Food literacy and healthy diets of Canadian parents : Associations and evaluation of the Eat Well Campaign

Une mauvaise alimentation est un facteur de risque important contribuant au fardeau des maladies chroniques. La littéracie alimentaire contribue à l’adoption de saines habitudes alimentaires et aide les consommateurs à développer de la résilience envers les effets négatifs de l’environnement alimentaire malsain qui offre une grande variété d’aliments à petits prix, souvent riches en énergie et de pauvre qualité nutritionnelle. Un besoin de réaliser de la recherche au Canada sur les déterminants de la littéracie alimentaire et leur association à la qualité de l’alimentation a déjà été identifié. La campagne « Bien manger » est une initiative portant sur la saine alimentation développée par Santé Canada pour sensibiliser les parents canadiens à la saine alimentation et augmenter leurs connaissances ainsi que leur participation à la planification des repas familiaux – une composante de la littéracie alimentaire. Les partenariats multisectoriels avec les détaillants alimentaires, les médias et les organisations de santé ont facilité la diffusion de la campagne et ont contribué à l’accroissement de sa portée et de son efficacité auprès des parents canadiens. La planification de repas n’est pas une composante de la littéracie alimentaire qui a été bien documentée dans la littérature, et jamais aucune intervention populationnelle sur ce sujet n’a fait objet d’une évaluation. De telles évaluations sont nécessaires pour fournir de la rétroaction aux parties prenantes concernant des pistes d’améliorations d’initiatives en santé et pour identifier des stratégies optimales visant à soutenir les progrès en santé publique. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de mener des évaluations de processus et d’impacts de la campagne « Bien manger », explorer les associations entre la littéracie alimentaire et la qualité de l’alimentation des parents canadiens et de transférer les connaissances auprès des décideurs et des parties prenantes. Pour réaliser les objectifs, un échantillon composé de partenaires multisectoriels de Santé Canada a été interrogé et une enquête a été réalisée auprès de parents canadiens. Dans un premier temps, une évaluation qualitative du processus d’implantation a été effectuée avec 21 partenaires pour déterminer quels facteurs ont influencé leur décision d’adopter la campagne « Bien manger » et pour identifier les iv facteurs facilitants et les obstacles reliés à l’implantation de la campagne. Dans un deuxième temps, une évaluation quantitative a été effectuée auprès de 964 parents canadiens pour caractériser la portée de la campagne et déterminer les effets sur les attitudes reliés à la planification des repas familiaux. Dans un troisième temps, des associations entre la littéracie alimentaire, le statut d’emploi et la qualité de l’alimentation ont été examinés au sein de 767 parents. L’évaluation de processus a mis au jour de nombreux éléments clés à prendre en considération lors de futures collaborations. Notamment, indépendamment de la mission de chaque organisation, celles partageant des valeurs compatibles ont de bonnes chances d’être de bons partenaires. En revanche, la planification collaborative et la communication sont nécessaires pour maintenir l’engagement de l’organisation et pour soutenir l’implantation des activités. L’évaluation d’impact a dévoilé que le rappel de la campagne était plus important chez les francophones, les personnes sans éducation universitaire et les personnes à faibles revenus. Les taux de rappels ont largement varié à travers le pays, avec les taux les moins élevés à Vancouver, Winnipeg et Toronto et les taux les plus élevés à Québec et dans les régions rurales du Québec. De plus, le rappel de la campagne était associé à des attitudes plus favorables envers la planification de repas. Finalement, les analyses exploratoires ont dévoilé que le statut d’emploi n’est pas associé à la littéracie alimentaire, que le temps était un obstacle important à la préparation de repas, et que les dimensions de connaissances en nutrition et conceptualisation d’aliments étaient associées à une meilleure qualité alimentaire. En conclusion, les futures initiatives de santé publique en matière de nutrition peuvent être