speech on nutrition food

Informative Speech Topics on Nutrition

Eating a well-balanced and nutritious diet helps you maintain your health. Nutrition comes in many different forms. There are many vitamins that your body needs to function properly. Some foods and vitamins give you more energy, and others help keep your organs operating properly. Share your experience to help others benefit from the lessons that you have learned.

Nutrition and Age

Speak about the nutritional needs of those in your age group. Nutritional needs vary depending on age. As a young adult, share information about how to eat nutritious meals when you have a busy schedule. Some topics include preparing meals ahead of time so they are quick to heat up and limiting the amount of meals you purchase at fast food restaurants in an attempt to save time. Offer some helpful tips about nutritious snacks to keep with you, such as carrot and celery sticks instead of junk food like candy or cookies.

College Nurtrition

Life for college students is full of new experiences, including the students being responsible for the nutritional values of their meals. With this new-found freedom of choice, nutritious foods are not always the first choice. During your speech, talk about ways to find out about the nutritional information of food served in the dining hall, such as calling or looking it up online. Share ideas with your fellow students for tasty foods and snacks that will not consume their entire day's allotments of calories.

Nutrition For Athletes

If you are an athlete, you may be aware of the nutrition you need to be at the top of your game. Share this information with other athletes who are new to the sport, or who are not aware of how to shape their nutritional menus. In your speech, include tips you have learned on using nutrition to improve your endurance and limit fatigue while participating in the sport. Other tips include how to limit fat intake by making more informed food choices.

Medical Conditions

If you have a medical condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure, you have likely learned over time the importance of nutritious food choices. With these conditions, you may have found that you cannot enjoy some of your favorite foods. Share information with others who have recently been diagnosed with the same condition or have not monitored their nutrition consumption and need assistance in keeping the condition under control.

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Alan Kirk has been writing for online publications since 2006. He has more than 15 years' experience in catering, management and government relations. Kirk has a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of Maryland.

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Nutrition communication - Rhetoric & reality

Subbarao m. gavaravarapu.

Media, Communication & Extension Group, Extension & Training Division, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India

Given the context that undernutrition in India co-exists with the problems of overweight/obesity and associated non-communicable diseases as well as micronutrient deficiencies, integrating nutritional concerns in developmental policies and governance is gaining significance. There are many schemes implemented to tackle malnutrition in India, but creating synergy and linking these schemes with each other to achieve a common goal are lacking. Nutrition communication can be an important component to create the synergy required to change malnourished India to malnutrition-free India. Although nutrition education/communication is recognized as a necessary component in various national nutrition programmes, there is not much evidence of distinct evaluation of these components. Only a minor proportion of community nutrition research has been devoted to nutrition education and communication. Although there are scattered efforts in experimenting with newer communication approaches and media for promoting nutrition, there is a dearth of published literature. In this review an attempt was made to critically examine the nutrition education and communication research and practice with special focus on India. This review provides a historical perspective of evolution of nutrition education and communication with an overview of communication approaches, media, methods and technologies used in various research studies and programmes as well as the lessons learnt.

Introduction

Health of the population is central to a country's development and it is threatened by deficiencies of macro/micronutrients and over consumption of calories across all age groups globally. Of the seven billion population of the world, 800 million suffer from calorie deficiency, two billion suffer from micronutrient malnutrition and two billion more suffer from overweight/obesity. India ranks 170 th among 180 countries for anaemia among women, 114 th among 132 for stunting and 120 th among 130 for wasting among children below the age of five years 1 . Given the context that undernutrition, overweight/obesity and associated non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as well as micronutrient deficiencies co-exist in India, integrating nutritional concerns in developmental policies and governance is gaining important. From the days of launch of the National Nutrition Policy (1993) 2 and National Plan of Action on Nutrition (1995) 3 to the National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) proposed by NITI Aayog, the premier planning body in India, in 2017 4 , there is a shift from ‘coordinated’ efforts to ‘integrated’ and ‘convergent’ approaches. Promoting both integration and convergence among various ministries, organizations, departments and sectors requires communication at multiple levels alongside communicating with the beneficiaries and vulnerable groups. Communication is recognized as a necessary if not a sufficient condition for nutritional well-being of the nation 5 . For instance, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme integrates nutritional and primary healthcare services with nutrition education for pregnant and lactating women and also pre-school children. The three most important public health nutrition programmes viz . ( i ) National Nutrition Anaemia Control Programme, ( ii ) National Prophylaxis Programme for Prevention of Blindness due to Vitamin A Deficiency, and ( iii ) National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme also owe a part of their success to the community education and communication activities 2 , 3 . Despite the short-term (supplementation), medium-term (fortification) and long-term (diet diversification) strategies implemented at national level, the problem of the triple burden of malnutrition still persists. To ensure adequate nutrition of pregnant women and lactating mothers and holistic development of children, a multi-ministerial convergence mission named ‘Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN) Abhiyaan ’ was started in 2018 by the Government, with a vision to attain malnutrition-free India by 2022 6 . Though there are many schemes to tackle malnutrition in India, creating synergy to link the schemes with each other to achieve the common goal is lacking. Nutrition communication is an important component which can create the synergy and connect the missing link. Some programme evaluation reports have highlighted the need for additional attention on nutrition education/communication components. Although studies have been attempted by non-government organizations (NGOs), university departments and students, there is still a dearth of published literature 5 , 7 . With this background, an attempt was made to critically examine the nutrition education and communication research and praxis with special focus on India.

