Healthy Diet

 Get to know your town -leaflet (Vesanto)


Below, you can find the leaflet that our upper secondary school students made about how to live in a healthy way in Vesanto, Finland. It introduces the main places where you can buy healthy food and then the places in which you can do physical exercise. In addition to these, the great nature around us like lakes and forests offer great places to spend your freetime in. The same leaflet will be available on our school's website later on as well, and also in Finnish.

Achieving healthy living

How to lead a healthy life in Vesanto

 Picture: Sari Tulila ©

Made by the students in the upper secondary school of Vesanto,

Vesannon yhtenäiskoulun lukio

Sports hall and gym

Near to Vesannon Yhtenäiskoulu, at the end of Koulutie, there are Vesanto's sports hall and gym. They both are located in the building called Vesantohalli.

Using the gym and the sports hall is easy on the pocket. The gym's equipment is modern and the range of equipment offers various sports facilities to all ages. In the sports hall you can find a climbing wall and a wide range of equipment for most of the indoor and outdoor sports. The sports hall and the gym are large in size compared to the ones in other small municipalities.

 

Markets

There are two markets in the town of Vesanto, S-market and K-market. They both have a large variety of domestic vegetables and organic products. They both have a wide selection of products and the prices are decent. Both markets are located in the town center, along Sininentie.

  

Vestori

Vestori is a small local store. In Vestori you can find fish, salads, vegetables and bakery products such as Finnish rye bread. Most of the products come from either Vesanto or its neighboring towns. They also sell things like souvenirs, books made by people from Vesanto and woolen socks, scarfs, hats and mittens made with love. Vestori is popular among the older people to have coffee and gossip, but it also welcomes younger people! You can find Vestori opposite to the S-market in the center of the town.

Sports fields

Sports field, ice hockey rink, tennis court and turf field - all of these are found in the center of Vesanto near-by our school. Places are fenced, well-kept and free for all users. During winter ice hockey rink and turf field are frozen for skating and games. During summer there is a tennis court replacing the rink. In the summertime we play football with slippers called “Reiskat” in Vesanto.

    

Shooting range and the running track

The running track is located in the woods. It is near our school and it is 2 kilometers long. In winter you can ski at the running track. In summer you can play disc golf and walk on the running track and there are lights for that track so you can use it at night too. There is a shooting range too, it is in the forest and you can use your own weapons there if you have a license for those weapons.

The results of the health survey in Vesanto

Young European and Well-being: A healthy body and body image now and through time

Survey of lifestyle among the students of Vesannon yhtenäiskoulu

Report of the results obtained

 Anne Vidgren

Vesannon yhtenäiskoulu

1. Introduction

The Young European and Well-being (YEW): A healthy body and body image now and through time is a three-year project between three public schools: Vesannon yhtenäiskoulu from Vesanto, Finland; Liceo Statale A. Serpieri from Rimini, Italy; and Zespol Szkol Nr 7 from Toruń, Poland, all in the field of secondary education. The project is set up at a time when all our schools express concern for the well-being of our students.  The need for the project has been observed in the daily lives in all these schools and also through previous student health surveys. The target group of the the project is teenagers, especially aged 14 to 18 years.

The project aims to increase students' knowledge and awareness of the concept of well-being from various perspectives, which include a healthy diet, physical exercise, a healthy body image and the balance between technology usage and other activities. The project aims to bring European dimension into the matters mentioned, and to have a positive influence on the attitudes of students and their current lifestyles. It also aims to increase students'  interest in the matters of health and well-being and finally sets out to involve the students in the process of taking care of themselves in all ways possible, physically, emotionally and socially, and this way potentially prevent early school leaving.

The project consists of numerous activities, all of which are targeted at teenagers and all of which aim at working on the topics of well-being in a comprehensive manner to reach the project objectives.

The expected impact of the project on the participants include the increase of European awareness, knowledge of history of art and of a healthy lifestyle, being healthy and psychologically balanced, the ability to cook well and in a healthy way, enhancing students' language and intercultural skills, social networking, gaining social and digital skills, a greater understanding of cultural diversity, and a more positive attitude towards European projects. The project activities are expected to increase the amount of concise,  accurate and targeted knowledge available to our target group online, and to increase awareness of the issues stated above.

The longer term benefits which are desired to be achieved by this project include children becoming more aware of how to lead a healthy life. Students will become healthier in a physical sense, more fit, and also more accepting of their own bodies. They will share their knowledge with their friends and family and this will hopefully prevent diseases in our towns as well. Thus, we could expect lower economical costs of medical treatment in the future, and this will benefit the local and regional health care.

