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Basic human physiology & nutrition in schools
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Gallowmere1984 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Gallow can you type and speed walk? Someone asked me why so many of my posts are edited, trying to type and walk fast, especially when it's bright and sunny outside is quite the feat lol Some of my posts come out a jumbled mess
Kinda. However, I am heavily impaired by the fact that I am still using an iPhone 5s with a screen cracked all to hell, and have fat thumbs.
Fat thumbs AND a cracked screen AND walking, haha nah i couldnt do it
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Gallowmere1984 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Gallowmere1984 wrote: »CipherZero wrote: »PE is a whole 'nother ball of wax. The majority of adults I have met who claim to "hate" exercise also have horror stories about PE. PE is good for the kids that are athletic but it can be torture for the kids who aren't. PE should be about getting kids to like exercise, not about new ways to bully the kids who don't like sports.
One of the problems with PE classes from my old memories is they were boring; they were designed to be easy to grade and screw actually doing things that are useful.
Pretty much this. The only time I ever actually participated in PE as a kid, was during the "Presidential Tests" for things like pullups, pushups, and situps. Any other time, I just refused to change into my uniform and got to spend the class on the bleachers, reading a book, for my efforts.
If I was the teacher, unless there was a medial excuse not to dress, the kids would dress. If they refused, they would have a detention, get points taken off for the class, sent to the office or whatever was the school's policy.
The kids should not be running the school.
No, the kids shouldn't be running things. However, if the purpose of PE is to teach kids to be active, they need to focus on a variety of activities, rather than certain sports that only a few can or will excel at. In my experience, the kids who did well at sports in PE already played them outside of class. I could never really see the point of playing it in class as well. The kids who didn't do well at sports were subjected to harassment and bullying, sometimes by the teachers themselves, and grew up to hate exercise.
Yeap. If they'd have let me use the "football players only" weight room during gym class, instead of stupid *kitten* like volleyball, soccer, the electric slide, and dodgeball, I'd have been all up in it, and probably would have been completely jacked by graduation day, instead of the lazy, fat piece of *kitten* that I was. Dem teenager test levels.
This is why I loved my high school. We had a variety of PE classes to take if we wanted to. Regular (different sports), Weight training, yoga, and walking (basically speed walking across the city).
Took regular once(remembered how much i hated it, walking twice loved it. Then had to switch to weight training due to taking college classes and I ended up loving it more than I thought I would.
I think all schools should have a variety of classes avaliable. Though I imagine a lot of schools can't afford it.0 -
Who gets to set the curriculum? Are you going to teach a paleo diet? Primal? Vegetarian? Vegan? Carnivorous? Ketogenic? LCHF? IIFYM? Moderation? None of those will be right for everyone or even stay right for the individual throughout their life.
I agree with whoever brought up the age it is taught as an issue too. Kids have very little control over their diets beyond what mom and dad offer or what is in the cafeteria or school vending machines.
It would be like teaching a musical instrument but never letting them handle the instrument.
You might not be able to teach all those kinds of eating to elementary school kids, but as with anything, you grow knowledge base from the bottom up. There's no reason why a junior high or high school child could not learn all of those and what it means. I took a comparative religions elective in high school... why not a comparative diets course? And starting in Junior High, we had cooking class. So even if I couldn't cook at home, I was cooking in school. I wish it had been mandatory for longer...
Even if starting at the bottom means starting with the government's food plate or pyramid and showing there are alternatives or possible problems with it later, it's still a lot better than knowing nothing much at all. They may be grain heavy in general, but do make mention of oils, veg, fruit, protein, dairy, serving size (that ever confusing serving size term ugh) etc. as part of a balanced diet. A little too many grains is better than a lot too much of whatever is causing the obesity "epidemic"! That's like starting teaching finances by teaching spending, budgeting and saving habits. You don't just jump into the stock market and ETFs and insurance types right from the get go!
I've even seen groups here on MFP that are for classes! They'll be labeled "So-and-so's Class 3 Nutrition and PE Class" or whatever (I am not sure how they get away with being under 18 and on MFP... but I'm not questioning that at the moment...)0 -
Gallowmere1984 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Gallowmere1984 wrote: »CipherZero wrote: »PE is a whole 'nother ball of wax. The majority of adults I have met who claim to "hate" exercise also have horror stories about PE. PE is good for the kids that are athletic but it can be torture for the kids who aren't. PE should be about getting kids to like exercise, not about new ways to bully the kids who don't like sports.
One of the problems with PE classes from my old memories is they were boring; they were designed to be easy to grade and screw actually doing things that are useful.
Pretty much this. The only time I ever actually participated in PE as a kid, was during the "Presidential Tests" for things like pullups, pushups, and situps. Any other time, I just refused to change into my uniform and got to spend the class on the bleachers, reading a book, for my efforts.
