Greetings!
Even though the importance of nutrition education is so obvious, it has failed to receive the attention due to it in nearly all countries. The irony here is that in many so-called developing countries, this was once an integral part of health education, and it was dropped from the curriculum owing to the authorities' belief in the competence of pedagogues, which is totally unjustifiable. I shall not attempt here to prove the logical untenability of a fashionable pedagogical 'theory'.
I think we all would agree that we are not born with the knowledge of what constitutes appropriate nutrition for a given person at a particular time and geographical location. Unless we possess this knowledge, our intake of food may fail to satisfy our nutritional needs which would bring about ill health, inefficiency in what we undertake, and even death.
Once we understand what would constitute one's individual nutritional needs at a given time and place, and the undesirable consequences our failure to meet them would entail, it is reasonable to expect that a considerable number of us would do our best to achieve that objective.
Its achievement consists of two components; first, the positive act of consuming an adequate quantity of what is required that is of sufficient quality, and the negative act of avoiding inappropriate foods and those of poor quality.
In a society of people who are able and willing to undertake these two actions, there would be sufficient motivation for the agro-industry to produce and market appropriate food stuffs of adequate quality and not to produce and advertise wares injurious to health.
Thus, nutrition education may serve as a powerful motivator to the individual to seek and consume appropriate food of adequate quality and to shun that does not meet those criteria, while the demand it creates for such food would induce one to produce and distribute food that meet those requirements. This demand at the local level may serve as an important incentive for one to engage in anything ranging from small family gardens to few fruit trees and a small vegetable patch on one's own garden. There are many benefits that accrue from such activities.
Cheers!
Lal Manavado.
Lal Manvado