Nutrition education program nutrition pathfinders© teaches children how to make healthful food choices

Abstract

The results suggest that an interactive school-based nutrition education program can successfully influence student knowledge and attitudes toward nutrition. Although there were also improvements in attitudes, statistical differences were limited to knowledge gain. Outcomes point to the challenge of converting greater knowledge into better choices. The data collected did not provide evidence of significant behavior change in terms of food consumption. The minimal changes in eating behavior demonstrated may have been due to the fact that only 2 days worth of meal information could be logged, 1 day before and 1 day after the program. A different methodology documenting food consumption would likely yield more definitive results.