The survey of lifestyle is a part of the project activities. The purpose of this survey is to study the lifestyle of the young people in three schools involved in the project. The survey focuses mainly on eating habits, body image and general well-being. This report is made to compile the results obtained in the survey of lifestyle among the students of Vesannon yhtenäiskoulu and Vesannon yhtenäiskoulun lukio.  The results below deal only with the results obtained in Vesanto. A similar survey of lifestyle is to be conducted in spring 2017 to study to what extent our project has had an influence on the youngsters’ lifetyle. 

2. Results

We conducted the survey of lifestyle among the students of Vesannon yhtenäiskoulu at the beginning of January 2015. The survey was made on the website https://fi.surveymonkey.com and it was an online survey. Altogeher a hundred students answered the questionnaire. The students answering the questions were between 13 and 19 years old. You can see the division into different age groups in figure 1.

Figure 1. Division into different age groups

2.1  Eating habits

The first set of questions deals with eating habits and questions related to food. The students in Vesanto eat quite regularly during the day. Only 19 % of the students eat less than three meals per day, and 38 % of the students eat three meals a day, whereas 43 % eat more than three meals a day. (See figure 2.)

  

Figure 2. How many meals do you eat in a day?

The amount of fruit eaten by the students is not very high, as 59 % of the students eat only less than three portions of fruit a day. 34 % of the students eat three or four portions of fruit a day and only 7 % eat five or more portions a day (see figure 3). However, the students seem to be aware of the unhealthiness of fast food, as 88 % of the students eat it only zero to one time a week and no student eats it more than three times a week (see figure 4). At the same time, 97 % of the students usually eat home-made meals and only three percent often eat take-away meals, as can be observed in figure 5.

 

Figure 3. How many portions of fruit do you eat every day?

Figure 4. How many times per week do you eat fast food?

 

Figure 5. What kind of meals do you usually eat at home?

In Finland, every school has a cantine and all the students enjoy a free school lunch. When asked if they think that every public school in Finland should have a cantine, 56 % of the students answered yes, 18 % answered no and 26 % didn’t care about the matter (see figure 6).

Figure 6. Should every public school have a cantine?

88 % of the students know many different places where they can buy healthy food and 12 % are not aware of these places (see figure 7). 54 % of the students in Vesanto think that different kinds of eating disorders are a serious problem among the teenagers, whereas 16 % think it is not such a big problem. Quite a high number, 30 % altogether didn’t really know if they are a significant problem, as can be observed in figure 8.

Figure 7. Do you know many places where you can buy healthy food?

Figure 8. Do you think that eating disorders are a serious problem amongst teenagers?

2.2  General well-being 

In this section, the questions deal with sleep, exercise, technology usage and general well-being.

The general recommendation is that you should get approximately eight hours of sleep during the night. Most of the students in Vesanto reach this target and sleep eight or more hours a night (50 %). 44 % of the students sleep from five to seven hours a night and only 6 % get less than five hours of sleep, as can be seen in figure 9.

Figure 9. How many hours do you sleep at night?

45 % of the students are active and do sports three times or more during the week. This does not include PE lessons. 49 % of the students do physical exercise once or twice a week and fortunately only 6 % say that they never do sports outside PE lessons.

Figure 10. How many times a week do you do physical exercise (except PE lessons)?

The students in Vesanto have various ways to relax. Music seems to be the most important to these students, as 78 % mention it as a way to relax. 51 % of the students wind down by meeting friends, 41 % unwind by playing computer games and 29 % do physical activities as a way to relax.

Figure 11. How do you relax?

64 % of the students spend two or fewer hours watching television, 32 % watch TV from two to four hours a day and only 4 % spend more than four hours in front of the TV. However, the students screen time seems to consist more of spending time on their computers, as 46 % use it two hours a day or less, 37 % spend two to four hours on it and 17 % spend more than four hours in front of the computer screen (see figures 12 and 13).

 

Figure 12. How many hours a day do you spend in front of a TV set?

Figure 13. How many hours a day do you spend in front of your computer?

The majority of the students in Vesanto are happy (62 %), and only 2 % say that they aren’t happy people. However, the number of students who say that their happiness is not a constant state is quite high, 36 %. This can be seen in figure 14.

 

Figure 14. Are you a happy person?