Nutrition education or communication

The implementation of nutrition education/communication involves an effort to improve nutritional well-being of the population by providing information or other types of educational/behavioural interventions in the given social milieu of the audience 5 , 8 . While nutrition education activities usually focus on informing the individuals about healthy eating habits and lifestyles, communication recognizes that nutrition-related behaviour of an individual is the product of his/her continuous interaction with the environment. Information is designed in a unilateral manner in the education activities, whereas communication is a two-way process involving a sender and a receiver and allows a wider perspective with a feedback mechanism. The process of communication also understands that ‘people’ are individuals in communities, and they do not operate in vacuum and that an individual's food habits are influenced by his/her social, cultural and economic milieu. An individual cannot be viewed outside the context of family, peers, social structure, community, culture and physical environment. Since the contexts differ, there are hardly any universal communication solutions. Communication has to be dynamic and should pro-actively change as per the context. It does not simply end with producing a brochure, a poster or a social drama. It is a process that seeks to reduce uncertainty. Communication occurs over time 8 .

Historical perspective

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the famed French epicure, gastronome, pioneer of gastronomic essays and politician over two centuries ago said, ‘the destiny of nations is determined by what and how they eat’ 9 . In modern times, as nutrition science evolved into an independent discipline of study, dissemination activities to provide evidence-based information to the public had started at the turn of the 20 th century 10 . In the modern history of nutrition science, the credit for evolving a scientific methodological process to develop and disseminate dietary guidelines for improving health and nutritional status of the population goes to Dr Wilbur Olin Atwater, the first Director of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The importance of variety, proportionality and moderation of foods as the keys for healthful eating was highlighted in a Farmers’ Bulletin published by the USDA in 1902 11 . McKenzie and Mumford 12 evaluated nutrition programmes between 1930s and 1960s and concluded that only a limited number of studies were conducted objectively. A review conducted in 1973, of the studies covering the preceding 70 years, revealed that nutrition education was focussed merely on propagating or disseminating nutrition information than improving dietary practices or habits 13 . Such an approach was effective in increasing knowledge, but not in changing dietary behaviours. In 1985, a meta-analysis 14 of 303 studies reported observations on the impact of nutrition education on the most commonly measured variables, viz . knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. The analysis reported that nutrition education resulted mostly in the improvement of knowledge (33%) than attitude (14%) and dietary practices (19%). It was also observed that a broad spectrum of instructional procedures was employed, and in some studies, the participants were involved in planning menus and preparing/tasting foods but not in designing communication methods. Since about 80 per cent of the studies used more than one educational method, the relative effectiveness of the educational methods could not be determined.

Research suggests that behaviour change could be a slow and difficult process that requires reiteration and reinforcement of messages over a long span of time 7 , 14 , 15 . Exposure to new information or services may result in mere knowledge acquisition and not necessarily lead to a change in attitudes or dietary behaviours. Such information is usually what the policymakers, programme planners and other implementers perceive as important for the community to know. Nutrition communication should be phased over a period as people move through multiple stages of behaviour adoption (uninformed, aware, contemplation, intent, motivated-to-change, practice, maintenance and sustained behaviour change) 15 .

Nutrition education & communication - Indian scenario

Community nutrition education was included as one of the activities of the nutrition research in India in the 1900s by Sir Robert McCarrison, the first Director of Nutrition Research Labs [now National Institute of Nutrition (NIN)]. To this end, he prepared popular books and pamphlets. Providing textual materials was continued by his successor, Dr Wallace R. Aykroyd. There were many scattered efforts on the similar lines but hardly any concerted strategy for community nutrition education 16 , 17 . In the early 1960s, studies carried out at the NIN emphasized on nutrition education for schoolchildren. These studies examined the idea of providing school-based nutrition education by integrating nutrition into the syllabi 18 , 19 , 20 . Use of effective media came into action only in the 1970s 21 . Nutrition counselling was also studied for use as a tool to disseminate nutrition information 22 . Berg 23 wrote that Indians approached nutrition education more as a communication problem and not so much as a nutrition problem. Some studies in the 1980s assessed the relative effectiveness of mass media for disseminating nutrition messages 24 , 25 . Studies conducted at the NIN demonstrated the usefulness of folk art forms as effective media for nutrition education 26 , 27 .

In the 1980s, Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Program (TINP) was initiated and its implementation had several lessons to offer. TINP's integrated health and nutrition interventions comprised nutrition education/communication activities as a major constituent 28 . Seemingly based on normative theoretical approaches, the communication strategy of TINP segmented audience into primary and secondary targets and had carefully planned strategies for both. A two-pronged communication approach was used for the primary target group, and one-way communication was used for the secondary audience. The primary targets were mothers, mothers-in-law and fathers; and the media used were counselling supported by flip charts and flashcards. The secondary target audience consisted of the rest of the population in the villages. Films incorporating filmstrips, slides and popular film-music tunes were used as the media for communication. Pamphlets were distributed to the literates along with villupattu , the popular folk form that was used to reach out to both literates and illiterates. Although the impact of the communication component was not assessed separately, it was well accepted that the communication efforts were largely instrumental in creating demand for the services by increasing in awareness. TNIP also demonstrated that communication interventions should be adequately supported by providing services to make the recipients of the messages modify their practices and behaviours 28 . The usefulness of social-marketing techniques for imparting nutrition education and promoting consumption of certain micronutrient-rich foods has also been demonstrated 29 . In studies conducted over the next decade, not only computer-mediated education tools and techniques but also internationally accepted school-based education modules coupled with small media, such as skits, plays and folk media, were demonstrated to be useful tools for nutrition communication 7 , 30 , 31 , 32 . Although many efforts have been made to impart nutrition education to the community to improve health and nutritional status of vulnerable population, the efforts have been scattered and varied 8 .