If I was the teacher, unless there was a medial excuse not to dress, the kids would dress. If they refused, they would have a detention, get points taken off for the class, sent to the office or whatever was the school's policy.
The kids should not be running the school.
No, the kids shouldn't be running things. However, if the purpose of PE is to teach kids to be active, they need to focus on a variety of activities, rather than certain sports that only a few can or will excel at. In my experience, the kids who did well at sports in PE already played them outside of class. I could never really see the point of playing it in class as well. The kids who didn't do well at sports were subjected to harassment and bullying, sometimes by the teachers themselves, and grew up to hate exercise.
Yeap. If they'd have let me use the "football players only" weight room during gym class, instead of stupid *kitten* like volleyball, soccer, the electric slide, and dodgeball, I'd have been all up in it, and probably would have been completely jacked by graduation day, instead of the lazy, fat piece of *kitten* that I was. Dem teenager test levels.
A friend and I tried to use the weight room in high school as well but were told a resounding no by the football team because they didn't want girls in there. The posters at MFP wonder why so many are intimidated by going into a gym as adults. I'd be willing to bet the ones intimidated have at least one issue stemming from PE.4 -
Should a greater emphasis be put on basic physiology and nutrition to be taught in schools. With some of the things you see people ask around here, it seems that a lot could be accomplished with teaching people the basics about carbs, protein & fat and how the body processes the food that you eat. Maybe it would head off much of the bro science and other info-mercial nonsense that is believed.
Well, such education happens in the UK, but we still have fat people.
Doesn't help that a lot of the government spawned info is in the form of change4life, which has the likes of nestle as its main partner. That stuff got thrown in the bin by me for recommended low fat spreads for toddlers.
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I'm still amazed that you guys have change rooms, showers and gyms in your schools. We never even changed clothes before PE lessons, we exercised in the clothes we came to school in.0
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Should a greater emphasis be put on basic physiology and nutrition to be taught in schools. With some of the things you see people ask around here, it seems that a lot could be accomplished with teaching people the basics about carbs, protein & fat and how the body processes the food that you eat. Maybe it would head off much of the bro science and other info-mercial nonsense that is believed.
I don't think it would help. Bro science, diet of the day tells people what they want to hear. People can find correct information if they look. Maybe critical thinking skills and checking sources need to be emphasized more.
I had health class, home economics, physical education classes in school. We were taught the food pyramid of the day. No one mentioned calories or really talked about practically applying the stuff in class to our lives. It was do it/endure it, pass a test, forget it. I chose to homeschool my dd so I can't say what other kids are currently learning in our area.3 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I'm still amazed that you guys have change rooms, showers and gyms in your schools. We never even changed clothes before PE lessons, we exercised in the clothes we came to school in.
Yucky. I was one who loved PE. My favorite subject, really. But I got sweaty in class. And grass stained when it was outside. Not changing would have been sort of gross for the next hour or two.
Plus who could workout in acid wash skinny jeans, loafers, slouchy socks, and shoulder pads?
BreezeDoveal wrote: »Who gets to set the curriculum? Are you going to teach a paleo diet? Primal? Vegetarian? Vegan? Carnivorous? Ketogenic? LCHF? IIFYM? Moderation? None of those will be right for everyone or even stay right for the individual throughout their life.
I agree with whoever brought up the age it is taught as an issue too. Kids have very little control over their diets beyond what mom and dad offer or what is in the cafeteria or school vending machines.
It would be like teaching a musical instrument but never letting them handle the instrument.
Why can't we have all of them? Some schools have compartive religion classes, so why not comparative nutrition classes? People could learn the different approaches and how to integreate the parts that work from each one for the individual learner into their life.
That would be great. Time is the issue there though.1 -
I've contended for a long while now that senior year of High School should be Life 101. Subjects matter includes:
- How to balance a checkbook.
- Why credit cards are a trap
- Situational awareness & self-defense
- Comparison shopping 101
- Resume writing
- Deciding what you really want in your career (should start freshman year and yearly updates)
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Should a greater emphasis be put on basic physiology and nutrition to be taught in schools. With some of the things you see people ask around here, it seems that a lot could be accomplished with teaching people the basics about carbs, protein & fat and how the body processes the food that you eat. Maybe it would head off much of the bro science and other info-mercial nonsense that is believed.
Critical thinking in general needs to be emphasized in schools.1 -
KetoneKaren wrote: »Don't I remember that it was actually ketchup that was a vegetable?
I remember when a magazine, Time, I think, ran a photo of a bottle of ketchup and the caption:
"Now a vegetable."
So sad.1 -
Well hey, if ketchup counts as a vegetable then the sauce on a pizza counts too, right?
