Basic nutrition should be a mandatory part of the curriculum K-9th.

As you were growing up, do you remember being taught the importance of proper nutrition? Like really think back to elementary or intermediate school, anything? When I try to think back the only time I remember anything remotely close was my first year of high school when my biology teacher taught the class to read nutrition labels and introduced the idea of eating properly. 

To this I believe that basic nutrition should be a mandatory part of the curriculum each year from elementary school through intermediate. 

Most parents, due to the rise in today's economy, are having to work longer hours and may not be able to monitor their child's food intake. Therefore, leading to possible increases in childhood obesity, along with other life altering health problems. This is all very avoidable when a child knows how to balance nutritional needs on their own. 

It was about two years ago when I noticed the lack of nutritional education in adolescences. I had just started to nanny around the DFW area, and every kid I nannied would attempt to eat junk food ALL DAY LONG.  

I was like what is up with y'all, and this sugar crave. You have tasty food, sweet foods, healthy foods available for you. Part of the reason they ate the way they did was due to lack of knowledge.  

Like I mentioned before, growing up I had no clue what a balanced meal was, and neither did those kids. Both of my parents also worked full-time, which led me to making a lot of the meals I ate by myself as I got older. 

As a result, I was considered morbidly obese as a child until age 12.  I did not know that I was fat or why Iooked different from all the other kids. I ate good, right? Or that was at least what my parents had told me. No hate for them, I do not think they were even taught basic nutrition. But I was not eating good, I was not healthy.  

Jumping back into high school when I learned about nutrition, that is when everything changed for me.  I lost the weight that made me “different.”  The girls nagging about my weight stopped, I was much happier and content. I even had a better relationship with food! 

I was able to take what I had learned and help others with it as well. Especially the children I nanny for, or my clients I train. I have even had some kids go as far to say they have a new favorite vegetable or a parent saying, “OMG my kid actually ate real food?”. 

For change to happen you cannot force an idea onto someone, it will not work, and they will only further disregard the information. 

The person must be educated on why, must be told cause and effect. That way they can reason on their own. If they are ignorant enough, to take the chance to not eat properly than let them, but at least it was not a consequence due to lack of knowledge. It could change a life. 

This is why I believe that basic nutrition should be a mandatory part of the curriculum each year from elementary school through intermediate. Who knows we might even see obesity rates go down. However, we will not see the results unless it is Implement into the curriculum for years to come.