Over eat or under eat, how do you measure? 

Calorie consumption that is too low or too high will eventually lead to health problems. The University of Kentucky with their Nutrition Education Program teaches individuals how to take care of your body through the Healthy Choices for Everybody Curriculum. This program covers everything we need to know about nutrition and help families with low income to understand how to eat the right foods in the right amounts every day.

Because of COVID-19, the Healthy Choices for Every Body Curriculum lessons were taught individually to participants to prevent the spread of the infection.  The Nutrition Education Assistant met individually with each family for 20-30 minutes each week to explain the lesson. The participants felt more confident and honest when sharing their health habits. In this group there were several grandparents raising their grandkids. It is well know that parents and grandparents have a different point of view on how to educate children.

One participant, when learning the My Plate lesson, shared that being a grandmother raising her 3 grand kids had being a challenge for her and husband. She felt awful because she said that; “I always serve the same portion to all of them and make them finish it. We are in times that cannot have the luxury of throwing away food that’s hard to bring to the table”. The Nutrition Assistant explained that each body has different needs. Now she understands about portion, calories, and she realizes it that the boy was under eating and the 9 and 13 year old girls may be over eating. She was very thankful to learn how to take control of this and how many calories and portions each child needs.

Calories are essential for human health. The key is consuming the right amount. The number of calories in food tells us how much potential energy it contains. It is not only calories that are important, but also the substance from which the calories are taken. The human body needs calories to survive. Without energy, the cells in the body would die, the heart and lungs would stop, and the organs would not be able to carry out the basic processes needed for living, but we need to count them. Everyone requires different amounts of energy each day, depending on age, sex, size, and activity level.

According to the data from a National Extension Reporting System, of the 25 families that participated in this series; 80% showed positives changes in food groups, diet quality, food resource management and 86% improved in food safety behavior. 

Mimi Quiroz M.  Sept. 2021 

Nutrition Education Program Assistant

Owen County