Nutrition education in the national curricular parameters for elementary schooling

Abstract

Health promotion among children over 5 years old has not been a priority in the Brazilian health legislation, in particular in the school environment, although schoolchildren constitute a group that requires intensive actions in this direction, including educative programs in nutrition. The present work considers aspects concerning the insertion of nutrition education as a Transversal Subject in the National Curricular Parameters for Elementary Schooling. Besides recommending pedagogical premises, it focuses on some of the main technical-scientific requirements for such an implementation: the adequacy of undergraduate courses in nutrition, the modelling and understanding of the construction and change in food habits in the school context, and integration with other actions and interventions. The study of which this article is an integral part has given rise to two prospective laws, establishing principles and guidelines for the nutrition education and nutritional and food safety of schoolchildren, one of these laws being processed in the City Council of Rio de Janeiro and the other in the National Congress.