Food and nutrition education in the context of promoting healthy food practices

Abstract

This article deals with food and nutrition education in the context of promoting healthy food practices, considered as an important strategy to face the challenges of health, food and nutrition problems. An analysis of official publications about food and nutrition policies was the starting point. It concluded that food and nutrition education was recognised as important in this context, but there were few references to the delimitation of its limits and possibilities or to the elements directing such practices. The documents indicated that the aim of the proposals for education in food and nutrition were centred more on giving adequate information about food, nutrition and prevention of nutrition problems than on helping people take decisions. Thus there has been an increase in the importance of the information and communication fields with respect to strategies for the production, circulation and control of information about food and nutrition, in detriment of food and nutrition education. In fact, the two fields appear to be mixed. It is argued that although the access to information and communication is very relevant, this is not enough to construct healthy food practices. Therefore, it is essential to reflect on the bases of food and nutrition education in this context as well as the possibilities for its contribution.