It makes me so angry that CICO etc. isn't taught in schools

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited April 2015
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    We learned generally about nutrition in elementary school, three squares and all that, although I suspect I got my more general sense of what meals are like just from my family (and by the time I was in school you got to pick between Home Ec or Shop or electives that were considered more "academic" like French in junior high, when they would have been taught. I took French). I can't remember if we learned anything nutrition-related in health class in junior high--I only remember talking about drugs and how bad they were plus a little bit of follow up on sex ed. In high school health-related stuff (no classes, but special assemblies) we mostly just talked about AIDS, but it was the '80s.

    I don't think we learned about calories specifically (we did have some kind of fitness testing in PE), but there was really no mystery that eating too much made you gain weight. However, I think I got a high percentage of my more detailed ideas about dieting from women's magazines, which is why I'm lucky I wasn't all that interested until I was old enough to really think about it logically.

    I don't recall science being given such a practical application as a discussion of human nutrition, although it's entirely possible my memory is faulty.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
    edited April 2015
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    stealthq wrote: »
    3laine75 wrote: »
    3laine75 wrote: »
    isulo_kura wrote: »
    It is in biology

    It wasn't though that's the problem.
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    Maybe it depends on where you go to school, but I know we had health and nutrition classes where I grew up. Didn't stop people from getting fat, pregnant or STDs, in some cases, all 3. You can't force people to care about information, no matter how early it's delivered. I see people I remember sitting next to me in poli sci and science post incredible misinformation about politics and science on fb all the time.

    I live in the UK and I was never taught properly about it. And I realise that some people don't take notice of anything they're taught, but at the same time some do, and I think everyone should be given access to that information.

    Maybe it's just different where I grew up, idk.

    I'm in the UK too. It is covered, briefly, in biology. Also a BASIC grasp of physics helps.

    How long do you want a school day to be/tax to be increased to (or diverted from elsewhere), to cover what is common sense and should be taught, through example, by parents?

    If we ever covered it in biology it must have been extremely briefly. I never learnt about the effects of over restricting, about CICO, starvation mode (largely) being a myth or that fad diets, cleanses, detoxes etc. were utter rubbish.

    Considering better education on it would likely decrease the incidence of weight-related medical problems, in addition to improving a lot of people's quality of life, I think it's rather important to teach properly actually.

    Plus it wouldn't require much teaching time to cover the absolute basics. It could easily be covered in a single lesson.

    IT IS covered. In biology, physics, home economics, guidance and PE.

    I'm, personally, pleased that the majority of teaching time is spent on maths, English etc rather than wasting more time on it for people who aren't paying attention.

    Might be now in most schools.

    Wasn't in mine when I went through, and I went to a school that was regularly ranked in the top ten public schools, nationally. Well funded school. Lots of focus on education. Large assortment of AP classes, and I took most of them. My point being, we weren't exactly deficient in education and I wasn't the kid who didn't do well because I wasn't paying attention.

    I got the food pyramid, and if you want to lose weight, eat less and move more. Not in those exact words. I got the food pyramid exactly twice: health and regular biology. I got 'how to lose weight' in health. AP biology was concerned with biochemistry, physiology, genetics, evolution ... not nutrition.

    P.E. never taught anything but sports. No nutrition, no health, nada.

    Physics never linked anything they taught to health. While it's nice to know that you can't create something from nothing, most people don't connect that to weight gain/loss without it being explicitly pointed out, as is evidenced by numerous posts in these forums. Besides, physics wasn't a required class in high school. Neither was biology for that matter. You could take Earth Sciences (read: Geology) and satisfy the science requirement if you wanted.

    In fairness, when I mentioned physics I was referring to energy balance. CICO in the heading. Of course nutrition wasn't covered, that'd just be silly.

    I'm a long, long time out of school too. It was and is taught (although I'm in Scotland, OP might be English) and I've still done some silly diet things.

    The point is, teachers have enough to cover with limited resources. This should be taught, by example, at home.