renforcées par l’implication de partenaires avec des valeurs semblables dès l’étape de planification de l’intervention. Les initiatives futures devraient être élaborées en ciblant les dimensions de littéracie alimentaire qui ont la plus grande chance d’influencer des facteurs nutritionnels positives telles que les dimensions de connaissances alimentaires ou conceptualisation alimentaire, et prendre en considération des stratégies permettant aux parents de surmonter les obstacles reliés au manque de temps.Poor diet is a major risk factor for non-communicable chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Food literacy supports healthy eating practices and can help individuals build resilience to food environments that provide consumers with a large variety of energy-dense nutrient poor foods in abundance at low-costs. A need for further research in Canada on the determinants of food literacy and their relationship to diet quality has previously been identified. The Eat Well Campaign (Food Skills) (EWC) is a healthy eating initiative developed by Health Canada to increase parents’ awareness, knowledge of and engagement in meal planning – a component of food literacy. Cross-sector partnerships with the retail food industry, media and health organizations facilitated the diffusion of the EWC and were pivotal to extend its reach and effectiveness. Meal planning is not well described in the literature and no population-wide communication interventions targeting meal planning have been evaluated to date. Evaluations are essential to provide feedback to stakeholders on improving health initiatives, identify optimal strategies to support advances in public health and ensure government accountability. The main objective of this thesis was to conduct process and impact evaluations of the EWC, explore associations between food literacy and diet quality of Canadian parents and put this information into context for decision makers and stakeholders. To achieve these objectives, a purposeful sample of Health Canada’s cross-sector partners were interviewed and a cross-section of Canadian parents were surveyed. First, a qualitative process evaluation was conducted with 21 cross-sector partners to determine which factors influenced their decision to adopt the EWC and identify facilitators and barriers that they experienced during the EWC implementation. Second, a quantitative impact evaluation was conducted with 964 parents from across Canada to characterise the reach (i.e., awareness) of the EWC and determine whether the campaign’s awareness influenced meal planning attitudes, behaviors and self-efficacy. Third, associations between different food literacy dimensions, employment status and diet quality were investigated in a subsample of 767 parents. The process evaluation revealed several key considerations for future collaborations with partners from multiple sectors. Of note, regardless of mission, organizations with similar values are likely to make stronger partnerships; however, advanced collaborative planning and consistent communication are necessary to maintain organizational engagement and activity implementation. The impact evaluation revealed that the highest rates of campaign awareness were among French-speakers, parents without university education and those from low-income households. Awareness varied greatly across the country with the lowest rates in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto, and the highest rates in Quebec City and rural Quebec. Additionally, campaign awareness was associated with more positive attitudes towards meal planning. Finally, exploratory analyses of different food literacy dimensions revealed that employment status was not associated with food literacy, time was a major limitation for home-based meal preparation and nutrition knowledge and food conceptualisation are significantly associated with diet quality. In conclusion, future public health nutrition initiatives can be strengthened by involving partners with similar values during the intervention planning stage. Future interventions should target dimensions of food literacy that are most likely to influence dietary outcomes such as nutrition knowledge or food conceptualisation and need to consider strategies to overcome time barriers to healthy eating

