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A child cannot learn on an empty stomach, educators agree, and school districts across the country have implemented nutrition programs to make sure every student has ample opportunity to learn, and to be healthy.
“If you don’t eat well, and you aren’t healthy, then it does impact how you learn,” said Eileen Haraminac, Michigan State University Extension educator in food and nutrition. “It impacts your cognitive ability, your brain function, your ability to listen, to retain information, to just be alert. There are tests and studies that have been done that show children that eat breakfast, for example, have a better capacity for learning in the morning than those who don’t. And if they eat a lunch, then it carries them through the day.”
Thomas Moline, superintendent for Royal Oak Schools, has been working with Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital on Project Healthy Schools in concert with Dr. Paul Ehrmann, founder of the Children’s Health Initiative Program.
“The obesity pandemic has spread across our nation in the past 10 years,” Moline said. September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.
For the past few years, students in Royal Oak have been receiving instruction on how to avoid a sedentary lifestyle and how to make wise choices regarding personal nutrition.
“I take it as seriously as I do the core curriculum of instruction in our school system,” Moline said.
Likewise, students in L’Anse Creuse Public Schools are not only learning about the importance of good food choices, they’re seeing healthy options presented to them in the cafeteria.
Read more about nutritionist programs on www.howtobecomeanutritionist.org