Multiple approaches to nutrition communication

Currently, nutrition communication is regarded as an umbrella term used for a wide array of education and other programmes that aim to influence nutritional status of individuals 33 . Some of the approaches developed, adapted and implemented over the years include the following:

Social marketing

It employs principles of product marketing for advancing a social cause or concept 34 and for expanding the acceptability of a social idea or practice by one or more groups of target adopters 35 . In other words, the principles of marketing that are used to vend products to consumers could be used to 'sell’ ideas, attitudes and behaviours to the people. The strategy adopts the four ‘P's of marketing - product (here, behaviour change or a shift in attitude), price (the cost, in terms of time and effort, of changing behaviours), place (making available the enabling environment conducive to behaviour change) and promotion (reaching audience through suitable media and reinforcing the message). This approach was successfully used in Thailand for promoting vitamin A-rich foods in the 1990s 33 and it was also shown to have increased the production and consumption of vitamin A-rich foods in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh in India 29 .

It is a strong strategic effort involving a continuous and adaptive process of organizing the available scientific evidence and information to formulate convincing arguments for communicating to decision-makers (often policy elites) through various interpersonal channels and media with a view to influence their decision towards raising resources or political and social leadership to steer public opinion, adopt necessary policy changes and allocate resources for a cause (here nutrition) 36 . In India, voluntary organizations, research groups and international organizations such as WHO and UNICEF have been spearheading many advocacy efforts. These efforts involve communicating with stakeholders from different government departments to help them envisage their role in executing the country's food security plans and nutrition policies. In an endeavour to enhance inter-ministerial, inter-departmental and inter-sectoral collaborations for promoting nutrition, WHO-FAO sponsored workshops were held at the NIN for representatives from seven Southeast Asian countries including India 37 , 38 . Other efforts involved depicting the functional and economic consequences of malnutrition as convincing arguments for mobilizing the support of policymakers. WHO prepared advocacy material based on PROFILES programme developed by the Academy for Education Development, USA, with the support of international organizations 39 . It was attempted to explicate the benefits of investing in nutrition as against the potential losses that a country could accrue due to less productive malnourished manpower in economic and financial terms 40 , 41 .

Information, communication & education (IEC)

These strategies attempt either to change or to reinforce desirable nutrition behaviours among a target audience in a predefined period and have been used in Indian scenario 8 . However, these initiatives are usually grounded in the concepts of preventive or curative health care and are largely related to individual behaviour change, message reinforcement and public health education. Although IEC campaigns broadly involve four broad steps - planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation - the main drawback is that these locate the responsibility of nutrition behaviour with the individual and tend to ignore the societal factors that influence the behaviour. Therefore, IEC is often categorized under behaviour change communication (BCC) and not under social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) 5 .

Edutainment

It is also called entertainment-education (E-E) and is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse. This approach seeks to instruct its audience with the lessons by incorporating in and integrating with some forms of entertainment such as multimedia, television (TV) programmes, radio programmes, podcasts, games, films, music and websites. A review of studies that used E-E approaches for nutrition promotion in the last six decades (1956-2016) concluded that the typical phases of E-E projects formative, process and summative research, were not adequately followed in some 42 . The authors concluded that the appealing E-E models led to nutrition knowledge acquisition in target populations however, did not serve as a standalone approach to bring about behavioural change 42 .

Participatory communication

Participatory approaches engage people and focus relatively on how people view their food environment than how they view themselves to create a local need and demand for change. Participatory communication methods have been demonstrated to be useful in nutrition communication. Participatory communication methods not only involve audiences (people/communities) in dialogue but also seek their collaboration and engage them in decision making while considering them the most important beneficiaries of the development process 43 . Participatory methods generally meet the real and perceived needs and requirements of the people to produce results that can be sustained with basic external inputs 44 . ‘Positive deviance’ is defined as an approach to social/behavioural change, which is based on social cognition and observation. In any resource-poor community, there are some people whose distinctive but successful positive behaviours help them to be nutritionally better than their peers despite confronting similar challenges and not having any extra resources. In many resource-poor countries, encouraging people to adopt such uncommon but successful behaviours from their positively deviant peers was demonstrated as an innovative approach in participatory learning 45 . Learning through sharing the experience with such individuals and families as well as incorporating these practices in planning and implementation of some of the nutrition supplementation programmes in India was shown to be beneficial, especially in the northern States of India 46 , 47 , 48 .

Media & nutrition communication

The trust and confidence the general public have in media as a source of information are enormous. The medium, message and the messenger will affect how it is received. There are many sources of information for people including the traditional media and the new media, and their effectiveness in nutrition communication was assessed in some of the studies. The concern with some of the electronic resources and social media tools is that the technology allows dissemination of information without checks, peer review and fact-checking 49 and this could lead to fragmentation of public in terms of nutrition-related beliefs, perceptions and behaviours 50 .

Print media

Although classified as traditional media, newspapers play an important role in disseminating information on various aspects of health and nutrition. While newspapers highlight some nutrition research findings disproportionately to draw reader's attention, these tend to ignore or report conflicting news items on health and nutrition topics. A study conducted at the NIN examined 214 reports in six newspapers and found that a quarter of these were not based on authentic nutrition research, a few were contrary to the original research findings and one-fifth had not mentioned the source 51 . Another study observed that coverage of nutrition information was irregular, and there was a need to prioritize health and nutrition messages as page one reported and concluded that there was a need to incorporate special pages for children with engaging content to encourage them to read newspapers with nutrition content 52 . Apart from the newspapers, other print materials used by research organizations, government and international organizations as well as voluntary organizations for nutrition communication are flip charts, flashcards, pamphlets, posters, booklets, manuals, charts and leaflets 5 . These print media have been used with an intention that they would help reinforce other forms of nutrition communication, especially interpersonal methods 7 .

