Hello and welcome to the Brighter Thinking Pod from Cambridge University Press, the podcast that brings you advice and conversation from authors, teachers and academics.
This is a special five part mini-series where we are focusing on how best to eat healthily throughout our lives and encourage other people to do the same. Does a a healthy body equal a healthy mind as the old saying goes? We plan to find out. In this series, we will be talking to academic experts about their research in this area and how this translates into practice in our own lives.
As well as the audio below, which you can play from the page, you can listen to this and other episodes by going to the website, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.
Please like, subscribe and review if you like what you hear – it really helps us to reach more teachers with our podcast.
Bon appétit!
Hosts
Let’s meet our hosts:
Paul Ellis
Paul is Head of Teaching and Learning Strategy at Cambridge Assessment International Education, part of the University of Cambridge. He is a teacher, trainer, published author and broadcaster.
Dr Chris McLeod
Chris is an academic at Loughborough University, UK, with an expertise in behavioural nutrition and public health. His research aims to improve people’s nutrition, and particularly the nutrition of vulnerable populations by implementing psychological interventions in the public health space. You can find him on Twitter @McLeod_Research.
In each episode, our hosts will be joined by an academic who specialises in a different area of nutrition.
Episode 1 – How to Educate Young Children and Caregivers About Healthy Eating
In this episode, we discuss:
- How can caregivers support children to eat a wide variety of foods?
- How do you get over hurdles to children eating a variety
- How can fussy eaters be supported to try new foods?
- Why are some children fussy eaters?
- Is this the same across the world?
- What ways can schools or teachers support children to eat a variety of foods?
- When is it appropriate to start learning about the energy of food? (calories)
- What role do peers play in helping children learn about food?
- Just as you ‘scaffold’ learning, can you do the same with introducing new food to children?
- Should we use ‘treats’ or even the word ‘treat’ to encourage children to eat a variety of foods?
- What are the unexplored questions about children and healthy eating?
Show notes
The importance of instructional scaffolding, Teacher Magazine
Learning about food: How can schools and educators support healthy eating? Professor Emma Haycraft
Special guest
Professor Emma Haycraft
Emma is Professor of Psychology and Public Health in the school of sport, exercise and health science at Loughborough University, UK. Her research focuses on children’s eating behaviours and caregiver feeding practices with the aim of supporting the development of dietary variety within children and young people, both in the UK and abroad. Emma is the cocreator of the award-winning Child Feeding Guide, an evidenced-based website and app that supports caregivers to achieve happy, healthy mealtimes with their children.
Episode 2 – Understanding How Adolescents Could Eat More Healthily
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why is adolescence an important time to focus on healthy eating habits?
- What do we mean by ‘healthy eating’?
- Is healthy eating for adolescents the same as for everybody else?
- What are the key influencers for how adolescents eat and the habits they get into?
- How much influence do celebrities have for adolescents?
- What changes can we make as individuals to increase the healthiness of eating habits?
- Do governments have a role to play in adolescents eating healthy?
- Should there be a curriculum that includes food education for adolescents?
- How can we help adolescents to make healthy food choices?
Show notes
Special guest
Dr Hannah White
Hannah is Lecturer in Psychology at Loughborough University, UK. Her research relates to disordered eating among young people, with a particular focus on promoting understanding of the different emotions and experiences related to family meal times and the different way families interact with relation to eating, body shape and weight, and physical activity.
Episode 3 – Educating Adults to Eat More Healthily
In this episode, we discuss:
- Where do we start when educating adults about healthy eating?
- How might education about healthy eating differ if the goal is to change behaviour, rather than merely informing?
- What can we do to make sure education helps people move towards behaviour change?
- What does ‘healthy eating look like’?
- What other barriers to healthy eating do we need to consider?
- Are there limitations to using education as an approach?
- What can we do to motivate people to eat healthier?
- What can we do straight away to make our diet more healthy?
Show notes
Food insecurities in the UK – UK Parliament
Special guest
Dr Lucy Porter
Lucy is a Postdoctural Researcher who is interested in why we eat the things we do and how we can use psychology to make healthy eating easy and enjoyable. Lucy completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Exeter and most recently worked at Loughborough University on the development of a new healthy eating app for families. She also works in public health as a behavioural scientist.
Episode 4 – The Difficulties and Avenues for Delivering Educational Offerings About Healthy Eating to Minoritized Ethnic Communities
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why is it particularly important to focus on healthy eating for ethnic minority groups?
- Are there health inequalities between different groups of people? Why?
- Is this a national/international problem?
- Are there healthy-eating differences between different sub-groups of ethnic minorities?
- What are the barriers and avenues to educating healthy eating?
- Does food education have to come from within communities?
- What more can education environments and schools do to teach minority populations to better understand healthy eating?
Show notes
Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN)
Special guest
Dr Hibbah Osei-Kwasi
Hibbah is a Lecturer in the school of sport, exercise and health sciences at Loughborough University, UK. Her research focuses on dietary practices and behavioural change interventions for black, minority ethnic groups. She also has an interest in global health and nutrition research and has previously worked in multi-disciplinary international research teams exploring food environments in Africa to leverage evidence for policy and interventions to prevent diet-related non-communicable diseases.
Episode 5 – How Students can get Match Fit for Examinations by Learning from Elite Athletes and the Latest Scientific Research
In this episode, we discuss:
- What do we mean by getting ‘match fit’ for examinations?
- Is it applicable for more than just examinations?
- What can we learn from elite athletes about nutrition and preparation?
- What things should students consider before taking an assessment?
- What are the impacts of certain foods on the body?
- How much sleep should you get before a big exam?
- How long before an exam should students make changes to their diet, physical activity and sleep?
- How can teachers best educate students on these matters?
Show notes
Stay tuned
That’s it for this special 5-part mini series on nutrition. We hope you have enjoyed it! Don’t forget to tell your friends about us and rate our show on whatever platform you’re listening on. It really helps us to support more teachers.
Our show notes have lots of useful links that we’ve discussed throughout the show, so please check them out.
Remember to follow us on twitter at CambridgeInt and use the hashtag #BrighterPod to get in touch.
