Building Food Literacy for a Healthier Future

Source: The post Building Food Literacy for a Healthier Future has been created, based on the article “Teaching children to eat well must begin in school” published in “The Hindu” on 26 April 2025. Building Food Literacy for a Healthier Future.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper3- Agriculture – food security

Context: The Nutrition for Growth Summit and UNGA’s extension of the Decade of Action on Nutrition to 2030 aim to strengthen global efforts to end malnutrition. The focus now expands beyond food access, highlighting the links between nutrition, education, equity, and sustainability.

For detailed information on World Food Day 2024 emphasizes the right to safe and nutritious food for all read this article here

Expanding the Understanding of Nutrition

1. Moving Beyond Early Childhood Focus: Efforts previously centred on the first 1,000 days of life. New evidence shows adolescence is also a crucial window for reversing early deficits and promoting lifelong health.
2. Shifting From Feeding to Teaching: Good nutrition is no longer only about providing food. It requires educating children about what, how, and why to eatfor long-term well-being.
3. Schools as Starting Points for Change: A side event at the Paris Summit emphasized that food education must begin early in schools. It should move beyond counting calories and help build awareness about health and the planet.

Challenges in Children’s Food Environment

1. Complexity of Modern Food Choices: Today’s children live in a world of easy food access, heavy marketing, and peer pressure. Without proper knowledge, making healthy choices is increasingly difficult.
2. Poor Eating Habits and their Impacts: Many children skip breakfast, eat few fruits and vegetables, and consume too much processed food. These habits contribute to malnutrition, obesity, chronic diseases, and mental health issues.
3. Decline in Dietary Diversity: Minimum Dietary Diversity, now a global SDG 2 indicator, shows that many children — even in India’s cities and villages — fail to eat a varied diet. This harms their health and reflects deeper issues in food systems.

Gaps in Food and Nutrition Education

1. Outdated or Absent Curricula: Most schools lack a structured, updated food education curriculum. Teachers are poorly trained, and learning resources are insufficient to teach healthy eating effectively..
2. The Need for a Comprehensive Approach: Food education must start from preschool and continue through middle school. It should teach the importance of diverse diets, explain how the human body works, and show how food systems impact the environment.
3. Promoting Biodiverse Diets: Curricula should promote consuming local, seasonal, and culturally familiar foods. Biodiverse diets improve nutrition, support local farmers, protect the environment, and preserve traditional food knowledge.

Building a Food-Literate Generation

1. Integrating Nutrition into Daily School Life: Teaching children to eat well must move beyond isolated events. Schools should have weekly lessons, healthier canteens, kitchen gardens, simple cooking sessions, and student-led campaigns.
2. Examples of Change and Opportunities in India: Globally, students are learning by growing food, cooking meals, and reading food labels. In India, the NEP and School Health and Wellness Programme offer frameworks, but clearer structure and trained teachers are urgently needed.
3. Empowering Children as Influencers: Once educated, children can influence families, schools, and communities to adopt healthier, more sustainable food practices.

Conclusion

Food literacy must become a core part of education. Teaching children to eat well is essential for their personal health, cultural awareness, environmental responsibility, and future readiness.

Question for practice:

Discuss how building food literacy among children can contribute to better health, education, and sustainability.