The students of Vesanto feel quite healthy, as 53 % say that they are almost never sick and 35 % are sick from time to time. Only 12 % say that they are sick very often (see figure 15).

Figure 15. How often do you get sick?

Teenage is often a time of experimenting and indeed, 63 % of the students have tried alcohol at some point in their life, 48 % have tried cigarettes but only 8 % have tried some kind of drugs. This, however, does not tell anything about how much of how often they use it.

Figure 16. Have you ever tried alcohol?

Figure 17. Have you ever tried cigarettes?

Figure 18. Have you ever tried drugs?

2.3 Body image

The last set of questions dealt with the students’ body image. That is the way they see and experience their own body.

Most of the students in Vesanto are open-minded and accepting towards tattoos, as 75 % of the students think they are decorations. 20 % find tattoos unhealthy and 5 % feel that they are disgusting (see figure 19).

Figure 19. What is your perception of tattoos?

In general, the students in Vesanto are comfortable with their bodies, as 75 % of them say that they are okay with their body, and 74 % of the students would not change anything in their bodies if they were given a possibility of a plastic surgery. There are still some students that are not comfortable with their bodies, as 19 % say that they feel overweight and 6 % feel they are too slim.  Altogether 26 % of the students would go under the blade to change something in their body. See figures 20 and 21 for details.

Figure 17. If you were given a possibility of a plastic surgery, would you change anything in your body?

Figure 18. How do you perceive your body?

3.  C       Conclusion 

Based on these results, some aspects of healthy living are part of everyday life of the students in Vesannon yhtenäiskoulu, whereas some aspects could be improved. 

The students eat in quite a healthy way, get enough sleep and exercise, are mostly happy and content with their bodies and a very small minority have tried drugs. However, the screen time, both the time spent watching television and being on the computer are quite substantial and this could be an issue to address and discuss with the parents. The students could also eat more fruit. In addition, many students have also tried alcohol and cigarettes. Here, we must take into account that some of the students that answered the questionnaire are indeed aged 18 or over.

These results will be complemented by the results of a more comprehensive health survey which is to be conducted in our school during the spring semester.

The healthy eating pyramid (Vesanto)

Dear partners and those interested,

Our upper secondary school students were working on healthy diet, Finnish guidelines for nutrition and the healthy eating pyramid in January. We prepared some posters in Finnish and then made a PowerPoint -presentation in English based on those posters. Below, you can see the slides in our presentation and the pictures of our posters.

The pictures used in the slide show are from Flickr under the Creative Commons License.

Best regards

Anne from Vesanto

The posters in our school

The slide show in English

Food Based Dietary Guidelines (Poland)

IN EUROPE

Nowadays on the Internet you may find an abundance of information concerning rules of healthy eating and a balanced diet. Moreover, there are many diets to be chosen and followed by which surprisingly do not lead to more conscious approach to eating, but rather to various nutritious deficits. What is more, labels put on foodstuff (which aim was to enhance the food consumption awareness) are very often incomprehensible for an ordinary buyer. That is why, in order to make the idea of healthy eating more understandable for the customers the World Health Organization created Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG).

FBDG focus not on the amount of particular nutrients in food and their intake but rather on types of food people should eat. Those guidelines are often presented by means of graphic formats (a pyramid, a plate, a house, stairs) and provide a piece of advice concerning the amount of particular food which we should implement into our daily diet. They are also population-oriented and very often aim to decrease the number of particular health problems present within the society (for Europe it is mainly about cancer, obesity, heart diseases and diabetes). Therefore, the FBDG graphic formats and products recommended for eating vary slightly in different countries. What is more, the FBDG graphic formats are often supported by written principles useful in clarification of healthy eating patterns of beahviour that are advised. The types of products presented in graphic formats may also vary.

More information about FBDG you may find here:http://www.eufic.org/article/en/expid/food-based-dietary-guidelines-in-europe/

IN POLAND

Polish graphic format is made of six food groups and it resembles the pyramid. Water is placed outside this food pyramid. Apart from the visual form there are also rules for healthy living given (11 for adults and 10 for kids/teenagers) which include for example detailed instructions about the intake of salt. When it comes to the lifestyle special emphasis is put on physical activity and the most characteristic dairy products for Poland are kefir (kind of buttermilk) and cottage cheese.

