Health Education

HEALTHEDUCATION
Dr. S. Prakash
Principal
Thiagarajar College of Preceptors
Madurai

• Health education is the profession of educating people about
health.[1] Areas within this profession encompass environmental
health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual
health, and spiritual health.[2] It can be defined as the principle by
which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner
conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health.
However,

• The World Health Organization defined
Health Education as "compris[ing] [of]
consciously constructed opportunities for
learning involving some form of
communication designed to improve
health literacy, including improving
knowledge, and developing life skills which
are conducive to individual and community
health."

The Role of the Health Educator
• From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth
century, the aim of public health was controlling
the harm from infectious diseases, which were
largely under control by the 1950s.

National Commission for Health
Education Credentialing (NCHEC)
• The National Commission for Health
Education Credentialing NCHEC is the
national accrediting organization for health
educators, promoting the certified and
master certified health education specialist
(CHES and MCHES, respectively)
credential.

OBJECTIVES OF
NUTRITION

• Access to healthy foods at school, work, and in the
community.
• Enough money to buy the kinds of foods recommended
in the guidelines.
• Knowledge about nutrition.
• Motivation to choose healthy foods.
• Confidence that they can cook healthy foods.
• Healthy foods in their homes and daily environments.
• Social, cultural and family support for eating healthfully.
• Eating patterns that include frequent meals with family
and/or friends eating together.
Access to healthy

Supporting Healthy Eating
• Most people base their food choices on taste, cost, and
convenience.(7) Many foods recommended in the dietary guidelines,
like whole grains and some fruits and vegetables, are more
expensive than highly processed foods that have sugar and fat as
main ingredients. Foods like fresh and attractive fruits and
vegetables may be harder to find in low-income neighborhoods.

Priority Recommendations
• The following recommendations can help
individuals and families make healthy food
choices.
• Assure that communities provide access to
healthy foods and beverages
• Assure that worksites, including healthcare
services and schools provide healthful foods and
beverages
• Assure that schools provide healthy food and
beverages

Featured resources
• GOAL 1:
Improve lifelong healthy eating
• Objectives:
• Increase awareness and knowledge about healthy
eating.
• GOAL 2:
Increase lifelong physical activity
• Objectives:
• Increase number of adolescents and adults aware of
current physical activity guidelinesand
recommendations.

• GOAL 3:
Increase the awareness of health risks associated with obesity,
overweight, physical inactivity and poor nutrition
• Objectives:
• Increase awareness of the costs – personal and financial, related
diseases, absenteeism and the socioeconomic and personal factors
associated with overweight and obesity.
• GOAL 4:
Increase the number of mothers who breastfeed
• Objectives:
• Increase proportion of medical and healthcare workers who counsel
women about breastfeeding.

• GOAL 5:
Decrease sedentary screen time
• Objectives:
• Decrease exposure to television, computer and
other recreational screen time to no more
than two hours a day.
• GOAL 6:
Utilize program evaluation to assess best
practice evidence to prevent overweight and
obesity

• GOAL 7:
Promote community based education programs on
the benefits of healthy eating and active living
• Objectives:
• Obtain/update community inventory to identify existing
local programs and services.
• GOAL 8:
Support growing and consuming local products
• Objectives:
• Increase healthy food’s affordability and accessibility.

THE
IMPORTANCE
OF NUTRITION
•

• Of course, food alone isn't the key to a longer
and healthier life. Good nutrition should be part
of an overall healthy lifestyle, which also
includes regular exercise, not smoking or
drinking alcohol excessively, stress
management and limiting exposure to
environmental hazards. And no matter how well
you eat, your genes play a big part in your risk
for certain health problems. But don't
underestimate the influence of how and what
you eat.

• The keys to good nutrition are balance, variety and
moderation. To stay healthy, your body needs the right
balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein — the three
main components of nutrition.
• Moderation means eating neither too much nor too little
of any food or nutrient. Too much food can result in
excess weight and even too much of certain nutrients,
while eating too little can lead to numerous nutrient
deficiencies and low body mass.

DO YOU EAT TO LIVE OR LIVE
TO EAT?
• “You are what you eat” is more that just a catchy phrase
your
• mother used to get you to eat right. It’s a profound truth.
• From the Stone Age to the Industrial Age, people have
• recognized the healthful properties of certain foods. And
now,
• in the Information Age, the importance of nutrition is so
well
• recognized and supported by scientific evidence that
virtually

• every major public health organization in the world
makes
• dietary recommendations. The link between good
nutrition
• and disease prevention is similarly strong. In the United
States,
• for example, the American Cancer Society estimates that
35%
• of cancers that are not genetically predetermined can be
• prevented simply by eating right

NUTRITION AFFECTS YOUR
HEALTH BOTH
• TODAY AND TOMORROW
• The diet is your body’s only source for raw materials it
needs
• to perform its day-to-day functions. Cellular workings are
• complicated and continual. Fortunately, your cells
perform
• their jobs automatically, without any forethought on your
• part. Your only responsibility to this intricate, dynamic
system
• is to provide the high-quality nutrients the body needs to
do a
• good job.

Health Education

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