CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The importance of nutrition education as a means for improving nutrition of the community in the developing countries has increased rapidly during the recent past. Lack of awareness about the dietary requirements and nutritive value of different food is the main cause for prevailing malnutrition among school children, pregnant women, lactating mother and other vulnerable sections of the community.

Nutrition education should be practical and should be easily adaptable to the socioeconomic status, food habits and the available local food resources generally needed for the purpose of demonstration and feeding of the locally available audience. Nutrition education programme should become a part of the community. Nutritional knowledge is important, particularly in the light of the rapidly expanding work population and threat of food population imbalance. The world we live in is changing constantly. People prefer to eat out day-by-day as they have taken it to be a part of life. Everyone is getting busier in order to find ends meet for survival and so hardly have time to prepare nutrition meals with appropriate calories.

For many people, eateries have become their kitchen where all they need is to order something from the menu, which is very 'fast' and convenient. Nutritionally, fast food is the main source of obesity epidemic around the globe today. Puff-puff, buns, burgers, sandwiches etc are fall products fast foods business and these have the adverse effects of obesity.

For some, all they need is not the nutrient in food but just to fill the empty and hungry stomach, which can lead to malnutrition. It is important to acquaint consumers with nutrition issues, problems of malnutrition, nutrient content of meal etc. What to take at right time.

The absence of Nutrition Education or adequate information about fast food Nutrition in the past was what prevented people from knowing how much fat or calories they were consuming with each bite that was taken from a burger as an example. As a result of good education on nutrition on how certain foods can cause obesity and other ill-effects, nobody wants to die, so they want to know how much saturated fat, cholesterol, carbohydrate, sugar etc they are consuming in the fast foods they eat. Hence, there is the need to educate consumers of products from catering and fast food business.

1.2 STATEMENT AND PROBLEM

The Problems of Nutritional Education

The problems of Nutritional Education are highlighted below:

• The purchasing power of the people is very low due to low income earning.
• Physical problems remitting from climatological and ecological aspects.
• Problems also arriving from the length of time it will take people to understand the knowledge of nutrition.
• Nutritional survey is not widely spread
• Political obstacle:; i.e. government policies that do not favour nutritional grounds.
• Financial limitation as a result of the low need and little attachment assigned to evaluation by the government.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of nutritional education are highlighted below

• Providing information through communications strategies (e.g. information campaigns, dietary advice in health service settings)
• Providing skills that enable consumers to act on the information provided (e.g. cookery, growing)
• Providing an enabling food environment (e.g. marketing to children, making different foods available)

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objectives are as follows:

a. To develop nutrition advisory services and nutrition education programmes for the public.

b. To participate and coordinate in community nutrition programmes with the co-operation of people working in other disciplines like social workers, village health workers and nurses, etc. and also with the help of social welfare agencies.

c. To help in developing supplementary nutrition programme where ever necessary.

d. To improve the nutritional levels of the community by the available means.

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The research hypothesis involved in this study were as follows:-

H1 The series of Supplemental Nutrition Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) nutrition education workshops will lead to a change in family lifestyle behaviors which will help prevent childhood obesity

H 2 it is important to provide general awareness of the role of Nutrition Education in catering and fast food business;

1.6 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

To encourage healthier food choices for people in catering and fast-food restaurants, many initiatives have been proposed. This study aimed to examine the effect of disclosing nutritional information on parents' meal choices for their children at fast-food restaurants.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The absence of Nutrition Education or adequate information about fast food Nutrition in the past was what prevented people from knowing how much fat or calories they were consuming . As a result of good education on nutrition on how certain foods can cause obesity and other ill-effects, nobody wants to die, so they want to know how much saturated fat, cholesterol, carbohydrate, sugar etc they are consuming in the fast foods they eat. Hence, there is the need to educate consumers of products from catering and fast food business.

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is based on the nutritional aspect of foods in catering and fast food outlets. It is important to acquaint consumers with nutrition issues, problems of malnutrition, nutrient content of meal etc. What to take at right time.

1.9 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

Balance diet : A diet is said to be balanced when it contains all the necessary nutrients required for the body metabolism (Adebayo, 2013). It must be able to provide heat and energy, contain the necessary nutrients to build and repair the worn out tissues and supply nutrients to regulate the body process. The nutrients are: carbohydrates, fats and oil, proteins, minerals, water and vitamins.

Under nutrition : This occurs when there is not enough nutrients in the food consumed which results to body weakness especially in children and so they have low or no immunity to infections.

Over Nutrition: This is the result of over eating. It happens when an individual is over nourished on when one eats much of wrong food, ill also causes this problem. Over-weight people become ill easily, get older than the age and obsessed if care is not taken.