    Edit: and I went to a (pretty crappy) comprehensive - nowhere near top 10

  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
    edited April 2015
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    Meh, leave it to the schools and it will fracture into millions of school districts worldwide. Some will get fact and science based education about sex, drugs, and nutrition, and the others, the ones who have the least educated parents and need good info from school the most? Get "abstinence only" and "just stay hungry," or "pasta is bad."

    ETA: That was not to call the PPs who had the bad nutrition messages were undereducated. I just lumped it it with abstinence only in the world of Bad Education, which absolutely does take hold in less-educated areas.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    3laine75 wrote: »
    stealthq wrote: »
    3laine75 wrote: »
    3laine75 wrote: »
    isulo_kura wrote: »
    It is in biology

    It wasn't though that's the problem.
    JPW1990 wrote: »
    Maybe it depends on where you go to school, but I know we had health and nutrition classes where I grew up. Didn't stop people from getting fat, pregnant or STDs, in some cases, all 3. You can't force people to care about information, no matter how early it's delivered. I see people I remember sitting next to me in poli sci and science post incredible misinformation about politics and science on fb all the time.

    I live in the UK and I was never taught properly about it. And I realise that some people don't take notice of anything they're taught, but at the same time some do, and I think everyone should be given access to that information.

    Maybe it's just different where I grew up, idk.

    I'm in the UK too. It is covered, briefly, in biology. Also a BASIC grasp of physics helps.

    How long do you want a school day to be/tax to be increased to (or diverted from elsewhere), to cover what is common sense and should be taught, through example, by parents?

    If we ever covered it in biology it must have been extremely briefly. I never learnt about the effects of over restricting, about CICO, starvation mode (largely) being a myth or that fad diets, cleanses, detoxes etc. were utter rubbish.

    Considering better education on it would likely decrease the incidence of weight-related medical problems, in addition to improving a lot of people's quality of life, I think it's rather important to teach properly actually.

    Plus it wouldn't require much teaching time to cover the absolute basics. It could easily be covered in a single lesson.

    IT IS covered. In biology, physics, home economics, guidance and PE.

    I'm, personally, pleased that the majority of teaching time is spent on maths, English etc rather than wasting more time on it for people who aren't paying attention.

    Might be now in most schools.

    Wasn't in mine when I went through, and I went to a school that was regularly ranked in the top ten public schools, nationally. Well funded school. Lots of focus on education. Large assortment of AP classes, and I took most of them. My point being, we weren't exactly deficient in education and I wasn't the kid who didn't do well because I wasn't paying attention.

    I got the food pyramid, and if you want to lose weight, eat less and move more. Not in those exact words. I got the food pyramid exactly twice: health and regular biology. I got 'how to lose weight' in health. AP biology was concerned with biochemistry, physiology, genetics, evolution ... not nutrition.

    P.E. never taught anything but sports. No nutrition, no health, nada.

    Physics never linked anything they taught to health. While it's nice to know that you can't create something from nothing, most people don't connect that to weight gain/loss without it being explicitly pointed out, as is evidenced by numerous posts in these forums. Besides, physics wasn't a required class in high school. Neither was biology for that matter. You could take Earth Sciences (read: Geology) and satisfy the science requirement if you wanted.

    In fairness, when I mentioned physics I was referring to energy balance. CICO in the heading. Of course nutrition wasn't covered, that'd just be silly.

    I'm a long, long time out of school too. It was and is taught (although I'm in Scotland, OP might be English) and I've still done some silly diet things.

    The point is, teachers have enough to cover with limited resources. This should be taught, by example, at home.

    Edit: and I went to a (pretty crappy) comprehensive - nowhere near top 10

    Also, I have teaching colleagues who follow silly diet fads, like just eating a plain salad for lunch, or they are overweight because they eat too much. Not sure these are the best people to teach about cico!

    I definitely agree it should be taught at home, by example. My kids are 5, 3 and 11 months, and the older two understand about healthy eating. My dad is obese, and they say that grandad has a big fat tummy because he eats too much. My 3 year old said she was going to tell him to exercise.
  • Lrdoflamancha
    Lrdoflamancha Posts: 1,280 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

  • rawhidenadz
    rawhidenadz Posts: 254 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    Do you not understand what a scientific theory is? Wow, how embarrassing for you

  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    Oh, FFS. Get an education from REAL books. Gravity is a theory too, and look at your bad self, on the ground.

