A Risk Worth Taking

According to Oona Hanson, who wrote “‘Healthy eating’ curriculum can do more harm than good” for CNN, adding nutrition classes to schools would be ultimately harmful to students because of how state education standards would likely cause them to develop eating disorders. Hanson makes a compelling argument; poorly structured nutrition classes causing eating disorders amongst the youth is a reality that nobody wants. However despite this potential risk of establishing nutrition classes in schools, I believe that focusing on this one specific issue undermines the overall need for these classes in the US.

Norway is one of the only countries in the world that has a mandatory nutrition curriculum in their schools. The Norwegian Ministry of Education outlines some of what this curriculum looks like, which includes the expectation that primary school students are able to, “describe the characteristics of healthy and a wide variety of food and why they are important to health.” This is an important aspect of any nutrition curriculum, but how does it impact the rate of eating disorders in Norway? Well, according to an article published by World Population Review titled, “Eating Disorders by Country 2023,” the United States, without a nutrition curriculum, already has a slightly higher anorexia index compared to Norway. Many factors can contribute to disordered eating in a population, and while Norway’s numbers are far from perfect, what’s important to take away is that Norway has a lower rate of anorexia despite the fact that they have this mandatory curriculum. This proves that if implemented correctly, a nutrition class in the United States would likely not increase disordered eating in the enough to warrant not implementing the class, especially when you consider the other benefits of these classes.

Is the harm of potentially instilling eating disorders into children by nutrition classes in schools worth the benefit of having a healthier population? What even is the benefit? Well, the truth is that there is an undeniable massive obesity problem in the United States. Its so bad that according to a study published by the CDC titled, “Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Severe Obesity Among Adults Aged 20 and Over: United States, 1960–1962 Through 2017–2018,” the number of Americans who are simply, “overweight” has gone down since 1960. This seems like a good statistic that would suggest that Americans are getting healthier. Unfortunately, the reason why less people are simply, “overweight” now is because more people just skip this category entirely and go straight to obese. Not only is the number of unhealthy Americans going up, but the degree of their unhealthiness is also rising as well. It’s difficult to look at this data and not want to do anything about it. Clearly public health initiatives by the government departments targeted at adults are not working, so why not try to establish healthy habits in school children, who are much more likely to adapt the habits that they are learning in classes?

Well, Hanson would argue that if school children are more likely to adapt these healthy habits, then they would be more likely to adapt harmful ones like eating disorders as well, and there is some truth to that. I’m not here to argue that either obesity or an eating disorder is worse than the other. Both are awful conditions that we should try to prevent. However, it is a fact that there are significantly less people who suffer from eating disorders compared to obesity. The already high number and the sheer rate of just how rapidly obesity is rising is should absolutely take precedent above all at this point. American’s are only going to get more unhealthy if the current public health initiates stay in place, so what other choice do we have? Even Hanson’s own proposed solutions involve working with students to ensure that they do not develop eating disorders if nutrition classes were mandatory. It is likely that if these classes were established, they wouldn’t be perfect, but given the extreme circumstances we are in, the good absolutely outweighs the harm. And until a better solution is suggested, can it really be afforded to consider anything else at this point?

Establishing nutrition classes into classrooms seems like a big change, and with such big changes, it makes sense why people like Hanson may want to consider the risks. The sad truth however is that the United States is quite behind a lot of the developed world when it comes to nutrition education. According to a study published by Kim Smith et al. titled, “How Primary School Curriculums in 11 Countries around the World Deliver Food Education and Address Food Literacy: A Policy Analysis,” 11 countries either partially or comprehensively address food literacy in their primary schools. It shouldn’t come as a shock that these countries have less obesity compared to the United States. The fact that so many countries with healthier populations than the United States already have some form of nutritional education in place means that we can establish a system that we know works in other places. Its a lot easier to live with potential the risk of an increased number of eating disorders if you know that the system that you’re buying into is going to be effective.

Overall, Hanson’s concerns of students developing potential eating disorders as a result of nutritional education classes are completely warranted. In fact, these concerns are welcomed because they will help these classes be as safe for students as possible, should they ever be put into place. However as for the question of if these classes will be more harmful than beneficial, the answer couldn’t be any more clear. There is a reason why obesity in the United States is referred to as an epidemic, and addressing this epidemic through schools seems to be the only effective option moving forward. The unfortunate truth is that the United States is far behind a lot of the world in establishing some form of formal nutritional education, and if we know that countries with these systems have healthier populations than us, then why are we still questioning if these classes should be established or not?

References

Hanson, Oona. “‘Healthy Eating’ Curriculum Can Do More Harm than Good.” CNN, 9 Oct. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/09/health/unhealthy-school-nutrition-lessons-wellness/index.html.

Eating Disorders by Country 2023. Ranking Eating Disorders by Country 2023 https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/eating-disorders-by-country. Accessed 1 Dec. 2023.

Fryar CD, Carroll MD, Afful J. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among adults aged 20 and over: United States, 1960–1962 through 2017–2018. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2020.

Norway Ministry of Education and Research. Curriculum for Food and Health. Ministry of Education
and Research, June 29, 2020. https://data.udir.no/kl06/v201906/laereplaner-lk20/MHE01-02.pdf?lang=eng

Faberman, Rhea. “State of Obesity 2023: Better Policies for a Healthier America.” Trust For America’s Health, 2023, https://www.tfah.org/report-details/state-of-obesity-2023/.

Smith K, Wells R, Hawkes C. How Primary School Curriculums in 11 Countries around the World Deliver Food Education and Address Food Literacy: A Policy Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 11;19(4):2019. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19042019. PMID: 35206208; PMCID: PMC8871606.