We all know that a healthy lifestyle is important for everyone, but learners at schools are the most susceptible to skipping meals. This is what you need to know about promoting healthy eating among students!
Healthy Lifestyle Promoting At Schools
There was a time in the history of humanity when the lifestyle of self-destruction was popular; for example, the 80th of the previous century was notorious for the popularization of drugs and skinny bodies. Fortunately, we have survived this, and now a healthy lifestyle is the hottest new trend.
Education doesn’t want to stay aside, so the question of how schools can promote a healthy lifestyle among students is rising all the time. Among many aspects of it, healthy eating habits are the ones that schools can focus on the most.
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Why Is Eating Healthy Important?
If you are an educator and want to make your school a healthier place, this article is for you. We will tell you why it is important to have healthy eating habits, and we will give you some tips on how to transform your school.
Students’ Health
Our health depends on the food we consume. Adults understand it, while kids don’t pay attention to the utility values of the food. Parents are to keep watch over what their kids eat, but a school is a place where children spend approximately 30% of the week, so teachers also should monitor the students’ habits.
Brain Performance
Education requires a lot of energy from students. Healthy eating is crucial to keep brain performance high. If a child skips lunch, he or she will not be able to participate fully in the next classes.
Habits For The Future
What we learn at an early age stays with us forever. If children get used to eating healthy, they will continue to eat healthy food in the future. A teacher must show that no task is more important than health, so children have the right to postpone everything and take a meal.
When kids get older and enter colleges, they will be able to delegate their tasks, for example, order essays on websites like papercheap, but they will not sacrifice their health.
How Can Schools Promote Healthy Eating Among Students?
Let’s now look at tips and tricks on how to make your school a better place.
Set a Regime
Children cannot follow their daily schedule by themselves. They immerse themselves into games easily and forget about hunger.
If your school has a regime, and you remind students that it is time to have a meal, they will develop a habit of healthy eating with time.
Time Frames For Eating
Here is the best regime for students that you can follow or adapt to the schedule in your school.
1. 7-8 a.m. Children have breakfast at home, but a school can also provide breakfast opportunities for parents who cannot feed their kids because of work.
2. 10-11 a.m. Kids have a snack that may contain fruits, vegetables, or dried fruits.
3. 1 p.m. Lunch with at least 2 dishes.
4. 3-4 p.m. Students have another snack with sweets.
5. 6-7 p.m. Dinner, usually at home.
Be An Example
The time when teachers were regarded as the iron people who cannot eat in front of kids has passed. The best way to show kids that healthy eating is important is to be an example. You should eat with them, even if you have other tasks to do.
Educate Students
Interactive learning is important, but giving students a theoretical background on healthy eating is also crucial. You should devote at least one class per week to discuss a healthy lifestyle and eating habits.
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1. Visit the Schools Kitchen
If you want your students to eat school food, you should show them the kitchen. Children have to understand how healthy food is made and to see the people who prepare it.
It would be also useful to show them how junk food is prepared, so they can see the difference.
2. Explore
Read a lot of articles and studies you can find on the Internet, watch many videos about healthy food, and explore the data with your students. The more they know, the better they are at eating healthy food.
You can prepare an article and discuss it with children, or you can choose an issue and suggest that students explore it by themselves. Then, you can discuss their findings in the class. You should take specific issues that are not general. For example, sugar in food is very common, while sugar in your favorite beverage is a specific issue student can investigate.
3. Do Projects
Children understand the material better if they see it, but the true explosion of apprehending happens when they work with data. Projects are great in this case because they imply an in-depth analysis of the topic as well as are appealing while kids are presenting.
For example, students can explore the amount of sugar in different types of sweets. First, they need to find information. Secondly, they need to compare the amounts in, let’s say, three candies. Thirdly, the project must be done, so students use their creativity: put sugar in bags and attach these bags side by side on a big piece of paper.
