Educar com sabor & saber: possíveis mudanças em aulas para terceira idade

Abstract

This article is the result of a research about gerontology, taking especially into consideration the food/ nutrition, of which theme involves the education dedicated to food, gastronomy and healthy. The main objective was to analyze and describe possible changes the classes and activities on nutritional techniques, gastronomy and behavior around the nutrition habits brought to the old-aged students’ habits. The research was conducted at two “Open Universities of the Third Age”: Universidade Sênior Sant’Anna – UniSant’Anna and Faculdade Aberta da Terceira Idade – FATI, with a similar number of students, 8 in total, 7 of them woman and all of then are over 60 years old. The investigation was based on questionnaires and memories. Furthermore, the results of this research were compared with the results of other researches carried on in Brasil and abroad, aiming to confirm and/ or deny its’ results. It was possible to verify, based on the answers to the questionnaires, that there were in fact changes in the nutrition/ food habits of the students with regards to the consume of healthier food, such as, fruits, vegetables, legumes and an increase in the ingestion of water along the day, more attention to their meals and to themselves. In view of that, we tried to register such contribution to the gerontology, putting the old people in a context of permanent education and seeing them as active, respected and integrated human beings.