CHAPTER 4: The anthropometric and socio-demographic characteristics, and levels of nutrition
4.6 Conclusion
More than two thirds of the sample was unaware of the fact that they should be eating five fruit and vegetables a day. This could potentially explain why fruit was such a poor seller in the tuck shop survey. If learners are not aware of the benefits of fruit and vegetables nor the number of servings they should have each day, encouraging them to eat more of these items may be futile.
Tuuri, Zanovec, Silverman, Geaghan, Solmon, Holston, Guarino, Roy & Murphy (2009) found that a 12 week school based wellness intervention program, promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetables, improved their subject’s nutrition knowledge surrounding fruit and vegetables.
Wardle, Parmenter & Waller (2000) found that adult subjects with good nutrition knowledge consumed higher amounts of fruit and vegetables and reduced amounts of fat intake.
Learners who purchased frequently from their tuck shop had significantly lower levels of knowledge compared to those who brought items less frequently. Knowledge levels were also an important predictor of whether the learner was likely to make tuck shop purchases, with higher levels of knowledge in learners who did not make frequent tuck shop purchases. These findings are important in that it shows that nutrition education may play an important role in preventing unhealthy tuck shop purchases. Nutrition education intervention involving an improved curriculum combined with improving the nutrition knowledge of the teachers could play a significant role in improving the purchasing practices of learners.
2. Educating parents regarding the promotion of a healthy lifestyle at home; as well as encouraging parents to restrict the amount of money provided to learners to make tuck shop purchases, especially when the food brought from home to eat at school is adequate.
3. Improving the quality of the nutrition education that learners receive making it more in line with the South African Food Based Dietary Guidelines.
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CHAPTER 5: Determination of factors influencing the tuck shop purchasing