Changing agriculture: Roles for food and nutrition educators

Objective: To ascertain paraprofessionals’ perceptions regarding a self-directed computer-supported nutrition educational intervention to disadvantaged mothers of infants. Design: Qualitative focus group study. Setting: Three county extension programs in a Midwestern state, which serve disadvantaged families. Method: Sixteen paraprofessional nutrition educators, affiliated with Extended Food and Nutrition Programs (EFNEP), took part in three focus groups led by a facilitator following a semi-structured questioning route. Results: Three themes emerged: (1) paraprofessionals’ perceptions of personal connections with learners; (2) paraprofessionals’ perceptions of lesson plans; and (3) paraprofessionals’ perceptions of self-directed lessons. Conclusions: Data provided exemplars of paraprofessional teaching strategies used with the disadvantaged populations they service, a recommendation to develop a blended curriculum, and insight regarding technology. A preventive nutrition education program, focusing on the reduction of childhood obesity though informed infant feeding practices, can be delivered using a combination of direct contact paraprofessional education and self-directed computer-supported lessons.

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Recommendations for Integrating Evidence-Based, Sustainable Diet Information into Nutrition Education

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu13114170 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 4170

Author(s):

Graham E. Bastian ◽

Danielle Buro ◽

Debra M. Palmer-Keenan

Keyword(s):

Nutrition Education ◽

Food Systems ◽

Local Food Systems ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Sustainable Diet ◽

Sustainable Seafood ◽

Food And Nutrition ◽

The Us ◽

Nutrition Education Program ◽

Nutrition Educators

The adoption of more sustainable diets (SD) has the capacity to meet the needs of individuals without compromising future generations’ abilities to do the same. Nutrition educators are ideal candidates for delivering SD education to consumers, yet evidence-based recommendations for the profession have not been crafted. The results of a thorough, narrative review of the literature performed in 2021 suggest there are five well-supported recommendations nutrition educators should consider incorporating in their work. They are (1) shift towards a plant-based diet, (2) mitigate food waste, (3) limit consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF), (4) engage in local food systems, and (5) choose sustainable seafood. Each recommendation is discussed below in detail, to provide nutrition educators with a nuanced scope of the issue, after which suggestions for the inclusion of these recommendations, using an example of the authors’ experiences from the US Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), are provided.

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Psychology: Its potential contribution to research on food and nutrition problems

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e545652009-003 ◽

1976 ◽

Author(s):

Nancy Felipe Russo ◽

James R. Richards

Keyword(s):

Potential Contribution ◽

Food And Nutrition

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A Recipe for Obsolescence: The Troubling Divide Between Food and Nutrition (Part 1)

Critical Dietetics ◽

10.32920/cd.v1i2.954 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 34-39

Author(s):

Abbey Sharp

Keyword(s):

Food And Nutrition ◽

Professional Journey

This paper is the first in a series examining the emerging disconnect between “food” and “nutrients” in dietetics curriculum. Part one represents the perspective of a budding dietitian, newly embarking on her professional journey.

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