Effects of Nutrition Education Using Food Exchange System: Changes in Elementary Students' Nutrition Knowledge, Dietary Attitude and Nutrients Intake

Kim, Sook Bae; Choi, Hee Jin

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of nutrition education using Food Exchange System on elementary students' nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude and nutrients intake. Nutrition education lessons (40 min /lesson, 4 times), '5 major nutrients and functions', '6 food groups and sources of 6 food groups', 'good choice of snacks and eating out' as class lesson, 'daily needed energy and food exchange units' as individual lesson, were provided to 70 elementary students (4th grade 33 students, 5th grade 37 students) in Jeonbuk Province. We assessed the changes in nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude, food habit using a questionnaire and nutrient intake using 24 hr recall method by nutrition education. In nutrition knowledge, there were significant increases in scores of 'functions of carbohydrate', 'functions of protein', 'functions of lipid', 'foods of carbohydrate', and 'foods of lipid'. In dietary attitude, there were significant increases in scores of 'taking a meal with joy', 'taking a meal at ease', 'taking a meal with sufficient protein intake' and 'taking a meal without spicy foods' by nutrition education. There were significant changes in the type of breakfast and in the frequency of snacks. After education, in type of breakfast, it showed higher number of students ate rice oriented meal than they did before education. and in frequency of snacks, it showed lower number of students ate snacks 'over 3 times' than they did before education. In Carbohydrate : Protein : Fat (CPF) ratio (%), it was significantly changed from 55.8 : 17.7 : 26.6 to 63.6 : 15.3 : 21.1. In evaluation of nutrient intake by Dietary Reference Intakes for Koreans (KDRIs), vitamin A, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, calcium, phosphate, iron and zinc showed positive changes in distribution of number of children by intake level. That is, there were significant improvements in intakes of vitamin A, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, calcium, phosphate, iron and zinc. These results showed that nutrition education using Food Exchange System for elementary students improved nutrition knowledge, dietary attitude and nutrients intake. It suggest that nutrition education using Food Exchange System may improve dietary behaviors and reduce an incidence of obesity in elementary students.