- Title
- The numeracy of good health
- Creator
- Sellars, Maura; Davidoff, Derek
- Relation
- Authentic Contexts of Numeracy: Making Meaning Across the Curriculum p. 225-256
- Relation
- https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811057342
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- The inclusion of health as a school subject has traditionally been a means by which young people are formally educated about appropriate foods, matters of hygiene, building andmaintaining relationships, understanding ‘self’ as a developing individual. However, none of this can be achieved without a highly developed sense of numeracy. This is because all the recommendations related to health matters are the results of scientific findings and statistical applications. The suggested daily intakes of various food items, for example that are recommended for consumption for individuals at diverse stages of life and in the context of different personal health needs are calculated from statistics and data relating to the ‘norm’ or ‘average’ of any given group of research participants, and not from in-depth study of individuals and their personal needs. The notion of the ‘healthy plate’, is a good example of the application of this data as it specifies the size, proportion and balance of the food groups for healthy consumption. Similarly, the duration and type of physical activity recommended for various groups of individuals is based on this magical ‘average’ which has been statically established and then mathematically calculated to ‘burn off’ an average number of kilojoules, which are in turn, calculated to equate to specific quantities of identified foods, irrespective of the many differences in the manufacture of the product.
- Subject
- school subjects; personal health; nutrition; meal recommnedations
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1409089
- Identifier
- uon:35941
- Identifier
- ISBN:9789811057342
- Language
- eng
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