Polish guidelines for healthy living are to be found here:

http://www.izz.waw.pl/pl/zasady-prawidowego-ywienia

We have translated them for you:

1.      Pay attention to choosing a variety of products eaten.
2.      Don’t forget about physical activity in order to avoid obesity.

3.   The main source of energy should be for you cereals.

4.  You should drink two glasses of milk every day or you can replace them with yoghurt, kefir or  cheese (to some extend).
5.      Eat meat in moderation.
6.      Eat a lot of fruit and vegetables every day.
7.      Try to limit the consumption of fats and oils, especially those of the animal origin.
8.      Eat sweets and sugar in moderation.
9.      Limit the intake of salt.
10.    Drink a lot of water.
11.    Don’t drink alcohol.

Polish Food Pyramid

Some presentations of our students 

The health week in Vesannon yhtenäiskoulu

We had a health-themed week in our school from 24 November to 28 November. During this week, students participated in a daily competition about healthy diet. Students had also prepared posters about diet-related issues in their health science lessons and these posters were put on walls of the school cantine to inform other students as well. Our upper secondary school students also had a competition of bringing healthy snacks to school. In Finland, the students enjoy a free school lunch, so only a few students bring snacks or other food to school. Our school cantine also participated by offering healthy lunch. The school lunch in our school regularly follows the Finnish guidelines for nutrition, so our students are privileged to enjoy a healthy school lunch every day at school.

Here, you can see the questions and correct answers in our daily competition about a healthy diet. In this competition, students answered a different question each day and we drew lots between the students who guessed right or whose guesses were the closest ones. Every day, the winner received a bundle of healthy snacks like fruit and nuts.

On Monday, we asked our students how many sugar cubes there are in a one-liter Coca-Cola bottle. The correct answer to the question is 33 sugar cubes! 

On Tuesday we asked which fruit has the most

a) Vitamin C

b) Vitamin A

c) Iron ?

The options were an apple, a plum and a banana.

The correct answers were:

a) Banana has the most vitamin C (19mg/100g)

b) Plum has the most vitamin A (30Reµg/100g)

c)Banana has the most iron (0,7mg/100g)

On Wednesday we asked, how many grams of fat there are in a 300-gram bag of crisps.

The answer was 99 grams of fat.

On Thursday we asked how many grams of salt there are in five slices of rye bread.

The correct answer is that five slices of rye bread have 2.9 grams of salts.

On Friday we asked how many

a) slices of rye bread

b) carrots

c) oranges

you have to eat to get 3 grams of fibre.

The answer is that one slice of rye bread, three carrots and one orange

contain 3 grams of fibre.

Here you can read about the health posters made by our 9th graders and translated into English by our upper secondary school students.

Our cantine wall.

Do you eat food regularly?

Your body needs food regularly that's why you should eat every 3-4 hours. Eating regularly keeps your blood sugar levels steady and maintain alertness. It's easier to avoid bad snacks, too big food ration and evening eating when you follow regular meal rhythm. 

During the day it's good to eat:

-a breakfast

- a lunch

-a dinner

-1-3 snacks 

-a supper

Salt 

Most of salt Finnish people use is hidden salt from foodstuff and from ready meals. Most salt comes from daily used foodstuff, like meat cuts,bread and cheese. You should choose low-sodium products from these options. You should choose to buy stuff that are marked with a heart. To Finnish people, the recommended salt portion is less than 5 g per day. Natrium that is in salt lifts your blood pressure.

Proteins

Hey man, eat protein! You will live a long life (maybe).

This is how you maintain your health!

It is vitally important for cells and you need it to maintain your brawn.

Sugar

There are 25 sugar cubes in 0.5 litre coke bottle. There are 70 grams of sugar in a doughnut. There are 125 sugar cubes in a 400-gram bag of candies. Sugar is a natural product.

Fats

Did you know, that you get hidden fats for example from pastries, chocolate, crisps and pizzas? There are about 33 grams of fat in 100 grams of crisps.

There are about 66 grams of fat in one bar of chocolate.

Do you live in vitamin deficiency?

VITAMIN A

Vitamin A is important for your night vision and the growth of the bones. So, if you don't see properly in the dark or if you think that you're too short, it might result from the lack of vitamin A. Deficiency of vitamin A can make your skin dry and pale. However, be cautious so that you don't get an overdose. If you lose your appetite, you're irritated or drowsy, make sure that you haven't taken an overdose.

VITAMIN C

Vitamin C helps to infiltrate calcium and iron from milk and vegetables.

