Nutrition and physical activity

Good nutrition is vital to good health. Worldwide, more than 800 million people lack access to food to meet their basic requirements for energy and protein, and more than 3 billion are deficient in essential micronutrients, such as iodine, vitamin A, and iron. In other parts of the world, where the lack of food is not a problem, far too many people still go hungry due to unequal food distribution, are malnourished from poor dietary habits, or suffer from life-threatening conditions, such as obesity, anorexia, and other eating disorders. Healthy nutrition, essential for all humans, is particularly important in growing children and in pregnant and lactating women and girls.

Insufficient physical activity also contributes to poor health. Sedentary lifestyles result in weak muscles, poor cardiovascular conditioning, bone density loss, and obesity, which in turn lead to cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, reduced immunity, and some forms of cancer.

HHD promotes good nutrition and physical activity by:

• Assisting ministries of health and education in improving nutrition programs in schools. For example, HHD assisted a pilot project in Zhejiang Province, China, in preparing and implementing a work plan in accordance with the guidelines in the WHO/FAO document Healthy Nutrition: An Essential Element of a Health Promoting School.

• Advocating for the inclusion of nutrition and physical activity in comprehensive school health programs in the United States and worldwide as part of the concept of Health Promoting Schools.

• Researching the changes of school health and nutrition over the past decade and evaluating the effectiveness of school health and nutrition interventions. The results of this research were compiled in the Education for All 2000 Assessment, Thematic Study on School Health and Nutrition, which was commissioned by the World Health Organization on behalf of UNESCO and presented at the World Education Forum 2000 in Dakar, Senegal.