Literacy skills lead to healthier choices

A big part of making healthy decisions when it comes to food is being well-informed.

With chronic health issues becoming a greater burden on countries all around the world, it is understandable there has been a big shift towards healthy eating practices and education.

When all available information is in a language that you are not fluent in, however, it can make your decision-making a lot tougher.

One of our trainers delivering the SEE program in Joondalup, heard students voicing concern about eating healthier and decided to take action.

After discussing some of their issues around healthy eating, Trainer Nancy Lin took some of the major hurdles they were facing and sought about adapting lessons to address these issues.

Nancy tailored a unit around healthy eating that was relevant to their situations and helped them to develop their health literacy.

The first workshop mapped literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and problem-solving skills to exercises around a shopping trip to the local grocery store.

Students assessed a range of processed foods for things like salt and sugar content and the types of ingredients they contained.

They looked at how they could switch to healthier alternatives in these types of products as well as ideas around using different ingredients in their cooking to make healthier meals.

The first workshop was a great success with students already adjusting their grocery shopping behaviour and making more informed decisions around food.

The class in Joondalup are looking forward to learning more practical skills around food that they can take home to their family kitchens!