‘Nutrition Detectives’ Program Available To Local Schools

DERBY — According to a recent study conducted by the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, it takes less than two hours to turn students and their parents into “Nutrition Detectives,” able to identify better-for-you foods quickly and reliably.

Nutrition Detectives is a 90-minute program for elementary schools and families, developed by Drs David and Catherine Katz and a team of nutrition and education experts in response to the current childhood obesity crisis.

The study, recently published in the Journal of School Health, included more than 1,200 Independence, Mo., students in grades two through four and their parents.  Students in all three grades increased their food label literacy scores by 18 percent, with third grade students showing the most improvement (23 percent).

The overall gain in scores among students was retained three months after their initial exposure to the program. Students’ parents, who were introduced through the program at school functions and through written materials sent home, demonstrated an eight percent increase in food label literacy scores.

“Nutrition Detectives is an outstanding program that all elementary schools in this country should adopt as a part of their health curriculum. We are delighted that testing in our schools has helped to show its effectiveness,” said Dr Jim Hinson, Superintendent of the Independence, Mo., School District.

Many of the students and parents who participated in focus groups reported that their family members had made changes in their food selections as a result of the program, although overall changes in diet quality were not seen. Conversations with students, parents, teachers, and administrators indicate that the program was easy to offer and satisfying for participants.

The study was funded by a grant from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, based in Missouri, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center is now partnering with the Independence School District and HyVee supermarkets to test more ways to reach students and their parents at school, at home, and in the grocery store.

The research team will report on those findings when they become available.

“Most schools I have visited would like to be doing something to promote the health of their students,” said Dr David Katz, director of The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, and principal investigator. “But that is not their expertise — and they have reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic to worry about. It’s the job of those of us in the health field to develop programs they can easily adopt — programs that are as ‘comfortable’ as they are effective — and that don’t clash with other priorities.  Nutrition Detectives was developed with these issues in mind, designed to fit into the nooks and crannies of the curriculum, and still get the job done.

“We see programs like Nutrition Detectives as important, but small parts of the comprehensive solution to the threats of epidemic obesity and diabetes in our children,” said Dr Katz. “Each effective program we can develop and share is a sandbag; we really want to build the whole levee!  So we have lots of work to do.”

Nutrition Detectives program materials are available free of charge and may be downloaded or ordered from www.NutritionDetectives.com.