Knows and Don’t Knows about Dietary Guidelines
As I was going through different nutrition education websites, I discovered a “University Of Nebraska- Lincoln[1]” website. It has various information on food safety, health and fitness, food and nutrition. It gives out free power points and handouts while also allowing readers to download it and use it as materials in nutrition education program. The main website is a little hard to navigate, however, once we select a PDF file of our area of interest- the information given is really easy to understand. I chose: “ What you should know about Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010”.
A lot of the information in this PDF is very useful to general public who are not very informed about dietary guidelines. It is very easy to follow and has different images that not only add color to the file but also help make the point they are trying to make clearer. This made me realize that the information on this can be taught to kids as well as adults, which makes it even more beneficial.
The PDF file is split into 3 columns to reduce the space required when the file needs to be printed. This way, a lot of people will not think that there is a lot of information to understand. In addition, the information is very concise and words used are very simple- allowing general public to understand the content clearly.
http://food.unl.edu/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=729c5682-b74d-4849-bd4e-e253f8d1e582&groupId=4089482&.pdf
The heading for each topic is made in bold, which makes it easier for readers to understand and have one basic concept memorized in their mind. Though not made with games or quizzes, this PDF file can still be used to educate general public (senior citizens and working populations), teenagers in college and even children in school. However, the educators need to make sure that they are doing a good job of delivering the message to their target population. Therefore, this is the downfall of this PDF file. It would not be as effective to audience if there were no nutrition educator explaining what is going on in each step. Personally, I would improve the PDF file by making an interactive piece of information where there is a link you can go to in order to quiz yourself of the given knowledge. However, a lot of people might ignore that and think it is unnecessary to do so. Therefore, another material that I would add to the PDF file would be a GIF or a small animation of important concepts written down there.
Over all, I think the PDF I chose to write on is very helpful for all of us to learn more about dietary guidelines. It has all the components necessary for readers to read and gain basic understanding.
[1] http://food.unl.edu/fnh/educational-resources