A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior from Tisch Food Center Executive Director Dr. Pam Koch, Director of the Program in Nutrition Dr. Isobel Contento, along with other researchers evaluates whether Food, Health and Choices, a nutrition education curriculum and classroom wellness policy program, is able to lower students’ body mass index (BMI).

Food, Health & Choices was developed using Dr. Contento’s Nutrition Education DESIGN Procedure. That means it was based on theories that help us understand why and how people change behaviors. The program spanned the entire 5th grade school year. The process evaluation showed high fidelity, meaning the student received the full program as planned. Despite this, there were no changes in BMI. However, when boys and girls were analyzed separately, there was a small reduction in boys’ obesity.

The study had challenges. The 20 schools in the study had fewer students than expected and many where not still at the school at the end of the year, decreasing the number of students with “post” data. Also, fifth graders are at the cusp of puberty making wide ranges in height and weight. Taken together, these challenges lowered the chances of finding statistically significant changes.

Additionally, the food environment works against nutrition education. Even a well-design nutrition education cannot lead to behaviors that reduce obesity when children have high exposure to energy-dense, nutrient poor foods.

We realize through this research, as well as previous research, that a giant challenge to reducing childhood obesity is environmental. It is the overwhelming availability of ultra-processed in the school and outside of the school that make it hard for students to make positive food choices. Our interventions need to incorporate broad environmental changes inside and outside of the classroom over long periods of time to see improvements in BMI.

– Dr. Pam Koch