Use Of Computers In Nutrition Education

USE OF COMPUTERS IN NUTRITION EDUCATION

Computer assisted nutritional instructions educate individuals on the relationships of diet and disease, components of nutritional assessment, diet history methods and patient care studies.

Nutrition education is essential to one and all, since it can help prevent several diseases. For example, iodization of salt is a simple and effective way of preventing diseases arising due to iodine deficiency. To make learning about nutrition useful and interesting programs using multimedia and web would be useful.

Nutrition on Web

In a country like India, where a large population is below poverty line and malnourished, web is a very useful tool to supplement the efforts of nutritionists and to help remote health care centres. Multimedia and web help nutritionists to make nutritional information available in an attractive way.

There are several computer - based programmes on nutrition which are interactive, informative and interesting.

'Nutrition Discovery' for example, is a CD-ROM based programme which evaluates an individuals nutritional intake and quality of diet in an engaging and interesting way. Another CD based programme for children is 5 A Day adventures' designed to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables. It includes activities and information about nutrients in fruits and vegetables serving sizes, nutrition labelling and salad making. Short video clips show how plants grow and fruits are processed.

There are many sites on nutrition accessible to us. Some of these are:

www.dole5aday.com/menu/nutrition/menu.htm

www.kidsfood.org

www.leafygreens.org

www.education.world.com

www.healthyinformation.com

www.mediaawareness.ca/eng/med/class/teamedia/nutrie.

www.google.com

www.eatright.org