Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Home Economics - Challenge of Home Economics [PAGE 39]

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poor food practices? Perhaps, the time has come for a critical evaluation of the traditional approaches of teaching nutrition in terms of calories, proteins, vitamins, and minerals or of' the seven basic food groups. Research based on modern educational philosophy is providing new keys that need to be tried out and tested under many situations. Motivation is a powerful tool, and programs taking into account the goals and aims of the individuals in the group being reached may represent a big wedge in the improvement of food habits. For example, just what kind of persons would they like to be? In a group of adolescent girls, might not emphasis of nutritional practices that are reflected in improved personal appearance — glossier hair, clearer skin, better posture, more pep — be important? A group of overweights might be challenged by an appeal to reduce body size in light of benefits to be derived — reflected in things like improved appearance and better health. Our own research experience at Iowa with an overweight individual provides a dramatic example. This woman, 52 years old when we first knew her, was some 30 pounds overweight. She had never used milk in her diet, was stingy with protein foods, and used relatively few fresh fruits and vegetables. She came to us as a subject in one of our metabolic studies. Balance tests showed that both calcium and nitrogen were being drained from her body tissues. She expressed a desire to lose weight and we planned a diet of reduced caloric value and ample in proteinrich foods and milk. She took the job seriously and modified her eating practices around our dietary recommendations. We have studied this subject at regular intervals, and over the past 8 years on this improved diet she has been storing calcium and nitrogen and her weight has fallen by 30 pounds. Recently, her physician evaluated his observations of her over the years. He said that she looked three years younger. He noted that her skin had taken on a good color and a surprisingly soft texture for a woman of her age, that her hair was lustrous, her musculature firm. A slight spinal curvature was more flexible that it was initially. The subject herself is keenly aware of an improvement in her sense of well-being. An animation and a zeal that she did not exhibit when we first knew her are evident Also, there is her pride in being able to wear a size 14 dress! I have dwelt at length on the performance of this woman for she not only is an example of what motivation will do in reaching nutritional goals but she also is a demonstration of another most important nutrition fact. And this is it: Nutrition can be improved. Make people believe this statement and another powerful nutrition education tool 39