FEEDING THE MIND: BIBLIOTHERAPY AND NUTRITIONAL LITERACY IN PAKISTANI CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Abstract

The situation in Pakistan has been a twin malnutrition burden as the country has high under nutritional cases alongside high obese cases in children. The conventional nutritional education approach does not usually appeal to children. This interdisciplinary research paper suggests that bibliotherapy or therapeutic use of literature should be utilized as an experimental intervention to enhance nutritional literacy in Pakistani children. This study is a qualitative content analysis of purposive sample of books of Pakistani children in order to analyze the current image of food and eating habits. The results show that food is commonly applied as a cultural image, but explicit and correct nutrition communication is generally lacking. To establish that stories can be good vehicles of inducing healthy behaviors, the research formulates a theoretical framework based on the combination of the reader-response theory by Rosenblatt and the social cognitive theory by Bandura. The results suggested a model of developing and assessing nutrition-themed bibliotherapy. Children literature that is aimed at explicitly targeting local nutritional challenges, promoting food literacy, and positive emotional relationships with healthy eating within a culturally specific context.