Health in the food of young students

experiencing extension in a virtual environment

Abstract

In the last few decades, Brazil has experienced a significant increase in overweight and obesity in all age groups, reaching an expressive rate of one in three overweight children. Knowing the importance of good nutrition in childhood and adolescence for the prevention of problems in adulthood and in view of the current difficulty of public school students in maintaining a healthy diet, despite the closure of schools due to the new coronavirus pandemic, the Saúde na Alimentação de Jovens Estudantes (SAJE) extension project arises with the main objective of bringing information about the main nutrients and helping young people in public schools in the Cariri region in building healthy eating habits. To face the new challenge of doing extension in a virtual environment, the project sought ways to overcome the difficulties and adapt the actions so that everyone could participate and have access to information. This is an academic extension report by students of the Medicine course at the Federal University of Cariri (UFCA) about the practices of the SAJE extension project, experienced by the students who are members of this same project, during the months of August to December 2020, within the scope of remote extension actions due to the new coronavirus pandemic. Despite the setbacks, the feedback at the end of the actions with the groups of students was positive, based on the students' reports that showed the importance of the topics covered, and the objectives were achieved.