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Some sort of stigma
Editorial
The Beginning This new Journal of Nutrition Education will survive and thrive on involvement. Professionals who are active in the interpretation and dissemination of nutrition information are encouraged to participate. It is hoped that their needs and accomplishments can be expressed through the journal. Nutrition education is a two-way street. It involves an interpretation of the science of nutrition which results in behavior change to eating the "right" type of food. While there are still many unknown facts about the effects of food on the body under all conditions, there is a wealth of knowledge that helps to insure the good health of people. Nutrition education is needed by persons of all ages. From conception through infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age, in illness and in health, this knowledge is needed. Applied nutrition may be taught in the formal classroom or in the newspaper. We hope that through this journal people will show ways to improve techniques and evaluate progress. A prototype of this journal was produced last fall. It was distributed with an evaluation questionnaire to a limited number of professionals to determine the interest in such a publication. The responses were most encouraging: 91 per cent of the respondents felt a need for it. On the basis of this response we have begun publication of the Journal of Nutrition Education to fill that expressed need. How well we will succeed depends on a number of factors; one of the major ones is the involvement of you, our readers. This journal's growth and fulfillment of its purpose will be greatly helped by your contributions of suggestions and comments, articles, reviews, papers, and so on. With your help, we are confident this journal will grow and fill the needs of those who are in nutrition education now and in the future. Helen D. Ullrich, Editor
Letters to the Editor Directed Effort Needed
Make A Clear Distinction
. . . The field of nutrition education suffers from the same difficulty as health education in general. Most individuals consider themselves reasonably well and adequately nourished. For this reason, they are more reluctant to accept nutritional education than is the individual who has a specific problem. Therefore, it would appear advisable to consider very early in your program the groups to whom nutrition education should be directed. Perhaps by a directed effort toward specific segments of the population, it might be possible to make greater inroads on the nutritional inadequacies which are reported to exist. Olaf Mickelsen, Ph.D., Professor of Nutrition, Michigan State University.
. . . I would, however, propose that one would make a clear distinction between nutrition education intended for highly developed, and therefore literate countries, and the underdeveloped, and therefore greatly illiterate, countries because nutrition education problems and evaluation methods will have to be rather different, at least to a certain degree. Dr. A. G. van Veen, Graduate School of Nutrition, Cornell University.
4 / JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION
More Functional Information ... I am quite anxious to get more functional or applied nutrition education information to the forefront. I would like ... the journal to be one that per-
sonnel working in hospitals, health clinics, community programs, and public schools would be comfortable with and not another professional journal for the immediate use of professionals in foods, nutrition, research, and technology. (Mrs.) Solona C. McDonald, Director of Hospital Dietetics, Tuskegee Institute.
Broad Membership . membership [to the Society for Nutrition Education] qualifications should be broad in scope, to allow for maximum dissemination of information in nutrition. All too often a society is formed for an exclusive membership, but this should not be the case in a field that cuts across too many scientific disciplines. Enio Feliciotti, Vice President-Technical Research, Thomas J. Lipton, Inc.
Action-cum-research Studies ... I do feel, from the standpoint of Health Education, there was a real need to have in a journal such as this welldocumented, action-cum-research studies -that is, practical things that have been done with sufficient evaluative data or documentation and evidence to support the conclusions about nutrition education and behavior change ... Scott K. Simonds, Dr. P. H., Associate Professor of Health Education, University of Michigan.
