Nutrition in the 21st Century: Using Technology to Teach Lifetime Nutrition

One of the most essential components of my Foods I class and curriculum is nutrition.  There have been numerous news reports and research completed on the childhood obesity epidemic.  Nutrition, as a curriculum component, can empower students to take their own health in their hands.  It can also help them to teach their families key aspects of nutrition as well.  This extension of classroom to home may also help to combat another crisis; an obese country.  The great thing about teaching nutrition in the 21st Century is the wealth of free technological resources available online.  Teaching nutrition can be a daunting task; having resources that each student can access individually not only makes the experience personalized, but gives visual and kinesthetic learners an appealing learning portal.

One of the most recent updates by the United States Department of Agriculture is the MyPlate tool, a replacement for the previous MyPyramid.  MyPlate is an easy to use website that offers free personalized diet plans including:

• Daily caloric intake recommendations
• Recommended amounts from each of the five main food groups
• Printable meal tracking worksheets
• Online meal tracking account   
• Online food encyclopedia with dietary information

There is also a free app available on iTunes that is compatible with iPod, iPhone, and iPad.  This app would be especially beneficial for students to use at school and home and can be shared with family members.  It is easy to use and FREE!

The new MyPlate is more simplified than the earlier Pyramids and gives you a more clear example of how much of your plate should be devoted to each group.  The MyPlate was designed with a wider base of users in mind, including children and students.  In this report, students give their opinions on the new dietary tool.

The free tools listed above also make planning your diet easier and at no cost to you!  The MyPlate focuses more on lifestyle change than a quick fix.  Most people are easily swayed by immediate results promised by "fad diets" that usually require you to purchase a book, DVD, and/or special food.  Though the results may come quickly, they usually do not stay around for the long haul.  Long after the shakes and cayenne pepper concoctions are out the window, the pounds are usually right back in.  MyPlate offers a plans that focus on maintaining your current weight or working toward a healthier weight goal.  By including foods from each group and making small gradual lifestyle changes, results will come and will be more likely to stay for the long haul.  

WebMD also offers a wealth of resources through their FIT programs.  These online resources, quizzes, and games are great learning tools offered for teens that can educate in a fun way.  These resources can be accessed at school and on home computers, phones, or tablets as well.  There are also versions for younger children, so this resource could also be incorporated at the elementary and middle school levels in addition to the high school classroom.  This platform, that has varying levels for ages 2-19, focuses on the following areas of fitness:

• FOOD: Nutritional Fitness
• MOVE: Physical Fitness
• MOOD: Emotional Fitness
• RECHARGE: Behavioral Fitness

The website allows participants an area to track exercise, lists ideas for exercise activities, and gives examples of good food choices.  The website also allows users to earn points on games and quizzes in an appealing video game format.  

Let's Move is a program launched by Michelle Obama to reduce childhood obesity.  The Let's Move website has resources and information for everyone ranging from students to schools.  Since both the Let's Move and MyPlate sites are operated by government agencies, there are similarities.  The main difference is that the Let's Move site offers more suggestions geared toward children and students involving both exercise and nutrition.  

Jamie Oliver's website is also another great online resource for nutritional information.  The British chef is most recently noted for his ABC television show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a show focused on reviving schools and home menus to include fresh and healthy food choices.  His website focuses primarily on teaching children to cook and prepare meals with their families.  The Jamie Oliver website has a wide variety of recipes and video versions of recipes that make preparation a breeze.  Jamie Oliver has several free and low-cost apps and podcasts available on iTunes.  Episodes of his television show are also available on:

• ABC
• iTunes
• YouTube

The video below is an excerpt from an episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution showing the amount of sugar that students in Los Angeles consume through flavored milk in one week.  These short clips, easily found on the ABC website and YouTube, are quick ways to get the attention of students, parents, and school officials!

A variety of resources are waiting waiting to be utilized in your classroom and home.  The resources are technologically rich and most offer other methods of staying up to date through links to Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger.  Most of the websites mentioned also have apps that are available for little or no cost on iTunes.  The platforms utilized by the websites are not complicated and all of the resources (except some of the iTunes apps) are completely free!  Since most students have some way to connect or download this information and applications, either through home and school computers, smart phones, iPods, and tablet devices, gaining access to these resources poses limited problems.  Schools that have access to class sets of iPods, computer labs, or mobile labs should find the resources blend seamlessly into a nutrition curriculum.