Education in nutrition. Goals and methods
Cerqueira, M.T.
Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana. Pan American Sanitary Bureau 99(5): 498-509
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0030-0632 PMID: 2937426 Document Number: 248121
Food and nutrition affect health directly, and nutritional measures are very important in programs undertaken for its improvement. In Latin America the magnitude and severity of undernutrition make it the leading public health problem, and diseases associated with malnutrition of excess are increasingly frequent. Most studies of nutrition have emphasized the biological and physiopathological aspects of the individual, while those of social factors have confined themselves to a description of the environment. However, analysis of causes of mortality in some American countries shows that the health-disease process is a collective phenomenon dependent on the socioeconomic structure, however biological its concrete manifestations may be. Thus, the proposal of goals and a methodology for nutrition education programs must start with an analysis of the economic and social structure and its historical development, and this structure must not be regarded merely as the means for imparting knowledge for the formation of appropriate food habits. By way of example, an account is given of the experience of Mexico, where a program was implemented for promoting better utilization of the available resources, breast-feeding, proper weaning, hygienic food handling, and reduction of the consumption of processed products that are expensive and of little nutritive value. It is concluded that, as an essential determinant of the health-disease process, nutritional status, measured in terms of the quantity and quality of food intake, is an outcome of the social organization, in which its explanation and the means for improving it must be sought.