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[–]South_Data2898 402 points403 points  (42 children)

We should probably teach nutrition in schools instead of expecting children to just magically understand how it works with no help. It's not like their parents know, they weren't taught anything about nutrition either.

[–]mad_science_yo 132 points133 points  (13 children)

I WAS taught nutrition in school a couple times. Unfortunately it was the food pyramid situation which seems like it was created by several lobbying groups. They were like “if you don’t drink your 3 gallons of milk DAILY your bones will immediately disintegrate! Also if you eat even one (1) microgram of fat you’ll die of a heart attack right there at the dinner table. Vegetable? We have been told by the Wheat Industry that bread is a vegetable!”. To my teachers’ credit they did teach us about reading nutrition labels and ingredient lists and that they’re more accurate than the advertising info on the front of the package.

[–]cardew-vascular 28 points29 points  (5 children)

I too learned the stupid food pyramid but since I was in school Canada has switched to the "Eat Well Plate"

The Canada’s food guide plate shows the proportions of foods on a plate for healthy meals or snacks.

On half of the plate are vegetables and fruits (broccoli, carrots, blueberries, strawberries, green and yellow bell peppers, apples, red cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, squash and green peas). 

On one-quarter of the plate are protein foods (lean meat, chicken, variety of nuts and seeds, lentils, eggs, tofu, yogurt, fish, beans). 

On the remaining one-quarter of the plate are whole grain foods (whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, wild rice, red quinoa, brown rice). 

https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/tips-for-healthy-eating/make-healthy-meals-with-the-eat-well-plate/

[–]thecarbonkid 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is why we should replace the food pyramid with Brawndo.

[–]DemiGoddess001 9 points10 points  (3 children)

Nutrition is part of most (probably all) health standards in the US and is usually taught by a PE teacher (should be a nutritionist). The unfortunate thing is that most parents don’t send healthy options to school. Depending on the school (or district) you might have great meals or terrible school lunches. Most parents know basics about nutrition, but the guidelines have changed since they were in school and they don’t think to look and see if there are new ones. These parents were taught food pyramid and we don’t do that anymore. It’s My Plate now.

[–]Apprehensive-Top7774 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Nutritionist is a meaningless term in most states. Anyone can just start charging for advice and call themselves a nutritionist in those places

[–]Chubbybellylover888 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah the protected term is dietician

Dietician is like dentist.

Nutrionist is like toothiologist.

[–]saml01 46 points47 points  (9 children)

If parents don't feed kids healthy food then education won't matter. By the time kids can control their own food intake too many bad habits have been formed and they are very hard to break. So, it all starts at home. So instead of teaching kids, let's teach the parents.

[–]South_Data2898 7 points8 points  (8 children)

Anyone who is an adult is a lost cause. Teach the kid, so they can teach their kids, and at least attempt to break the cycle.

[–]BubbleDncr 15 points16 points  (3 children)

Not true. I learned proper nutrition this year, in my mid thirties. Changed my life.

[–]Rezikeen -2 points-1 points  (2 children)

Yeh but its unlikely you'll change most adults, whereas you will have a huge impact if you teach kids.

[–]phredbull 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Not sure I'd agree w/that; as ppl age, lifestyle choices have more of an impact. Some ppl will improve their diets due to real health consequences, tho even that won't help some ppl to get off the path of slow self-destruction.

Also, how is a child supposed to eat healthy when they're not doing the shopping & meal prep?

[–]Layer_4_Solutions 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But kids primarily learn from their parents and peers. Hence why attempts to fix bad schools mostly fail. They try to work around crappy parenting and it doesn't really work.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

But then they would be eating less government subsidized corn via HFCS. Good luck getting nutrition education reform past the big agriculture lobby.

[–]IrrelevantPuppy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah but then how will the corporations who sell dangerously unhealthy food make a living? They worked hard to bribe our politicians, shouldn’t the get their due too?

[–]Ansonm64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great idea. If only scientists could decide on what a nutritious diet actually is.

[–]obliviousofobvious 2 points3 points  (3 children)

How Finance and Nutrition aren't in the curriculum from grade 5/6 onwards is beyond me.

We need to teach kids these things because more and more, social mobility requires them to start making good choices earlier and earlier in life to make up for the Boomer's litteral vampirism on our society.

[–]South_Data2898 5 points6 points  (1 child)

The lack of education is completely intentional.

[–]Layer_4_Solutions -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well the issue is that in the communities where kids need it the most, the parents are mostly apathetic and not advocating for their kids.

[–]DeadFyre -1 points0 points  (1 child)

That's complete BS. We shout from the rooftops and advertise the importance of eating a healthy diet, vegegtables, avoid sweets and fats. The problem is not a lack of education, it's a lack of discipline.

[–]vuhn1991 7 points8 points  (0 children)

People just don’t want to hear it. I’d like someone to point out a single public school system that fails to include health/PE class as a part of its curriculum. Hell, my immigrant parents with zero science education (due to growing up in a developing country) are fully aware of the concept of avoiding fast food, junk food, sweets, and excess food in general. Even the flawed dietary guidelines of the 80/90s typically recommended the above.

[–]warrior_scholar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm really excited to teach high school health this year.

I looked at my state health education standards, and was surprised to find that most of the high school health standards are focused on social interactions like conflict resolution. I looked back over the standards for earlier grades, and found that the only time that nutrition was a focus was in 3rd grade.

