Nutrition Education is any combination of educational strategies, accompanied by environmental supports, designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of food choices and other food- and nutrition-related behaviors conducive to health and well-being. Nutrition education is delivered through multiple venues and involves activities at the individual, community, and policy levels.

Learning about healthy nutritional practices has several positive implications for a student’s physical well being. Studies have shown that food habits learned at an early age are hard to influence and change . Without proper nutritional guidance, children are susceptible towards falling into long lasting poor eating habits that may lead to a number of health risks, including childhood obesity. Obesity not only has harmful affects on one’s personal health, but can also cause emotional stress, especially among children and adolescents. However, school programs designed to educate and encourage children to make wise eating choices can help alleviate the prevalence of obesity. And according to one study, the earlier individuals are exposed to certain practices, the more likely they’ll consider them a permanent aspect of their behavior. Possessing knowledge about food and its nutritional content is valuable at any age, as people continue to make eating choices throughout the course of their lifetimes.

well as understanding how the over-consumption of food can lead to health risks, students in home economics courses are taught about the under-consumption of foods and other eating disorders. Because of their increasing self-image insecurities that stem from physical body changes during puberty, adolescents are highly concerned with their weight, and in turn, food intake. Many adolescents, especially girls, feel the only way to deal with the increased pressures of being thin is to limit their caloric intake.