Folk art forms

Folk media are culturally contextual and easily adaptable in formats with potential to provide flexibility for adoption by nutrition communicators. Although NIN's studies in the 1990s have established the effectiveness of folk media for nutrition communication in some contexts, their potential has not been exploited fully in other geographic locations 27 . In a study by the NIN scientists in the previous decade, a video recorded version of a local folk art form was successfully used to enhance the nutrition knowledge of university students 53 . The study concluded that the intervention based on folk dance had significant positive increment in nutrition knowledge due to the impactful presentation and attention holding nature of the art form. A study that assessed the relative efficacy of folk media in promoting vitamin A-rich foods in Bangladesh 54 concluded that despite interpersonal communication approaches being the most resorted to and effective forms of message dissemination in the developing world, edutainment-like methods using folk media could aid in reaching out to a wider audience at a time 54 .

Television (TV)

Since introduced in the late 1950s, TV has been the avenue for food advertisements. Despite being a dominant avenue for food advertising, more often, TV is seen as a vital source of health and nutrition information. With this in view, in 2012, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India in collaboration with UNICEF, launched ‘ Kuposhan Bhagao ’ (Malnutrition, Quit India) campaign to address discrimination against girl children in providing foods in families, promoting care of pregnant mothers and children (≤2 yr), importance of breastfeeding, infant feeding and balanced nutrition 55 . The campaign was run on TV and radio channels for over 34 wk, but the detailed impact of the campaign was hardly assessed 56 . Such national campaigns can be successful if at ground level, adequate infrastructure and access to facilities are made available to prompt the anticipated behaviour change among those individuals exposed to the campaign. However, such campaigns may suffer on the count that these have to compete with the multinational food companies whose advertisement spends for publicizing their products are manifold higher than those of a Government department 55 . Exposure to televised food marketing is a key factor among others influencing people's diets, eating preferences and health outcomes 57 , 58 . The role of celebrities in promoting healthy eating habits and physical activity of teenagers was studied 59 . This study reported that commercial food and beverage products endorsed by celebrities were consumed by majority of teenagers. Even brief exposure to advertising can influence food preferences and embedded commercials in popular cartoons have been shown to influence children's food preferences 59 . 60 , 61 .

New media/information communication technologies (ICTs)

An advancing communication strategy using information communication technologies (ICTs) can act as a transforming agent of social and behaviour modification by integrating technology with edutainment. The role of ICT mediated education programmes focussing on observed first-order changes such as shifts in knowledge, attitudes and practices was investigated. While studies elsewhere demonstrated that computer-based nutritional teaching methods in school settings could be useful in providing additional and modern support to conventional teaching methods 31 , 50 , a NIN study showed that the CD-ROM-based education did not add anything over and above what the adolescents learnt about nutrition in the classroom through conventional teaching method 32 . With the ever-changing scenario, education through personalized entertainment is being seen as a potential tool for improving not only nutrition knowledge but also behaviours. Development of a pertinent health and nutrition content and formulation of an effective interventional tool needs more evidence or establishing whether or not ICTs could be used as a standalone tools for nutrition education 42 . New media-based approaches are being viewed as the key components in POSHAN Abhiyaan , wherein ICT-based real-time monitoring system has been initiated and anganwadi workers are being incentivized for using these tools, and similarly, a wide resource of online education tools are also being made available for different stakeholders 6 . These ICTs are supported by complementary media materials such as flip charts, flashcards, pamphlets, posters, booklets, manuals, charts and leaflets.

Smartphone-based mobile applications (apps) are also the tools available for the users for providing interactive nutrition education, calorie counting and activity tracking. One such app is Nutrify India Now developed by the NIN in 2018 ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ionicframework.myapp863035&hl=en_IN ) and it acts as a nutri-guide that helps users assess their nutrient intake from food and also keep track of energy balance. The usability is extended to majority of the Indian States as all food names are provided in 17 Indian languages. A study analyzed the quality of some popular apps and assessed their effectiveness in modifying lifestyles among the users. Although considered by the users as beneficial, the apps had only led to slight increase in intentional physical activity, but their suboptimal quality and inconsistent usage led to limited/no changes in their anthropometric and dietary patterns of the study participants 62 . The study concluded that mobile apps might not be useful as standalone tools for lifestyle and nutrition promotion in their study context.

Food labels as a medium of nutrition communication

One of the potentially powerful tools of communication to promote public health nutrition, but is often not considered when traditional channels are discussed is food labels 63 . The nutrition-label panel provides much information to the public to make healthier choices. However, the question is, how useful is the nutrition information provided on the pack if the individual is not able to understand the significance of numbers/symbols printed on the pack. Studies conducted in India reported that literate consumers were more plausible to read the information on label for food choice 38 , 64 , 65 , 66 . The studies concluded that the purpose of promoting healthy and informed food choices through use of food label information is not thoroughly met. There is a need to promote nutrition literacy first and take up consumer education activities alongside experimenting newer symbol-based forms of labelling for easy comprehension.

Reviews of nutrition communication studies - Loopholes & facilitators identified

Historically, top-down communication approaches dominated the health and nutrition programmes with centralized planners choosing the media channels and designing the material without contemplating the differences that exist within the populations 22 , 67 . A review of nutrition education/communication interventions to encourage micronutrient intake and status across various age groups in India 68 considered 1250 published research papers, but only 19 studies met the inclusion criterion. The review identified the factors that led to the success of a few interventions, which included ( i ) conducting formative research before designing the intervention using qualitative and quantitative methods for situation analysis, gathering information on locally available micronutrient-rich foods; understanding the knowledge, taboos and dietary practices of target population; ( ii ) identification of clinical signs of deficiency and faulty practices prevalent among the study population before designing targeted interventions; ( iii ) use of multiple channels of communication and experimenting with new methods; ( iv ) simple yet effective kitchen gardening tips and live demonstration of cooking methods to prevent vitamin loss and creating the enabling environment; ( v ) targeting of interventions to population segments - beneficiaries, opinion leaders and community leaders, and ( vi ) involving key members of the community such as local leaders, health functionaries and NGOs and seeking their active participation in the process of communication.

