Mission Nutrition

On a mission to increase healthy eating and nutrition

Mount Pleasant High School

Tayler Blamer

January 1st 201- March 21st 2018

April 18, 2018

County, beliefs and attitudes about eating healthy and to decrease saturated fat intake and

obesity/ obesity related diseases. Mission Nutrition will accomplish this by implementing a

course that teaches a nutrition lesson plan 2 times a week to High school students, ages 13-18

in Isabella County to increase their knowledge how to eat healthy to decrease obesity by 20% in

the next five years and also provide material that the high school students 9-12 th grade in

mount pleasant high school are tested on to make sure they are learning the necessary material

to change their beliefs and attitudes on eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle and

improving their lab values and maintaining a healthy BMI. Mission Nutrition will also increase

high school students, ages 13-18 in Isabella County, knowledge about eating healthy and

change beliefs and attitudes by providing educational material twice a week for two months

and measuring their knowledge and attitudes from the survey that will be administered. The

results of the survey and the findings of the needs assessment show that there is a severe need

for a program to be implemented into the Mount Pleasant High School that changes the beliefs

and properly informs high school students about nutrition knowledge, the different types of fat

and decreasing saturated fats. The community has not addressed and properly informed these

high school students about the importance of eating healthy or given them the proper

information regarding nutrition. Building on changing their attitudes, beliefs, and increasing

their knowledge of risk factors (foods high in saturated fats). Changing using combination of

behavior modification and education on proper nutrition, and creating an environment that

supports behavior changes made by individual high school students. Areas that need

improvement would be teaching them about good sources of protein, what a well-balanced
diet contains, their overall nutrition knowledge should be improved as well as limiting saturated

fats and their beliefs related to fats. About 1/3 of the students didn’t know what foods contain

omega 3 fatty acids. 40%, almost half didn’t know that eating fat raises triglycerides. About half

of the students didn’t know that saturated fat is the most important kind of fat to limit or that

fat contained 9 calories/gram and was the most energy dense. Because obesity is an increasing

problem and more common of a problem, decreasing saturated fat intake is top priority and is

placed at one since it is important and urgent. Knowing and recognizing foods high in sodium

and ones that raise triglycerides are also high In priority since these contribute to the obesity of

teens and increase obesity related diseases but come after decreasing saturated fat intake. The

needs assessment showed us that we need to be teaching the students an overall well balanced

diet is important. The program implemented for the high school students is twice a week for 50

minuets each time for a semester each year that teaches them what they should and should

not be eating, changes their beliefs and attitudes on eating healthy and what should be avoided

such as saturated fats due to the lack of knowledge of the mount pleasant high school students.

Mission Nutrition provides students with the material and knowledge to be successful

maintaining their own health and encouraging them to live their best life. The reason for

undertaking the evaluation is program improvement. To improve methods of placing clients in

various activity programs and to measure the effect of your program or the extent of client

progress in your program, to assess the adequacy of program goals, to identify the weaknesses

in the program content, to measure staff effectiveness, to identify effective instructional,

leadership, or facilitation techniques, and to measure the effectiveness of resources (such as

materials, supplies, equipment, or facilities. The community has not addressed and properly
informed these high school students about the importance of eating healthy or given them the

proper information regarding nutrition. The levels of intervention will go as follows: level I,

building on changing their attitudes, beliefs, and increasing their knowledge of risk factors

(foods high in saturated fats). Level II: Actually changing using combination of behavior

modification and education on proper nutrition, and Level III: Creating an environment that

supports behavior changes made by individual high school students.

Geraldine M. Budd and Stella L. Volpe tell us how schools are increasingly observing

children with multiple obesity-related comorbidities including hypertension, type 2 diabetes

mellitus, movement disorders, and asthma and how they are likely to increase if changes are

not made to better educate our adolescents. Obesity is an epidemic and is worsening all across

the United States. Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity have increased

substantially in the past twenty years. This has people raising concerns about the physical and

psychosocial consequences of childhood obesity. One study found that obesity in adolescence

is linked with poor physical quality of life. High body mass index (BMI) among children and

adolescents continues to be a public health concern in the United States and since 1980, the

prevalence of BMI for age at or above the 95th percentile has tripled among school-age

children and adolescents, and it remains high at approximately 17%. Using data from 2007-

2008, this article provides the most recent estimates of high BMI among children and

adolescents aged 2 through 19 years. According to the article Overweight Status and Eating

Patterns Among Adolescents: Where Do Youths Stand in Comparison With the Healthy People

2010 Objectives?, 12.5% of the girls and 16.6% of the boys had body mass index values at or

greater than the 95th percentile (target=5%). Only 29.5% of the girls and 42.5% of the boys
were meeting the daily recommended intakes for calcium (tar- get = 75%). Similarly,

percentages of youths consuming the recommended amounts of fat, fruits, vegetables, and

grains were lower than the targeted percentages. There were large sociodemographic

disparities in obesity and eating patterns, particularly across race/ethnicity and socioeconomic

status. There is a nutritional problem of obesity and obesity related diseases due to a lack of

nutrition knowledge among high school students.

After implementing Mission Nutrition the attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs of the high

school students were greatly impacted and changed in a positive way. Increasing their

knowledge of what foods contain omega 3 fatty acids, what foods raise triglycerides, and which

foods are energy dense. The students also could recognize the components that make up a

well-balanced diet and which fat is most important to limit. The average score for the questions

testing knowledge was about 80% which is much higher than the previous survey answers.

Table 2. Nutrition knowledge related to different types of fat and decreasing saturated fat

(Before Mission Nutrition) (After Mission Nutrition)

As shown in the above table, every question had the amount of correct answers increase which

shows an increase in knowledge after participating in Mission Nutrition. The students’

after participating in the program.

Table 1. Nutrition knowledge

Correct (n, %) Incorrect (n, %)

Energy rich diets 34, (72.3%) 13, (27.7%)

Well balanced diet 40, (85.1%) 7, (14.9%)

General knowledge of eating healthy and what makes up a well-balanced diet didn’t

dramatically increase but still had some improvement.

53% of students reported their eating habits have been improved by answering it has gotten

much better based on what they learned from the staffing of the program. 42.6% said they

have gotten better, with only 2 students reporting they stayed about the same. 79% of the

students answered “yes it greatly increased my knowledge” when it came to the question “Did

this program increase your nutritional knowledge on eating healthier and avoiding foods high in

saturated fats?” 66% of the students reported they were ready to make the changes and they

feel well prepared and informed to do so when answering the question “What are your

attitudes to improving your daily eating habits to eating a well-balanced diet with mono

saturated fats instead of saturated fats?” Mission Nutrition is a successful program dedicated to

improving the beliefs and attitudes about eating healthy and to decrease saturated fat intake

and obesity/ obesity related diseases.