Should we educate kids about nutrition?

Even within the dietetic field, there are differing opinions on feeding and teaching kids about food. Some health professionals believe that using nutrition education is a helpful way to encourage kids to eat specific foods. They think comments like “milk is good for your bones” or “carrots are good for your eyesight” will encourage the child to drink milk and eat carrots.

But do these comments actually encourage kids to eat particular food? Or are they just forms of pressure which ultimately backfires? Who is right, and what works best for kids? This blog post will dive into one of the main controversies in feeding kids - nutrition education, to shed some light on what the research shows.

The Basics of Nutrition Education

Schools teach about nutrition in various subjects, like science and health. Learning that yogurt contains calcium and vegetables are good sources of fibre are fundamental lessons in the classroom. Nutrition education is also used as a tool at home by parents to help encourage children to eat their meals. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What do we know about nutrition education and feeding?

The answers to these questions are more complex, as there is controversy even within the world of dietetics. For example, some dietitians support the discussion of the health benefits of foods in terms of colour. An example would be that “orange foods can help with eyesight” instead of explicitly naming carrots.

However, even if this encourages the child to eat orange food (debatable), is it even accurate to say that orange foods have that benefit? Other dietitians would disagree, offering examples of orange foods, like goldfish crackers or orange soda, that don’t help with eyesight.

Nutrition Education and Younger Children

Young children are black-and-white thinkers; their brain development has not yet reached the point where they can understand nuance and use logic. Regarding food, they cannot make choices based on nutrition. They only understand that something is good or bad.

A study on persuasive messaging in preschoolers examined this effect (1). Researchers observed that when a food item read out loud in a story was related to a health benefit, the preschoolers ate less of it and rated it as less tasty. They inferred that the food item must not taste good if it provided a benefit. Therefore, providing persuasive educational messaging to the children did not increase consumption or interest in that food item, but the opposite!

Nutrition Education and Older Children

Older children, aged 12 and up, can grasp more abstract concepts. Therefore, they can better understand ingredients and nutritional benefits. And, in theory, use this to help with food selection. However, do they do this?

A study looking at 354 children aged 7-13 and their parents demonstrated that children aged 11-13 possess higher nutritional knowledge than younger children (2). However, it was not associated with their consumption of ‘healthier’ foods. Taste and perception of social acceptability were the two factors related to consumption.

Therefore, no matter the child's age, as seen in these two studies, nutritional knowledge was not associated with increased consumption of those food items.

Nutrition Education and Risk of Eating Disorders

It is also necessary to think of possible harmful effects of the nutrition education learned in school. Spending time discussing healthy or unhealthy foods, nutritional guidelines, or nutritional values of specific foods makes the child hyper-focused on and hyperaware of what they are eating.

The research even demonstrates that nutrition education can be associated with eating disorder risks. A 2023 study looking at triggers for developing anorexia in those aged 9-19 concluded that 14% of those interviewed shared that receiving health education triggered their eating disorder (3).

Solving the Nutrition Education Problem

So, how do we “solve” this problem? We explore the world of food without naming it, without discussing its possible benefits, and without caring so much about individual nutrients.

We call the food what it is, meaning we use neutral language when discussing it. No ‘healthy’ or ‘red light’ foods. And we teach children where food comes from and how it’s grown. We try new foods and discuss how they taste and smell together. We prepare the food in different ways and learn about cultural practices.

And most importantly, we eat the food alongside our kids and enjoy it. Simple. To be clear, health professionals can and should adopt this mentality to share with families and help children foster better relationships with their food.

So…what is the final answer? Is nutrition education terrible? Is it okay to use nutrition education? Join the Picky Eating Network for Health Professionals to dive deeper into this controversy and get all your questions answered.

References

1. Maimaran, M. & Fishback, A. (2014). If It’s Useful and You Know It, Do You Eat? Preschoolers Refrain from Insutrmental Food. Journal of Consumer Research. 41(3), 642-655.

2. Tarabashkina, L., Quester, P., & Crouch, R. (2016). Exploring the moderating effect of children’s nutritional knowledge on the relationship between product evaluations and Food Choice. Social Science & Medicine, 149, 145–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.046

3. Lin, J. A., Jhe, G., Adhikari, R., Vitagliano, J. A., Rose, K. L., Freizinger, M., & Richmond, T. K. (2023). Triggers for eating disorder onset in youth with anorexia nervosa across the weight spectrum. Eating disorders, 31(6), 553–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/10640266.2023.2201988