Communication - Translational challenge

The 0.6 per cent gross domestic product expanded on research and development activities in India will be of minimal or no use, if the research from laboratories is not translated to general public 69 . The increasing gulf between the ‘health status we have’ and the ‘health status we could have’ is either due to inability in sharing the knowledge effectively or due to inability in translating it into action. Effective but single-time communication is no solution for various intractable health challenges. Knowledge and skills in communicating effectively are fundamentals to bridge the gap between what we know, what we understand, what we vocalize and what we deliver in health policies and programmes 70 .

Most of the nutrition communication interventions promote consumption of a diversified diet and especially that of fruits and vegetables. One of the reasons for failure of these interventions, to convert knowledge into practice, could be the terminology used. It is therefore, important for the communicators to develop tools that enable general public visualize the variety and the quantity of food they need to consume. My plate, developed by the USDA, is such an initiative which attempts to bring the rhetoric communication to reality 71 . Same goes with the term ‘calorie balance’, which is a key recommendation to prevent overweight/obesity. Consumer insights therefore, become critical to understand how these concepts are perceived so that effective communication strategies could be created 72 .

Food-risk communication in media

Alongside food and nutrition security, food safety is an essential pillar for nutritional well-being of the nation. Food safety issues or food-borne illnesses are rarely addressed in nutrition interventions. The changes brought about by technological advances in food production, processing, storage and distribution have been bringing to the fore new food safety issues, which may not be matching with the public perceptions of food safety. Studies explored the connect and the disconnect between the media portrayals of food safety issues and the popular perceptions of the consumers vis -à- vis the scientists’ views on food risks 73 , 74 . The findings suggested that the risks perceived by the consumers often did not tally with the actual risks. On the other hand, media were found to be biased against positive news on food safety issues and have focussed on negative stories. The reportage related to food safety issues dealt mainly with negative stories on food adulteration, hormonal injections to cattle, and pesticide residues in foods. Despite wide-ranging media debates on genetically modified foods, majority of the respondents were not even aware of these. It was also found that disproportionate public responses to food/health scares were triggered for a short while due to media reports though they were against the real risks posited by the scientists 75 . The authors stressed on the need for all stakeholders including researchers, regulators, manufacturers and media to work in collaboration for communicating with the consumers to improve their baseline knowledge on food safety that would let them (consumers) assess food safety information received from different media sources critically 73 , 74 , 75 .

Will partnership of communication agencies work better?

A critical examination of how organizations from different sectors engrossed in nutrition communication in India perceive, develop and implement nutrition communication programmes concluded that the programmes taken up by most organizations across the government, voluntary and research sectors are mostly top-down and expert-driven. Often, these lack proper planning, critical evaluation or adequate financial allocation 5 . Not only people's perceptions but also perceptions, motivation levels and personal biases of the key communicators affect the nutrition communication programme implementation. The study also identified that the framework for nutrition communication for government and government-funded research organizations is structured by the centres of authority (such as state, UN agencies or funding agencies), which generally define the nutrition priorities and also the target outcomes 5 . The communicative processes in community nutrition education programmes of the NGOs are not always based on the articulations emerging from within the context of audiences, but these are also likely to be funding agency driven. It is suggested that communication should be a fundamental component and not an optional line in health and nutrition programmes with suitable/pertinent budgetary allocations and a strong established evaluation method. If there is a common narrative on nutrition from the communicators across the sectors, it would be reiterative and complementary and thus enhance multisectoral partnerships 76 . The winning formula of multisectoral partnerships is the capability to appropriately and adequately target actions at the grass-root level. The ‘Ensemble Prévenons l’Obésité Des Enfants’ (Together Let's Prevent Childhood Obesity) - European Network Project is an example in this direction 49 . A few highlights of the project that have evidenced success in dropping childhood obesity in France were ( i ) developing a sound scientific basis for programmes and evaluations, ( ii ) creating the necessary political connections at each level of society, ( iii ) mobilizing resources for social marketing, and ( iv ) coordinating multi-stakeholder approached.

What else & who else need to be understood?

In India, the NNS emphasizes the need for synergistic relations and convergence among government and non-government agencies as well as the private sector for ensuring nutrition to all 4 . Similar to this, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) programme initiated in 2009 was a global advocacy effort to mobilize governments, institutions, communities and families to prioritize nutrition as central to national development 77 . In its reports, the key lessons learnt in social mobilization, advocacy and communication to scale up effective nutrition interventions, lack of funding and human resources for social mobilization, communication and advocacy activities at the national, regional and local levels in some countries were also highlighted 78 . The report also identified that a few donors and voluntary organizations in some countries filled the funding gaps, while for other countries, the needs remained unmet. The absence of specific expertise, especially in multimedia communication campaigns, was reported in a few others. Strategies for communication, advocacy and social mobilization could build in funding for strategic planning and evaluation, capacity building and explore opportunities to leverage partnerships with the private sector, media and civil society 79 .

The way forward

In countries like India, there is a wide array of nutritional problems, due to co-existence of undernutrition, diet-related NCDs and micronutrient deficiencies. Directing nutrition communication on specific nutrition issues for precise target groups is therefore, a huge challenge. Nutrition education and communication can broadly be viewed from the perspective of its framework either as a process (a mechanism for interaction and exchange) or as a resource (applying coordinated, multisectoral and interdisciplinary effort) for improving the nutritional status. It is a prerequisite for nutrition communication programmes to be more comprehensive, coordinated to encourage community participation. Learning from the successful programmes helps simplify complexity in a way by helping the identify success factors; however, only a few of these could be programmatic, while most others would be contextual.

