Impact of nutrition education on the health status of school going girls

Childhood nutrition should be a balance between the high energy and nutrient content required for growth and development and establishing a healthy diet with weight control, in association with regular physical exercise. The balance between these two aspects changes from the very high fat content of infancy to the low-fat, high-fibre diet of adulthood. The diet for a child should be focused on natural, fresh sources of energy and nutrients. Drastic dieting must be avoided. A positive attitude to healthy eating should be encouraged from an early stage. Sixty girls of age group 7–9 Years belonging to low Socio economic group in Yamunanagar district of State Haryana were divided equally into control (C) and experimental (E)group. The experimental group comprised of 30 girls and they along with their mothers were imparted nutrition counseling twice a month for a period of four months Assessment of nutritional status was done before and after imparting nutrition counseling. The mean height of subjects in C and E group was 116.1cm and 117.1 cm in the beginning of the study and 116.2cm and 117.9 cm at the end. The average weight of subjects in both the groups was 20.1 kg in the beginning which significantly increased to 21.7 kg in E group after nutrition counseling. However, all the indices were lower than the standard parameters. Thus it can be inferred that nutrition counseling should be imparted for a longer duration and should be included in school curriculum.