344. Nutrition education: Advice for parents

Nutrition education

* * *

Prevent tooth decay by reducing the cariogenic food involves not only reduce the amount of intake of sugars, but also and mainly to its frequency. Also under this view, institutions have an important role, since they may promote balanced diets, with low consumption of sugary foods (eg, one dessert a week, a bread and butter instead of sweet).

There are very useful materials in Portuguese, in this area, including the Manual para uma Alimentação Saudável em Jardins de Infância (Guide for Healthy Eating in Kindergartens) and Manual de Educação para a Saúde em Alimentação (Manual of Health Education in Food), which they recommend. The diet should include foods that encourage chewing. However, there are people with problems in this field which usually eat porridge. It should therefore be careful not to add sugar to these preparations. The food rewards given for any successful task should not be sweetened.

Technicians should sensitize institutions and parents to the importance of low consumption of sugary food and soft drinks, stating that:

• sugary foods, solids and aosdentes members are the most cariogenic;

• the effect of cariogenic foods is greater if they are eaten between meals;

• A good diet is the selection of natural foods, fruit, vegetables, grains and fibrous foods.

(taken from Professor Escovinha)