hallman, R. G., "Techniques of Creative

Teaching," I. of Creative Behavior, 1 :325, Summer 1967.

Rice, E. P., "Social Aspects of Maternity Care," Obst. and Gyn., 23:307, 1964.

Stearns, G., "Nutritional State of the Moth­er Prior to Conception," I. Amer. M ed. Assn., 168 : 1655, 1958.

Wilson, N. L., editor, Obesity, Davis Com­pany, Philadelphia, 1969.

Vital Statistics of the United States, 1962, Volum e I-Natality, Public Health Ser­vice, U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, D.C., 1964.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES Periodicals

Dairy Council Digest and Nutrition News. National Dairy Council, III N. Canal St., Chicago, Ill. 60606. Quarterly publi­cations, available free which will help keep you current.

Nutrition Today, 1140 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. Quarter­ly publication available free to profes-

sionals. It will keep you abreast of re­search and new ideas in a very interest­ing manner. You don't need to be a bio­chemist to understand it.

Booklets and Other Materials Baby food companies - free educational

material which can be beneficial if used properly.

National Dairy Council - very good ma­terial when properly used.

Height-weight charts, Mead Johnson La­boratories, Main Office, Evansville, Ind. 47721.

Vitamin Manual, Upjohn Company, Kala­mazoo, Mich., 88-page booklet with real­istic pictures of vitamin deficiency dis­eases. An interesting reference.

Books Leverton, R. M., Food Becom es You, A

Dolphin Book, Doubleday and Co. , Inc., Garden City, N.Y., 1961. Students could read it easily. Good reference.

McWilliams, M., Nutrition for the Growing Years, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967. This is a fairly new textbook. It is more readable than most nutrition books. It has good information. It would be a good reference book for your collection.

Montagu, A. , Life Before Birth, Signet Books, The New American Library of World Literature, New York. This is a pocketbook for lay readers. The students would enjoy it. It is a fascinating account

EFFECT OF FOOD TABOOS ON PRENATAL NUTRITION

of prenatal life with a large chapter on nutrition.

Reiff, F. M., Steps In Home Living, Charles A. Bennett Co., Inc., Peoria, Ill., 1966. This book is written for dull and retarded home economics students in either junior or senior high school. I don't know of an­other such book. It is a good one.

Scrimshaw, N. S. and J. E. Gordon, editors, Malnutrition, Learning and Behavior, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1968.

For the Teacher Wyden, P., The Overweight Society, Pocket

Books, New York, 1965. This pocket­book is an expose of the obese American Society. It is fun and the students could read it.

Movies "Iennie Is A Good Thing," produced by

Project Head Start. Available rental free from Modern Talking Picture Service Film Libraries or dist rict offices of Office of Economic Opportunity. An excellent movie; it describes how nu­trition can become functional in the lives of preschoolers. The principles may be transferred to other age groups.

"Hungry Angels," $5.00 rental fee from As­sociated Films, Western Division, 25358 Cypress, Hayward, Calif. 94544. This movie is a rather depressing account of the severe malnutrition in deprived children of the world.

Mary Jo Bartholomew and Frances E. Poston Superstitions and taboos about food are as old as history. While many false ideas have given way, nutrition educators will still encounter some which grow out of seeds of truth.

An earlier survey of food habits con­ducted at our clinic revealed varying di­etary inadequacies among a group of 50 pregnant women. The entire group failed to meet the National Research Council's requirements for Recommended Daily Dietary Allowances. Each patient was deficient in at least one of the essential nutrients. The adolescent prenatal not only failed to meet the recommenda­tions for pregnancy, but, in addition, failed to meet the requirements for growth and development.

This evidence served as stimulus for the present study. Our purpose was to investigate the 'ex(sting food habits and to determine whether or not there was any correlation between present day food taboos and the dietary inadequacies found among our patients. More specifi-

THE AUTHORS are, respectively, Nu­tritionist, Maternal and Infant Care Project #531, and Nutrition Consultant, Charleston County Health Department, Charleston, S.C. 29401.

SUMMER. 1970

cally, did bizarre notions and false be­liefs about food interfere with recom­mended intakes of essential nutrients during pregnancy, chiefly those high in protein, iron, calcium, and vitamins A andC.

Since the food habits of an individual tend to reflect those of his environment (1,2), it is important for nutrition edu­cators to recognize differences in region­al, national, and religious food customs. Recognizing eating patterns and appreci­ating their significance, gives us a basis for approaching the multiple avenues leading to effective nutrition education (3, 4).

Also, such a survey would give us a clearer appreciation of the backgrounds, tastes, and dietary habits of our patients. Furthermore, the facts gathered would provide us information which would as­sist in adjusting our present teaching pro­gram to more adequately meet individual nutritional needs during the prenatal period. The information presented here

is a description of the findings of our investigation.

The 200 subjects selected for dietary evaluation were '3 random sample of pregnant women registered at the Ma­ternal and Infant Care Project Clinic, Medical College of South Carolina, Charleston. The group comprised 160 Negroes and 40 white women ranging in ages from 14 to 46 years. Each prenatal was interviewed individually. Dietary in­formation obtained during the confer­ence was reviewed with the patient by asking various questions designed to re­veal idiosyncrasies and peculiar beliefs about food . Responses were recorded and tabulated.

Results and Discussion Table I shows the foods believed to be

taboo during pregnancy. Of the 200 pa­tients questioned, 99 voiced a belief and practice in at least one fallacy associated with food while only six (three percent) mentioned more than one they consid­ered factual. On the other hand, there

JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION / 15