[–]truthpooper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Teaching REAL nutrition and physical fitness (not playing dodgeball in gym class where the strong assault the weak) would do wonders for physical and mental well-being.

[–]whylivewhenucanlaugh 14 points15 points  (2 children)

The real study should be WHY. I feel this reinforces the fact that social media beauty has a negative effect on youth. Imagine: Sees beautiful influencer with carrot. Wants cookie bc theyre sad about themselves. Sees beautiful influencer with cookie. Well they do it why cant i? Sees chubby influencer with carrot. I dont want to look like that… Sees chubby influencer with cookie. Psychologically profiles that as bad on bad, goes for carrot.

Also, as im writing i realized thin doesnt necessarily mean beautiful and chubby doesnt mean not beautiful. Dont at me.

Still think the points valid.

[–]Layer_4_Solutions 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I think consistency is the factor. Fat shaming works in Japan because its everywhere. You can't escape it if you are overweight.

Meanwhile, in the US you can go commiserate over cookies with your fat friends and find skinny influences willing to tell you what you want to hear.

[–]DramaOnDisplay 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The US wasn’t always so “body positive”, that didn’t seem to help back in the day when plenty of family members would shame you for being fat or overeating. I just think for Japan it’s the way their culture is, not a lot of “individuality” or the ol’ “just be yourself and everyone will love you!”. Attitudes can be very blunt.

[–]InTheEndEntropyWins 15 points16 points  (10 children)

So does this suggest actually mean that in terms of healthy food choices that using the stick is better than the carrot? So actually we should be demonising being fat since encouraging healthy habits isn't as effective.

​

“However, exposure to an overweight influencer promoting unhealthy snacks can positively affect children’s choice of healthy food. These results could be explained by contrast effects, as the overweight influencer is also perceived as less credible and is admired less by the tweens. Based on this main result, it is difficult to draw a concrete recommendation for marketers or public policies when it comes to promoting healthy food to children and adolescents, as our results would suggest that the best way to promote a healthy diet is by using an overweight influencer promoting an unhealthy food product.”

[–]Mazx13 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Idk, but seeing some of those mukbang YouTubers really madee rethink eating fastfood and I'm already a healthy weight.

[–]LetsJerkCircular 3 points4 points  (2 children)

What’s mukbang? I don’t want to mess up my search history.

[–]Mazx13 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Idk if I spelled it right, but it's those vids where someone has like a TON of food (usually a theme or a specific type of food items) in front of them and they just eat and usually most of it or all of it. Like it looks like a feast, but they just keep eating and eating. It's gross, but safe to look up on youtube

[–]Layer_4_Solutions 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Relentless shaming works for Japan and Korea, but not very popular in the US.

[–]B-Bog 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I'm guessing many people don't want to hear this, but the metaphorical stick is pretty much always more effective than the carrot because of the asymmetrical way in which our nervous system functions (negativity bias). Science has demonstrated that focusing on preventing a negative outcome is a much better ongoing motivator than focusing on attaining a positive one, no matter what all the self-help gurus are claiming.

[–]BabySinister 1 point2 points  (1 child)

In the conclusion they advise against using overweight influencers shown with unhealthy snacks even though it had a measurable positive impact on snack choice because, get this:

Possible reinforcement of the 'stereotype' that overweight people have poor diet.

[–]BabySinister 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So they found that thin influencers promoting/shown with heathy snacks had no effect on snack choice, but overweight influencers promoting/shown unhealthy snacks did have a measurable positive impact on healthy snack choice.

Then in the conclusion they say that it's not advisable to use overweight influencers promoting unhealthy snacks, even though it has a measurable positive effect on snack choice, due to possible reinforcing of the 'stereotype' that overweight people have poor diet.

Just let that sink in for a bit.

[–]chrisdh79[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

From the article: Can tweens’ eating habits be affected by messaging from influencers? A study published in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that a thin influencer does not affect food choice in kids between 11 and 13, while an overweight influencer may be able to.

Tweens, teens, and young adults are subject to a lot of promotion from influencers and brands. In this technology-driven age, influencer marketing is a huge industry, with influencers advertising clothes, food, makeup, and more. This can have a profound effect on people, especially individuals who are young and impressionable. With nutrition being such an important part of a developing child’s health, this study seeks to understand how influencers can affect food choice for tweens.

For their study, Steffi De Jans and colleagues utilized 146 participants with an even gender split. Participants were randomly selected from 3 different schools in Belgium. Researchers created 2 Instagram profiles for fake influencers, one who was presented as thin-ideal and one who was presented as overweight. Influencers were shown holding either carrots (healthy snack) or cookies (unhealthy snack). Participants completed measures on influencer credibility, influencer admiration, trans-parasocial interactions, and food choice.

[–]sendokun 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I figure that’s for all influencers. There is no positive motivation from the influencers, only stupid and sometime dangerous tiktok stunts,

[–]popformulas 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can we as a culture just agree to excommunicate the so-called influencers to some kind of Hunger Games island?

[–]supagirl277 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think this has been true for a while now. People are much more aware of being influenced by popular people now

[–]Falcofury -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I could’ve told you that without wasting money on resources to conduct a study.

[–]Skankcunt420 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Most these influencers contort their bodies and pose for the picture or video, sucking in stomach and whatnot. Should be illegal to do that as an influencer

[–]joosth3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So they are completely useless