Food Choices and Its Determinants Among Children : Content, Channel, Methods

Food Choices and its Determinants among Children School children are one of the most vulnerable groups who may take misleading and false nutritional information. In this Book we evaluate and recognize the nutrition education demands of children in both rural and urban primary schools of Tehran by group discussions with children and their mothers. This qualitative research uses focus group discussion (FGD) technique, with boys and girls separately, and in 2 rural and urban districts of Tehran. Findings show that children are eager to learn about the properties of foods and their effect on the body. They are also curious about the nutritive value of different foods and to know why some foods are labeled as "useful" or "less nutritive". School staff especially teachers were named as the most influential on children's nutritional behaviors, beside them doctors, nutritionists, family members, mass media ( eg. radio, TV, magazines and newspaper), books and the internet were also mentioned. The content of elementary curriculum seemed not to be attractive enough. Teaching methods and educational system need to be modified for successful nutrition communication with children.