A Love Letter to My Little Girl

Love is a real power. It can be shown by family members who want you to succeed in healthy ways, instructors who are passionate for their work, and the care you give yourself—care for yourself during your graduate experiences. Creativity helps the brain to be healthy and strong. Enact creativity in your life by artistic expressions, art making, or—for the super intimidated—journaling your thoughts/ideas/feelings to strengthen your brain. Gratitude is a gift to be shared. Send a handwritten note to two folks who have shared their love and who care for you personally or who have shared a passion/professional love of their work with you to inspire your own research and education. In those notes, express how their care has impacted your life. Emotional content can be debilitating. Many people have inexplicable feelings or emotional content made raw during graduate learning experiences. Finding healthy ways to vent the emotions such as through working out, a wicked game of spoons, or uplifting social experiences is a factor of support as you work to complete your degree; don’t ignore this support

Teaching english to children aged 2-6 years old.

En la actualidad, la formación de los alumnos de todas las instituciones (colegios, universidades e institutos) es una parte fundamental para el desarrollo de nuevas habilidades que permitan la adquisición de conocimientos para trabajar a lo largo de todas las etapas de la vida. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo presentar el trabajo realizado en relación con la enseñanza del inglés a niños menores de seis años. Se muestra cómo a través de las pequeñas palabras y el conocimiento de la lengua inglesa, los niños pueden desarrollar habilidades o destrezas comunicativas que facilitan el aprendizaje de esta nueva lengua. A través de este trabajo se identifican las dificultades que presentan los niños en la educación y se da a conocer el material didáctico y las habilidades implementadas que contribuyen al aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua. El proyecto se realizó con metodologías que permiten la enseñanza de vocabulario en inglés de todas las categorías (animales, frutas, objetos, negocios, etc.) que conducen a resultados positivos de aprendizaje.Currently, the training of students from all institutions (schools, universities, and institutes) is a fundamental part of the development of new skills that allow the acquisition of knowledge to work along all stages of life. This paper aims to present the work achieved regarding teaching English to children under six years old. It shows how through the small words and knowledge of the English language, children can develop skills or communication abilities that facilitate the learning of this new language. Through this work, the difficulties that children present in education are identified and the didactic material and implemented skills that contribute to the learning of English as a second language are made known. The project was carried out with methodologies that allow the teaching of English vocabulary of all categories (animals, fruit, objects, business, etc.) that lead to positive learning results.ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1. THE COMPANY 1.1. HISTORY OF THE COMPANY 1.2. COMPANY DESCRIPTION: 1.2.1. CORPORATE NAME: ACES Sin Limites S.A.S. 1.2.2. LEGAL CONSTITUTION. 1.2.3. MISSION. 1.2.4. DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE COMPANY CHAPTER 2: THE INTERNSHIP 2.1 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM 2.2. OBJECTIVES OF THE INTERNSHIP 2.2.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE: 2.2.2. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES 2.3. ROLE OF THE TRAINEE AND FUNCTIONS TO BE PERFORMED 2.4. SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES DURING THE INTERNSHIP PERIOD CHAPTER 3: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COMPANY 3.1. ACHIEVEMENTS 3.2. SCOPE 3.3. LIMITATIONS CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS GLOSSARY REFERENCES ANNEXES ANNEXES A ANNEXES B ANNEXES C ANNEXES D ANNEXES E ANNEXES F ANNEXES G ANNEXES H ANNEXES IPregradoLenguas Moderna

DEVELOPING LEARNING IN BIOCHEMISTRY AND LIFE SKILLS THROUGH CASE-BASED WORKSHOPS

BACKGROUND Teaching through case-based workshops is a student-centered strategy designed to heighten higher-order thinking, through a discussion of complex, real-world scenarios to enable students to link concepts learnt in class to future practice. We report findings of teaching Biochemistry to second year Nutrition students from a mix of 8 teacher-led case-based workshops (TCW) and 4 student-led case-based workshops (SCW) over the 12-week semester. AIMS To compare perceived learning of Biochemistry and life skills through TCW and SCW. DESCRIPTION OF INTERVENTION We surveyed students to determine the benefits of TCW in comparison to SCW. DESIGN AND METHODS We administered an anonymous survey consisting of 22 items using a Likert scale and 6 open-ended questions. All responses were coded for emergent themes. The Likert scale was converted to a numerical level of agreement. RESULTS Students agreed that learning in biochemistry (51%) and life skills (53%) were developed more in TCW compared to SCW. Data from open-ended questions confirmed that TCW developed learning in biochemistry through its structure and support mechanism, while life skills were developed through opportunities for collaboration, communication and improving interpersonal skills. CONCLUSIONS TCWs promote learning and life skills, a basis for nurturing the next generation of Biochemists ready for an uncertain future

Assessment of Submerged Vegetation as Indicators of Irgarol Contamination

Irgarol 1051 is a common antifoulant toxic to certain marine organisms. Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) are exposed to this herbicide when it leaches into the marine environment from painted structures, making SAVs ideal candidates to function as sentinel indicator of contamination. In the initial stage of this study, Coconut Grove and Key Largo Harbor were assessed for environmental exposure to Irgarol. Water, sediment and SAVs were collected, the latter two subject to automated solid phase extraction, and all samples analyzed by GC/MS-SIM for Irgarol and its metabolite, M1. Of the vegetation analyzed, Halodule and Syringodium had the highest capacity to bioaccumulate Irgarol and M1. The root system and leaf contributed negligibly and significantly, respectively, to Irgarol uptake. In the final stage, a transplant between Coconut Grove and Chicken Key showed that the biota Thalassia and Halodule were able to uptake and depurate Irgarol, respectively, over a period of 30 days