Welcome!
Allow me to begin by telling you a little bit about who I am, what I'm doing, and why.
In September of 2010 I commenced my third year of study in a nursing program at Ryerson University. The overarching theme for third year studies is "Community Health". At the point of my placement and entry into the Armour Heights Community, this described the extent of my knowledge on Community Health Practice, as up until that point, individual patient-care was all I had been trained for.
I was extremely fortunate to have been placed in both of Ms.Ferley's kindergarten classes, and would go on to have what would ultimately become the most enjoyable educational experience I have had to date.
After speaking with Ms.Ferley and Mrs.Spidle, I determined that Nutrition would be a good issue to devote my time and resources to throughout the course of my time at Armour Heights. Having said that, I want to make it very clear that...
this is not a website that tells people what to eat and how to behave.
Rather, this is a place where I can share with you some things that I have learned through a lengthy period of investigation, which may have powerful implications concerning your state of health and that of your children.
Also, the comments section can be used to discuss and clarify topics of interest to you, and I look forward to communicating with you there.
Now that I've talked about the who and the what, let us now become concerned with the why. Why did I choose to tackle Nutrition?
You might think that you already know a lot about nutrition, and from what I've seen in the classroom during snacktime - you probably do, but there is always room for improvement. What is more important is that as it turns out, making healthy eating choices on a regular basis is a lot more complicated than simply being able to separate the "good" foods from the "bad", and more importantly still is that it is not an art that a child can fully understand or appreciate after being subject to a presentation or an activity session (although these do help).
Your children will soon be choosing their own diets. Perhaps they already do, to a degree. Research (and perhaps common sense) shows that regardless of the socioeconomic status of parents, children all make similar food choices - and not very good ones at that. The goal of this website is to start a dialogue about how teaching children to make the right choices can be accomplished and to learn about some of the factors at play which contribute to children's poor nutritional decision-making.
See you in the comments!
- Nicholas
Reference: Lambert, N., Plumb, J., Looise, B., Johnson, I., Harvey, I., Wheeler, C., et al. (2005). Using smart card technology to monitor the eating habits of children in a school cafeteria: the nutritional significance of beverage and dessert choices. Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, 16(4), 271-279. Retrieved from CINAHL database.