Some Sort of Stigma ... At this point in time, the concept of nutrition education seems to have earned some sort of stigma. I don't know why, and certainly those words should be welcomed rather than rejected. Perhaps so many people have become frustrated in attempting nutrition education that the total idea has suffered. Then, too, teachers are called upon to do more than they can pO,ssibly succeed in doing -leaving "nutrition education" as one of those straws that come to break the camel's back. That food habits can be modified or changed is rather obvious, and one does question whether some of the changes have been for the good, but certainly not by force of nutrition education ... H. H. Lampman, Executive Director, Wheat Flour Institute. SUMMER, 1969
The Beginning This new Journal of Nutrition Education will survive and thrive on involvement. Professionals who are active in the interpretation and dissemination of nutrition information are encouraged to participate. It is hoped that their needs and accomplishments can be expressed through the journal. Nutrition education is a two-way street. It involves an interpretation of the science of nutrition which results in behavior change to eating the "right" type of food. While there are still many unknown facts about the effects of food on the body under all conditions, there is a wealth of knowledge that helps to insure the good health of people. Nutrition education is needed by persons of all ages. From conception through infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age, in illness and in health, this knowledge is needed. Applied nutrition may be taught in the formal classroom or in the newspaper. We hope that through this journal people will show ways to improve techniques and evaluate progress. A prototype of this journal was produced last fall. It was distributed with an evaluation questionnaire to a limited number of professionals to determine the interest in such a publication. The responses were most encouraging: 91 per cent of the respondents felt a need for it. On the basis of this response we have begun publication of the Journal of Nutrition Education to fill that expressed need. How well we will succeed depends on a number of factors; one of the major ones is the involvement of you, our readers. This journal's growth and fulfillment of its purpose will be greatly helped by your contributions of suggestions and comments, articles, reviews, papers, and so on. With your help, we are confident this journal will grow and fill the needs of those who are in nutrition education now and in the future. Helen D. Ullrich, Editor
Letters to the Editor Directed Effort Needed
Make A Clear Distinction
. . . The field of nutrition education suffers from the same difficulty as health education in general. Most individuals consider themselves reasonably well and adequately nourished. For this reason, they are more reluctant to accept nutritional education than is the individual who has a specific problem. Therefore, it would appear advisable to consider very early in your program the groups to whom nutrition education should be directed. Perhaps by a directed effort toward specific segments of the population, it might be possible to make greater inroads on the nutritional inadequacies which are reported to exist. Olaf Mickelsen, Ph.D., Professor of Nutrition, Michigan State University.
. . . I would, however, propose that one would make a clear distinction between nutrition education intended for highly developed, and therefore literate countries, and the underdeveloped, and therefore greatly illiterate, countries because nutrition education problems and evaluation methods will have to be rather different, at least to a certain degree. Dr. A. G. van Veen, Graduate School of Nutrition, Cornell University.
4 / JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION
More Functional Information ... I am quite anxious to get more functional or applied nutrition education information to the forefront. I would like ... the journal to be one that per-
sonnel working in hospitals, health clinics, community programs, and public schools would be comfortable with and not another professional journal for the immediate use of professionals in foods, nutrition, research, and technology. (Mrs.) Solona C. McDonald, Director of Hospital Dietetics, Tuskegee Institute.
Broad Membership . membership [to the Society for Nutrition Education] qualifications should be broad in scope, to allow for maximum dissemination of information in nutrition. All too often a society is formed for an exclusive membership, but this should not be the case in a field that cuts across too many scientific disciplines. Enio Feliciotti, Vice President-Technical Research, Thomas J. Lipton, Inc.
Action-cum-research Studies ... I do feel, from the standpoint of Health Education, there was a real need to have in a journal such as this welldocumented, action-cum-research studies -that is, practical things that have been done with sufficient evaluative data or documentation and evidence to support the conclusions about nutrition education and behavior change ... Scott K. Simonds, Dr. P. H., Associate Professor of Health Education, University of Michigan.
Some Sort of Stigma ... At this point in time, the concept of nutrition education seems to have earned some sort of stigma. I don't know why, and certainly those words should be welcomed rather than rejected. Perhaps so many people have become frustrated in attempting nutrition education that the total idea has suffered. Then, too, teachers are called upon to do more than they can pO,ssibly succeed in doing -leaving "nutrition education" as one of those straws that come to break the camel's back. That food habits can be modified or changed is rather obvious, and one does question whether some of the changes have been for the good, but certainly not by force of nutrition education ... H. H. Lampman, Executive Director, Wheat Flour Institute. SUMMER, 1969