One problem that I see in teaching anyone nutrition is that there is often a giant disconnect between the ideas the teacher puts out there and how people see their own behaviors around food. As a caregiver for adults with disabilities, I have sat right next to my house manager in a class taught by a registered dietician. The dietician said that 5-8 servings of fruits and vegetables on the food pyramid was just to get us warmed up, that research was showing 8-12 servings of fruit and vegetables per day would significantly improve and in some cases reverse many major diseases (forgive me not being more precise, this class took place well over six years ago, my memory is not that great). The menus for the location we worked at struggled to work in 4 servings. Following the class there was zero effort to increase that. And in fact, when I would plan a meal and include more than one vegetable, house manager would question me about it. At another location with someone on a very strict 1200 calorie diet, repeated talks about following the very carefully designed menu, portion sizes, healthy eating, one of the other staff said, "but it's an apple, an apple is healthy no matter how big it is," when I tried to tell her that she needed to cut one of those big, 4-inch diameter apples in half for the person on the diet. I also had that staff member randomly bake sweets - again, after repeated talks about following the menu exactly, no extras - and try to justify it by saying, "well I looked up a low fat recipe, that makes it healthy."
People hear the information on nutrition, but all too often they do not know how to translate that into actions they can or should take in the grocery store and in the kitchen.1 -
KetoneKaren wrote: »Don't I remember that it was actually ketchup that was a vegetable?
I remember when a magazine, Time, I think, ran a photo of a bottle of ketchup and the caption:
"Now a vegetable."
So sad.
That would have occurred in 1981.
Back in the '80s (a bit later), a teacher of mine had this poster -- I always wanted it:
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CipherZero wrote: »I've contended for a long while now that senior year of High School should be Life 101. Subjects matter includes:
- How to balance a checkbook.
- Why credit cards are a trap
- Situational awareness & self-defense
- Comparison shopping 101
- Resume writing
- Deciding what you really want in your career (should start freshman year and yearly updates)
Oh man, i agree with all of this, especially the resume writing! Kids these days don't know how to spell, they don't have to learn when their computer spell checks everything for them2 -
I didn't read the entire thread, so I apologize if I repeat anything. Unfortunately, the USDA has a big influence in schools. It would be tough for teachers to provide a proper curriculum without emphasizing on My Plate, which still encourages people to eat the same amount of grains as vegetables (and more grains than protein) - not saying grains are bad, it's just not necessary to eat that much. And even if teachers taught it differently, the cafeteria provides food that are not nutritious at all. Kids learn most through behavior, not words.
It would be ideal if kids learned more about nutrition at home. That doesn't work for low income families living in food desert areas and live paycheck to paycheck. School food is usually the only time many kids get to eat all day. It's part of a much larger system that I won't get into because it makes me so angry.0 -
I just have to tell this story..
My 81 year old father in-law who doesn't think much of the younger generation to begin with, went into the supermarket and asked the "young lass" where the fresh beetroot was, she gave him a quizzical look at directed him down the canned isle. He once again asked for fresh beetroot, to which she replied, "but beetroot only comes in cans". He tried educating her, long story short she stood by her claim and he left empty handed.
I once asked for a 1/2 kilo of bacon, the young lad had no idea what i was talking about. I had to say 500g for him to understand. oi oi oi1 -
3. "Big Ag", by which I can only assume you mean the entire US agricultural and food industries, had precisely no input into the nutrition guidelines. Neither did the schools. The process was purely political.
You don't think Big Ag is involved in politics?
I haven't seen a school lunch tray in a long time - but I know it didn't match the general nutrition information we were taught in the classroom. I hope that has changed a good deal, but I am afraid to know the truth.0 -
3. "Big Ag", by which I can only assume you mean the entire US agricultural and food industries, had precisely no input into the nutrition guidelines. Neither did the schools. The process was purely political.
You don't think Big Ag is involved in politics?
I haven't seen a school lunch tray in a long time - but I know it didn't match the general nutrition information we were taught in the classroom. I hope that has changed a good deal, but I am afraid to know the truth.
Perhaps you should go check out meals at your local schools before speaking on things of which you are ignorant.1 -
3. "Big Ag", by which I can only assume you mean the entire US agricultural and food industries, had precisely no input into the nutrition guidelines. Neither did the schools. The process was purely political.
You don't think Big Ag is involved in politics?
I haven't seen a school lunch tray in a long time - but I know it didn't match the general nutrition information we were taught in the classroom. I hope that has changed a good deal, but I am afraid to know the truth.
Perhaps you should go check out meals at your local schools before speaking on things of which you are ignorant.
I just talked to some mom's at my office - sounds like the school lunches are even worse than before, my hypothesis was correct. So now that I corrected my "ignorance", let me ask you again.
You really think that Big Ag is not heavily involved in politics?1
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