Nutrition as a focus for health education

Traditionally only home economics, biology, social history and geography have made substantial contributions to nutrition education in schools. More recently, however, two reports have emphasised nutrition education as an integral part of health education. These reports have not advocated a separate discrete course of health education but have recommended a policy of coverage of health education topics through a range of subjects, a policy which will require much close collaboration between the subjects involved. In this article some of the issues underlying this approach and their implications will be discussed, as this development is intimately related to the central role now played by nutrition education in the debate about health education in schools.