    A scientific theory is not a hypothesis. Go learn real big grown-up science words, kay?
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    Anyway, that's faith schools. I'm sure it's not against any religion to talk about eating and exercise.
  • noobletmcnugget
    noobletmcnugget Posts: 518 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    oh my god please tell me you didn't just say that
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    Here we go...

    PS Evolution is as factual as science gets

  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    oh my god please tell me you didn't just say that

    Dude, I told you - this is a country that passed a federal law declaring pizza a vegetable - what did you expect?
  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    oh my god please tell me you didn't just say that

    Dude, I told you - this is a country that passed a federal law declaring pizza a vegetable - what did you expect?

    Catsup. Catsup was the Reagan administration Vegetable. SMH.

  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    Anyway, that's faith schools. I'm sure it's not against any religion to talk about eating and exercise.

    Nope. True story - one of our biology teachers refused to teach the evolution section of the S grades and Highers. She was also one of the RE teachers O.o

    (they did get another teacher in, didn't just skip it (as in the case of the above poster XD))

  • urloved33
    urloved33 Posts: 3,325 Member
    edited April 2015
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    It only takes a few minutes of skimming this forum or doing a few google searches to see that there is an absolutely RIDICULOUS amount of misinformation out there concerning weight loss. There're hundreds of fad diets and weight loss myths out there. In a lot of cases they end up putting people off trying to lose weight (because it seems like this impossible task) or results in people developing disordered eating patterns. It's so damaging physically, mentally and emotionally for so many people.

    It makes me angry that we aren't all taught the basics about weight regulation, nutrition and fitness as children. The reality of it (which basically boils down to CICO) makes it so much simpler, sustainable and manageable than all these fad diets make it out to be... and people will actually get the results they're looking for.

    Ugh it just annoys me because I know so many people who have struggled with their weight for so long because they weren't properly informed.

    Rant over.

    lets face it school only really teaches us is...how to keep going to school only begin paying for it. the business of schools
  • noobletmcnugget
    noobletmcnugget Posts: 518 Member
    edited April 2015
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    oh my god please tell me you didn't just say that

    Dude, I told you - this is a country that passed a federal law declaring pizza a vegetable - what did you expect?

    hahaha oh god I thought that was a joke

    *sheds a tear*

    EDIT: they're basing it on the fact it has tomato sauce right? Surely then it should be a fruit
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
    edited April 2015
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    It's not taught in doctor's offices, either. It's always too many carbs, too much fried foods, too many factory foods, etc. Nothing about "Hey, did you know that if you're this tall, you should only eat this much?" And we're supposed to trust these people with our health.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited April 2015
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    It's not taught in doctor's offices, either. It's always too many carbs, too much fried foods, too many factory foods, etc. Nothing about "Hey, did you know that if you're this tall, you should only eat this much?" And we're supposed to trust these people with out health.

    For vast majority of overweight Americans "too many carbs, too much fried food" is 100% accurate.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited April 2015
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    EWJLang wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    JenniDaisy wrote: »
    If you can't get some schools to teach sex ed or the theory of evolution, I don't think you're going to get them to teach kids how to nourish their bodies properly.

    Maybe because it is the theory of evolution... Not the fact of evolution...

    oh my god please tell me you didn't just say that

    Dude, I told you - this is a country that passed a federal law declaring pizza a vegetable - what did you expect?

    Catsup. Catsup was the Reagan administration Vegetable. SMH.

    That's what I remembered too (and I'm sure it's how the story was portrayed at the time), but according to wiki it wasn't ketchup, but pickle relish. (Which is just as good.)

    The pizza thing was, technically, that pizza sauce can count as a serving of veggies.
  • onehappypickle
    onehappypickle Posts: 74 Member
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    ljs385 wrote: »
    *mini rant moment*
    Why do schools have more and more responsibility chucked at them?! Is it too much to ask parents to parent?!
    *rant over over*


    AMEN.