It prevents the oxidation of fatty acid and vitamins A and E.

Deficiency symptoms: unwillingness, fatigue, arthralgia, lack of appetite and muscle pain.

Vitamin C doesn't get stored into your body.

VITAMIN D

Vitamin D has very important job, it helps calcium to sink in.

It affects how the child is going to grow and that's why it must be received from your diet

Most of the D-vitamin that you get comes from the sun.

Deficiency symptoms:bone softening, loss of appetite, feeling weak and easier to get infections.

VITAMIN E

It is fat-soluble

Enjoying vitamin E food supplement increases death rate.

Good sources are almonds, eggs and red pepper.

A bad source is hemp.

It protects cells from oxygenation.

VITAMIN K

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin which is important for the coagulation of blood. It is also needed for calcium metabolism. Its significance can also be seen in the production of other proteins in blood, bone tissue, ligament and liver. It is usually formulated in the human intestines and usually people don’t have a lack of it. If you suffer from the lack of vitamin K, in rare occasions it results in diarrhea and bleeding in gums and the healing of wounds slows down.

VITAMIN B

B1 Thiamine

Transforms the food you've eaten into energy. If you don't get enough of this vitamin, you might experience exhaustion, irritability, neuralgia or difficulties in walking. 

B2 Riboflavin

This vitamin is needed in metabolism. If you don't get enough of riboflavin, your skin, nails and hair might suffer. 

B3 Niacin

Niacin is important for the metabolism of your cells. Not getting enough of niacin can slow down your metabolism, but if you overdose this vitamin, it might be a danger to your skin and liver.

B5 Pantothenic acid

Pantothenic acid affects your skin and your energy metabolism. Lack of this vitamin doesn't have any special symptoms. 

B6 Pyridoxine

It impacts the metabolism of the proteins. Lack of pyridoxine causes exhaustion and nausea.

B7 Biotin 

It impacts the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates. There aren't any symptoms if you don't get enough or get too much of this vitamin.

B9 Folic acid

It is necessary for the formation of red blood cells. If you don't get enough of folic acid, you might feel tired, dizzy, powerless or not hungry. 

B12 Cyanocobalamin

Impacts the function of the neurons, red blood cells and white blood cells. Lack of cyanocobalamin might cause different nervous system symptoms and changes of the mucosa. 

Are you having constipation?

Fibres are high molecular carbohydrates which don't dissolve in human's digestive system. They also help your stomach work better. Fibres are divided into insoluble and soluble types. There are big differences between the types of fibres and their working. About half of Finns don't know that there are both, insoluble an soluble fibres. You can get soluble fibres from berries, fruits and pulses. Eating soluble fibres is a good way to cure constipation. You can get insoluble fibres mostly from cereal products. They speed up bowels' work by increasing the mass of excrement.

Anorexia

Anorexia is most common among young girls and women. Most anorexic people are successful and they often have a tendency to aim for perfection. It's also common among those who do sports as a hobby. The most common symptom is dieting that gets out of hand and this easily leads to not eating. Therefore the anorexic person is often a lot thinner than a healthy person. Anorexia can also cause depression, insomnia, having a compulsive need to do sports and count calories. Since an anorexic person often doesn't get enough vitamins, proteins etc, they might also suffer from facial hair loss and have very weak nails and bones.

In the bubbles there are some thoughts that an anorexic person might have:

Everyone hates me and I'm FAT!

Do they?

I don't deserve to enjoy treats because I've been so selfish and greedy

Why?

I can't do anything right because I'm OVERWEIGHT!

Really?

The thinner I am, the better person I am.

Are you?

If I go for a run for two hours, will I be able to stick to the plan and lose enough weight?

Why is the plan so important?

There are also pictures of two different meals and there is a question: 

Which one is closer to what you eat?

Potatoes, fishfingers and salad

OR

Half an apple

Water

How much did you drink today? Drinking enough water is an essential part of a healthy diet. However, it is not healthy to consume large amounts of water within a short period of time like 15 to 30 minutes.  You need about 2 to 3 litres of water a day. A third of this you will get in your food and 1.5 to 2 litres should be drunk. Did you know that over half (62 %) of your body is water?

THE FOOD PYRAMID -ITALY

The work on the food pyramid activity by the students of Liceo Statale A. Serpieri.

A summarizing Power Point presentation which was created after the exchange in Rimini (2015).

More detailed information about all tasks and activities (with detailed description) you may find on “Introduction” page of this blog.