National Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Guidelines for Service Providers of ...

CHAPTER 11
NUTRITION EDUCATION AND COUNSELLING
11.1 Nutrition Education
Nutrition education should assist PLWHA to make healthy dietary choices. As it has been captured in the
previous chapters, adequate nutrition supports normal body functions and processes that enable
people to lead healthy lifestyles. Adequate nutrition is influenced by daily food choices that people
make. Many of these choices are informed by religious and cultural beliefs. In addition, rapid dietary
changes that are brought about, in part, by globalization have resulted in a rapid shift from healthy
traditional and indigenous foods to highly processed foods. Yet these highly refined foods have a long
term negative effect on the health and nutrition of individuals and population groups. The emergence
of dietary transitions that are typical of countries with transitioning market economies can become
particularly challenging for PLWHA. PLWHA are bombarded with a plethora of fast foods, highly refined
food items, and food supplements, many of which carry unsubstantiated health claims.
Nutrition education is a set of learning experiences designed to facilitate the voluntary adoption of
eating and other nutrition-related behaviours that are conducive to health and well-being.
“Where the world is changing very slowly, you don't need much information. But when change
is rapid, then there is a premium on information to guide the process of change.”
- Lester Brown.
Nutrition education is especially important for PLWHA because of the nutrition-related demands that
the virus puts on the body. Nutrition education must therefore be integrated into the care and support
provided to PLWHA. The goal of nutrition education must be to help PLWHA understand the need to
maintain an adequate diet and how to manage common health problems that may negatively affect
their nutritional status. Many people do not have the necessary knowledge to ensure that they have
adequate nutrition. Thus, every one can benefit from nutrition education which is seen as sharing
information and giving relevant advice.
Nutrition education messages should take into account the different stages in the life cycle; early
childhood, adolescent and adult stages. For children, parents should encourage a positive interest in
food and eating including;
° Serving attractive foods with colour
° Serving small and frequent servings at a time
° Allowing some freedom to choose
° Allowing children to eat the amount of food they can handle. Children should not be forced
to eat more food than they can eat.
° Building healthy eating habits very early in children's lives
While it is important to educate children about good nutrition, parents should be made aware that they
are responsible for teaching their children bad dietary habits. For the most part children eat what
parents eat. If parents have unhealthy dietary practices, children grow up thinking that these bad
habits are acceptable. For the most part, parents send subtle bad messages about nutrition to children
by buying them junk food often and even packing junk food for them while they go to school.
There are difficult challenges that are posed by the adventurous adolescent stage. Some of these are
characterised by trials of new foods and dietary practices, peer pressure, and influence of advertising.
Depending on the early childhood experiences, adolescents can be rebellious in their rejection of
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