Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Nutrition education can provide individuals with the knowledge, skills and motivation to help them to make healthy dietary choices. Schools are an ideal setting for nutrition education because they are one of the main social contexts in which lifestyles are developed but schools are part of a network of influences which shape eating and activity patterns and attitudes. As an instance, school aged children develop behaviour through interaction with other pupils, teachers, parents, siblings and external influences such as the media. As well as nutrition education, schools also have many other means of contributing to good nutrition and health. School-based nutrition interventions can include learning experiences and other actions implemented by schools which make healthy nutrition a way of daily life, both at present and in the future. The Balanced Nutrition Education Project was established in 2011 by the Sabri ��lker Food Research Foundation in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Education�s Elementary Schools General Directorate to contribute to developing healthy eating behaviors in school children in Turkey. The Balanced Nutrition Education Project is being implemented in 10 cities and 500 schools and in 4 different regions of the country and at present the 2017-2018 programmes is reaching 6 million students, teachers and parents (Figure1). The Food � a fact of life programme was devised by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) and originally launched in 1991. It provides resources to support food and nutrition teaching through a progressive learning framework, all of which are tested in schools. The programme also supports the professional training of teachers at primary and secondary school levels. In addition, BNF provides a healthy eating week for schools (and others) to help address whole school food issues � and in 2017, 9,681 schools registered representing 4.2 million children and young people (Figure 2). Programmes may lead to different outcomes in different countries, as a result of cultural differences and other factors; it is very useful to share experiences, which highlights the importance of networks such as BNF and Sabri ��lker Foundation to ensure communication and sharing of best practice. References 1. Weichselbaum E (2013) Behaviour change initiatives to promote a healthy diet and physical activity in European countries. Nutrition Bulletin 38(1):85-99. 2. Schneider E and Theobald C (2016) Development and evaluation of food and nutrition teaching kits for teachers of primary schoolchildren. Nutrition Bulletin 41(1):55-66. 3. Ballam R (2017) British nutrition foundation healthy eating week 2017. Nutrition Bulletin 42(4):351-355.

Biography

Burcu Aksoy has been Nutrition and Scientific Communication Executive since 2016. Prior to this position, she was Research Assistant in Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey from 2007-2016. She completed her Graduation in Nutrition and Dietetics from Hacettepe University and MSc in Dietetics program of Institute of Health Sciences at Hacettepe University and PhD in Nutrition and Dietetics program of Institute of Health Sciences at Hacettepe University in 2010 and 2016 respectively. She studied the relation between plasma fatty acids, amino acids levels and the nutrition status of adults in her PhD.
Email:burcu.aksoy@sabriulkervakfi.org