Experiences within India and elsewhere clearly indicate that a combination of integrated, multi-component and multi-media approaches is likely to be more successful than single approach. There is an increased need for sensitivity to the inherent problems and the context of the community to design an appropriate communication campaign. Caution should be exercised while attempting to replicate the techniques/approaches that have been successful in certain contexts to the others as these may need to be customized for the local scenario. Therefore, nutrition communication campaigns which aim to mobilize or sensitize communities may have to adopt different approaches in different circumstances and the choice of approaches should be firmly guided by the contextual needs and media environment.

Given the context that ICTs are being seen as powerful tools in improving efforts in health communication globally, more studies are needed in the Indian context to evaluate their effectiveness. While the new media, social media and social networking platforms are emerging as the new sources of health information, there is a need to understand the people's perceptions on the authenticated and unauthenticated health messages received through these media. Similarly, consumer education and nutrition literacy should be seen as essential components before food labels could emerge as powerful tools in promoting healthy food choices.

This review points to the fact that nutrition communication is a necessary condition (if not a sufficient condition) for achieving nutritional well-being of the people. Emphasis should not only be on mere dissemination of information but also on creating enabling environments for adopting and maintaining positive behaviours. For communication interventions to be effective, these should include a range of activities, multi-faceted, reiterative, reinforcing and engaging. This requires a candid assessment of how well-equipped the communicators are, how many stakeholder groups are engaged, what material and human resources are available, how effective, sustainable and appropriate is the campaign design to the local context. Considering that the content of communication process is largely determined by choice of approach, which, in turn, is determined by the context (both of the individuals and organizations), there is a felt need for expanding the locus of nutrition communication approaches from targeting the individual behaviours to creating conducive social context. No single paradigmatic communication approach is effectively positioned to capture the complexities of the contexts. For a successful nutrition communication, diverse perspectives from multiple levels of communication need to be simultaneously activated, with a concomitant dialogical engagement among the scholars, practitioners, policymakers using different approaches and operating at different communicative levels. For this, the communicators should go beyond their organizational standpoints and individual beliefs while choosing the media, methods, approaches to harness the multiplicities of communication. Finally, nutrition education and communication should be thought of as an integral part of a country's development plan for making substantial outcomes a reality; else the efforts could just remain rhetorical.

Acknowledgment:

The technical help provided by Ms Archana Konapur, Senior Research Fellow, at ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, in collecting the research papers and helping them organize thematically for this review is acknowledged.

Financial support & sponsorship : None.

Conflicts of Interest : None.

Importance Of Balanced Diet Speech [1,2,3 Minutes]

Eating is an essential characteristic of any living organism. The food we eat decides the future of our health. Hence, we must know the fundamentals of a balanced diet. Diet does not just mean fulfilling the stomach; the main goal should be to meet the body’s nutritional requirements.

In this article, we are sharing a few speeches on a balanced diet for students and learners. These speeches have a delivery duration of between 1 to 3 minutes. The main goal of this speech is to explain to the listeners the importance of a balanced diet.

So, let’s start with the first speech which is the shortest in all having a duration of only 1 minute.

Speech On The Importance of Balanced Diet | 1 Minute

Hello and welcome everyone. I am very happy to see your presence here and I also want to thank you for the same and giving me an opportunity to present a speech on a balanced diet and its importance.

“Balanced diet”. You must have heard this term multiple times in your lifetime and you may be well aware of what it is. Well, a balanced diet is a diet full of all the important nutrients for the proper functioning of the body.

Some of these nutrients help us grow while others help our body to protect against different types of threats. We need all the nutrients to achieve the highest possible healthy lifestyle. But none of the food items caters for all of them in one place. Then, what to do to have a balanced diet?

Well, there are some main food categories i.e. vegetables, fruits, grains, protein foods, poultry and dairy products. So, we need to eat food items from each type of food category, eat more colours, eat more tastes, drink enough water, get some sunlight, avoid fried and processed food etc.

This is a simple guide to having a balanced diet which will lead to a healthy lifestyle. This is all I wanted to say in my speech. I hope you have liked this speech. Thank you.

2 Minute Speech On The Importance of a Balanced Diet

Hello and welcome everyone! I am here to present a speech on the topic of the importance of a balanced diet.

Before I start my speech I cordially want to thank you all for your presence and having me this valuable opportunity.

There is a saying; “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, This saying clearly states that food and health are directly connected. We can eat a lot of food items to fill our stomachs but all the food items are not equal in terms of nutrients.

To maintain good health, we need to opt for a balanced diet which is full of all the essential nutrients for the good functioning of the body. A balanced diet consists of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and water.

Don’t worry! you don’t need to conduct research for preparing a balanced diet. You just need to follow some simple rules. One , eat food items from each food category viz vegetables, fruits, grains, protein foods, dairy products, poultry etc. Two , eat different tastes and colours.

Three , avoid fried and processed food as their nutrients are killed during the preparation. Four , avoid refined food items such as refined sugar, refined cooking oils, refined flour etc. Five , hydrate your body properly by drinking enough water daily.

Furthermore, you can also expose your body to the sun and maintain a daily exercise routine to achieve the highest possibility of health.

In the end, I want to thank you for paying your precious attention and listening to my speech. It will be a pleasure if my speech adds some information to your life. Thank you!

3 Minutes Speech On Balanced Diet And Its Importance

Good morning honourable principal, respected teachers and parents and dear friends. We are gathered here on this occasion of… I am here to present a speech to you. The topic of this speech is the importance of a balanced diet.

Everyone knows that health is wealth but achieving good health is not so easy. Despite this fact, it is not even very tough. The first step is to understand the basics.

Our body has its own requirements that need to be met. If these requirements are fulfilled, our body becomes healthy. When these are not fulfilled, we feel unhealthy.

The simple solution to fulfil the body’s requirements is a balanced diet. A balanced diet helps us to fulfil the body’s requirements to attain good health and it contains three types of food items.

