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Health
UPDATED: July 28, 2014 NO. 31 JULY 31, 2014
Helping Students Stay Healthy
A newly released child nutrition and health report recommends teaching home economics at school
By Wang Hairong
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Inadequate nutrition knowledge and poor eating habits can lead to health problems among children. A survey conducted in the capital cities of six provinces showed that among children above 10 years old, 5 percent had an abnormally high level of triglyceride in their blood, indicating higher risks of artery sclerosis; 2.6 percent and 2.7 percent had high blood pressure or high blood glucose levels.

Unhealthy diets can result in deficiencies or excesses of nutrition. A 2010 national physical examination on students revealed that more than 5 percent of female students aged 7-22 suffered from malnutrition, whereas on the other hand, an increasing percentage of children aged 7-18 were overweight. In 2010, out of every 100 children, nine boys and five girls were obese.

Weak link

Traditionally, Chinese schools do not offer home economics as a separate course. School kitchens generally do not engage children in food preparation, either. At home, children seldom help parents with housework. The report says that only 40.1 percent of primary and middle school students report engaging in housework and their average work time is only 16 minutes. Many students do not even know how to fry an egg.

Moreover, some urban children have no idea about how fruit and vegetables are grown. While some schools organize students to visit farms, students do little more than pick fruits and vegetables.

Hu told a story about a farm visit organized by one primary school. Students, excited about the opportunity to harvest turnips and sweet potatoes, arrived at the farm, only to find the these vegetables had already been pulled out from the soil and piled up in the field. The only thing left for them to do was put the vegetables into their bags. The school made the arrangement to prevent students from injury and to save them the trouble.

Food education as a subject is in a preliminary stage in China, said Chen Yongxiang, Executive Vice President of the China Association for Student Nutrition and Health Promotion. He added that the government has included popularizing diet and nutrition knowledge in a national development outline.

To boost awareness of nutrition among students, the government set May 20 as National Student Nutrition Day. The 25th such day was celebrated on May 17 in Beijing Primary School, a top school in the capital city. During the event, the 2014 Chinese Children and Teenager Nutrition and Health Report was released, and 24 model schools excelling at student nutrition and health education were recognized. Nutrition knowledge contests and consultations were also held.

In recent years, non-profit organizations have also launched food education programs.

In 2010, the Chinese Nutrition Society and the National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety launched the China Child Nutrition and Health Education Program. The program aimed at developing textbooks and toolkits for nutrition and health education, training relevant teachers, and delivering related courses. From the spring of 2013 to May 2014, the program team had distributed nutrition education materials to more than 1.5 million students at over 8,000 rural schools.

Currently, eating education classes have been piloted in some primary and middle schools in Shanghai as well. The course, covering food safety as well as nutrition and hygiene, is customized to students' age.

While schools can play a role in nutrition education, parents should be children's primary teachers in this field, Hu said. She suggests that parents foster good habits in their children by setting examples and involving them in housework.

"Doing housework should be an important part of children's life. It can cultivate their sense of responsibility, which is more important than book learning," Hu said. She advises parents to involve children as much as possible in grocery shopping and meal preparation.

Government departments, families, schools, communities and businesses should all shoulder responsibility in eating education and pool their strengths in solving food-related problems confronting students, Ma said.

Email us at: wanghairong@bjreview.com

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