From SNEBFrom Reflection to Action.

Perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, mean-ings, subjectivity. these terms appearin most of the research articles in thisissue, reinforcing my own viewpointon what makes nutrition educationsuccessful. It often requires food andnutrition educators to interact withpeople, helping them reflect on theirown food choices andwhat influencesthem. Participantsmay come to realizethat they have been choosing foodsbased on the values of others such asfamily members, society in general,or the food environment, rather thanthinking about their own health.

This typeof reflection ispart of trans-formational or transformative learning.According to JackMezirow, the pioneerof this learning theory, ‘‘The process in-volves transforming frames of referencethrough critical reflection of assump-tions, validating contested beliefsthrough discourse, taking action on

one's reflective insight, and criticallyassessing it.’’1 By helping people thinkabout what they eat and why andoffering alternatives for better health,lower cost, or more enjoyment, as wellas skills and experiences to reinforcenew attitudes, people are more likelyto change their behaviors.

But hands-on, face-to-face, rele-vant, and hopefully transformationalnutrition education programming islabor-intensive and costly. In theUnited States, federally funded pro-grams such as EFNEP, SNAP-Ed andWIC frequently have to deal withbudget cuts while public nutrition ed-ucation inmany other countries oftenis inadequately funded. Advocacy isa major part of SNEB's mission, andadvocating for funding for nutritioneducation research and programs isa high priority. The SNEB AdvisoryCommittee on Public Policy actively

encourages members to learn aboutpriority issues, offering tips on work-ing with decision-makers and weeklypolicy updates to help inform andmotivate members to get involved.2

Please reflect on how you can becomean advocate to support nutrition edu-cation that works.

Linda T. Drake, MS2012-2013 President, Society forNutrition Education and Behavior

REFERENCES

1. Mezirow J. Transformative learning:theory to practice. New Directions forAdult and Continuing Education. 1997;1997(74):5-12.

2. Society for Nutrition Education and Be-havior. SNEB Advocacy in Action.http://www.sneb.org/advocacy/advocacy.html. Accessed March 18, 2013.

From JNEBHealthy Literacy, Nutrition Education, and Food Literacy

Healthy People 2010 defines health lit-eracy as ‘‘the degree to which individ-uals have the capacity to obtain,process, and understand basic healthinformation and services needed tomake appropriate health decisions.’’1

Similarly, according to the Eat WellSouth Australia project, food literacy isthe ‘‘capacity of an individual to ob-tain, interpret and understand basicfood and nutrition information andservices as well as the competence touse that information and related ser-vices that are health enhancing.’’2

These definitions agree with those ofthe International Federation forHome Economics, that identified 3components of health and foodliteracy as functional (knowledge), in-teractive (skills), and critical (transfor-mation and empowerment).3 Whilenutrition education focuses on foodintake andhow thebodyutilizes nutri-

ents for growth, development, andhealth, food literacy has a wider scopethat ranges across food production,procurement, preparation, processing,packaging, and labeling to food choiceand consumption. Whether the termis healthy literacy, nutrition educa-tion, or food literacy, decipheringnutrition information is clearly chal-lenging. Levin noted that most healtheducationmaterials are toodifficult formost to comprehend.4 Seventeenyears later, thismay still be true. As nu-trition educators, it is our responsibil-ity to reduce the gap between theliteracy level of our messages and theliteracy levels of our audience by sys-tematically assessing their food liter-acy needs and providing educationand skill training that is transforma-tional, relevant, and would stand testsof changing environment and unsta-ble economic conditions.

Mary W. Murimi, PhD, RD, LDNAssociate Editor

REFERENCES

1. US Department of Health and HumanServices. Healthy People 2010: Under-standing and Improving Health. 2nd ed.Washington, DC: US GovernmentPrinting Office; 2000.

2. Vidgen H, Gallegos D.What is food liter-acy and does it influence what we eat: Astudy of Australian food experts. Brisbane,Australia: Queensland University ofTechnology; 2011.

3. Nutbeam D. The evolving concept ofhealth literacy. Social Science & Medicine.2008;67:2072-2078.

4. Levin S. Pilot study of a cafeteria pro-gram relying primarily on symbols topromote healthy choices. J Nutr Educ.1996;28:282-285.