The first types of food items are called energy-giving foods which provide the body with carbohydrates and fats. Carbohydrates supply instant energy to the body and fats are stored for later use.

The second is body-building foods which deliver proteins to the body. Don’t think that body-building foods are only meant for bodybuilders. Proteins are useful for the repair of damaged cells and they also help us in body growth.

The third type of food is called protective foods . These foods supply the body with vitamins and minerals which protect the body from diseases. They also help us resist germs that can harm the body.

In short, a balanced diet consists of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and water. We need all the nutrients to achieve the highest possible healthy lifestyle. But none of the food items caters for all of them in one place. Then, what to do to have a balanced diet?

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My Speech Class

Public Speaking Tips & Speech Topics

51 Speech Topic Ideas On Food, Drink, and Cooking

Jim Peterson has over 20 years experience on speech writing. He wrote over 300 free speech topic ideas and how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and speech writing assignments at My Speech Class.

• Various types of preparing chili.
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• Matching wine to your food – the five perfect matches for a romantic dinner table.
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• A short demonstration speech with a mini-course vinology.
• The great white wine types: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Riesling.
• The great red wines: Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Wine making in Italy and the difference with France, Germany, and California.
• Barbecue tips.
• Indian Food, list some of the myriad regional cuisines.
• White wine should always be served before red wine.
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
• The relation between livestock welfare and food safety is stronger than we think.
• The pros of eating garlic are greater than the smell the day after.
• The ideal vegetarian barbecue must not include steak sauces.
• Quality control seals is the start of how to control our food chain.
• It is too late to ban genetically modified food.
• Wedding cake origins.

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Study Today

Largest Compilation of Structured Essays and Exams

Speech on Healthy Food for Children & Students

June 1, 2018 by Study Mentor 2 Comments

A very good morning to every one present here. Today, I am going to deliver a speech on a topic which holds special significance in our lives and is of utmost relevance in this day and age.

In this age of global race for success and excellence, health often tends to take the back seat. We tend to neglect our health because it has no instant effect on our daily lives. Long hours are spent at offices and schools and colleges only sitting on the chair and drooling on tables.

And the only other activity that we do is to consume unhealthy foods. Be it our lunch or snack that we consume outside the house, it is usually something that has been fried in bad oils or contains lots of unhealthy saturated fats like butter or cheese.

That is why I myself have taken up a healthy stand in my diet and therefore I tend to eat only healthy foods, as much as the situation permits at least. Out of these, the food that I prefer most is the fruit salad. It is a food of unique importance and taste.

First of all, it is available all throughout the year and can be made with any seasonal fruits available in the season. Secondly, the amount of fruits and nutrients that it offers is unparalleled by any other kind of food.

Another positive point of a fruit salad is that fruits contain a tremendous amount of natural fibers, both soluble and insoluble. Fibers play a very critical role in the convenient movement of waste products in the large intestine. It prevents problems like constipation and regulates a healthy bowel routine.

Another important advantage of having fibers in our diet is that it absorbs the bile secretions which induce production of cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol is an extremely dangerous compound that is produced in the body in small quantities and may also be consumed from unhealthy and fried foods.

India is the country which has the highest number of heart diseases as well as many other diseases like type-2 diabetes. These diseases have often been referred by doctors as lifestyle based diseases. This is because these diseases occur as a result of leading an unhealthy and sedentary routine.

We tend to eat fast food and then sit either in office or on the couch all day and just kill ourselves slowly a bit every day. Doing such simple things like replacing a meal in a day with a fruit salad can translate into a tremendous amount of health benefits for our body.

The flavonoids and stimulants contained in fruits combat the free radicals in our body and prevent the process of ageing and also improves insulin sensitivity which help to prevent the occurrence of type-2 diabetes.

Lifestyle based diseases can easily be prevented but once they occur, they stay for a lifetime and ruin our happiness. Eating fried foods leads to accumulation of fat within the arteries thus leading to episodes of thromboembolic events like angina and heart attacks.

Many of us, as a result of binge eating, have developed a gluttony attitude towards food. We tend to eat more than we need to. It is an unfortunate reality of the modern developed world that food, no longer, has to be hunted and is easily available.

Because of this easy availability of food, we tend to binge eat almost at each meal of the day to fill up ourselves to the brim. This is a very poisonous habit.

However, eating a fruit salad can satisfy that mental desire of being full, without burdening us with the guilt of extra calories. Fruits are composed of mostly water and due to this fact, they are extremely filling.

They tend to expand once they enter the digestive system, thus inducing the production of a hormone called ghrelin that signals the brain that the stomach is full and no longer needs more food.

Energy is what we eat food for. Fruits are loaded with tremendous amounts of instant energy. They contain a huge amount of glucose which can readily be used up by the cells which need to be replenished with energy. Thus they provide us with instant energy removing our tiredness.

Having a bowl of fruit as a snack can aptly serve this purpose. Many times, when we need energy, we tend to go for sweet sugary drinks like red bull, coke, or such others.

Instead if we be aware and make a good choice eating fruits instead, we will not only be provided with energy but also be enriched with vitamins and mineral that are needed for the swift functioning of the human body.

Reader Interactions

June 30, 2019 at 4:08 pm

I love this speech but one problem there no easy to me

June 30, 2019 at 4:11 pm

I want some easy speech! plz!

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FDA Seeks $7.2 Billion to Enhance Food Safety and Nutrition, Advance Medical Product Safety, and Strengthen Public Health

FDA News Release

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it is requesting $7.2 billion as part of the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 proposed budget. This funding will allow the agency to enhance food safety and nutrition, advance medical product safety, help support supply chain resiliency, strengthen the agency’s public-health and mission-support capacity, and modernize the FDA’s infrastructure and facilities. The request includes an increase of $495 million—or 7.4 percent above the FY 2023 funding level. The FDA’s request reflects the agency’s top priorities in key areas of importance for human and animal health. 

“The FDA continues to protect the health and well-being of millions of people,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. “This new funding request will help us build on our accomplishments and also modernize our agency and operations as we plan for the future. Our request for critical investments will help us address our most urgent priorities, strengthen our public health capacity, advance IT capabilities, and improve agency-wide infrastructure. The budget will also support the FDA’s ability to prepare for, build resilience to, and respond to shortages, support the implementation of expanded cosmetics regulation, and protect and promote a safe, nutritious U.S. food supply.”

The FY 2025 request , which covers the period from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025, includes new efforts for high-priority program areas. Highlights of the agency’s request include:

Enhancing Food Safety and Nutrition 

• $15 million to protect and promote a safe, nutritious U.S. food supply. Funds for the FDA’s human foods initiatives will modernize the FDA’s capacity to prevent or mitigate foodborne illness outbreaks by investing in necessary tools and processes to strengthen root-cause investigations. The budget request also supports the FDA in addressing the enormous public health burden of diet-related chronic diseases and the goals of the President’s National Strategy for Hunger, Nutrition, and Health .

Shortages and Supply Chain  

• $12.3 million to address supply-chain disruptions and support supply chain resiliency. Through an agency-wide crosscutting initiative, the FDA will advance its capabilities to help prepare for, build resilience to, and respond to shortages through improved analytics and regulatory approaches. Amongst other initiatives, the agency will hire additional investigators to fulfill inspectional needs associated with increased supply-chain disruptions and consequent human food and medical product shortages in recent years. The agency will also continue promoting manufacturing quality across the pharmaceutical industry and developing and implementing modernized systems to respond to shortages more quickly.   

Bolstering Modernization Efforts and Mission Support

• $114.8 million to support public health employee workforce. This funding will help the FDA cover estimated inflationary pay costs and cost-of-living adjustments to minimize reductions to hiring capabilities and maintain the agency’s highly qualified, specialized staff crucial to carrying out its public health mission.     
• $8 million in additional funds to support the implementation of the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA). The FDA will use the funding increase to further develop a modernized cosmetics regulatory program and enhance the agency’s efforts to protect consumers and help ensure the safety of cosmetic products. Funds will be used for activities such as developing regulations and compliance policies; managing submission platforms associated with MoCRA provisions; reviewing MoCRA-required information submitted to the FDA for industry compliance; and hiring additional subject matter experts to manage critical projects, such as the assessments of the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetic products.  
• $2 million increase to support agency modernization activities. The targeted investments will be used by the FDA to improve the efficiency of its operations by centralizing planning, implementation, and governance of high-priority business process improvement efforts. These include the continuation of the critical inspections platform implementation and expansion effort to implement common business processes and data optimization across the agency. The budget also proposes new 2-year spending authority to support these critical investments. 
• $8.3 million to modernize data infrastructure to best support agency operations. Funds will allow the agency to continue building the FDA’s centralized enterprise data-modernization capabilities and strengthen its common data infrastructure. The budget also proposes new 2-year spending authority to support these critical investments.   
• $1 million to expand foreign offices and strengthen imported products oversight. Funding will support the expansion of the agency’s foreign-office footprint, expanding agency resources to facilitate timely inspections of foreign facilities in specific countries. Additional deployed personnel would also improve oversight of imported products.  

Infrastructure, Buildings, and Facilities 

• $43.6 million to ensure optimal functioning of the FDA’s offices and labs. Funding will allow the FDA personnel at facilities across the country to carry out its mission, including to evaluate food safety and medical products, continue to expand laboratory operations supporting inspections at points of entry to reduce the flow of adulterated and illicit imported products, and respond to emergencies. Optimally functioning facilities provide secure, modern, reliable, and cost-effective office and laboratory space that empowers the FDA’s workforce to protect and promote the safety and the public health.  

To complement the funding requests, the agency’s budget proposal also includes a package of legislative proposals  designed to better support agency efforts to protect American consumers and patients. Notable proposals include efforts to: 

• Enhance supply-chain resiliency for drugs, medical devices, and foods, including with respect to addressing supply disruptions. 
• Provide new authorities to help ensure the safety of foods, including infant formula, medical foods, and foods marketed for infants and young children, which includes new authority to set binding contaminant limits by administrative order, requirements for contaminant testing of final products, more frequent environmental monitoring for pathogens in certain facilities, and mandatory reporting when certain products test positive for pathogens.
• Support innovation and competition, such as creating a new regulatory category of animal food additives to facilitate marketing of innovative animal food products, as noted in the agency’s Animal and Veterinary Innovation Agenda .
• Facilitate the uptake of biosimilars by updating the U.S. biosimilar program and ensuring it is more consistent with current scientific understanding.
• Encourage meaningful innovation and timely competition for new drugs by amending certain exclusivity provisions. 
• Extend 21st Century Cures hiring authority to the FDA tobacco program to most effectively meet its public health mandate.
• Provide additional oversight tools, such as expanding authorities for information-sharing with states, broadening authority to request records or other information in advance of or in lieu of inspections to all FDA-regulated commodities, and requiring importers to destroy products that present a significant public health concern. 
• Propose new authorities that would require animal drug sponsors to make post-approval safety changes and expand the FDA’s mandatory recall authority to cover all human and animal drugs. 
• Provide the FDA with additional authorities to increase oversight of dietary supplements to better protect consumers from dangerous and otherwise illegal products on the market.
• Modernize the tobacco user fee framework to allow for a fair distribution of tobacco user fee assessments to all regulated tobacco products.

Related Information

• FDA Budgets Webpage
• FY 2025 FDA Budget Summary Fact Sheet
• Executive Summary of FY 2025 Legislative Proposals
• HHS Budget in Brief

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, radiation-emitting electronic products, and for regulating tobacco products.