Junk Food Unwrapped: Development and Content Validation of a Five-Day School-Based Intervention Module to Promote Sustainable Dietary Choices among Adolescents in Tamil Nadu

Asvin Amala A; Trisha Bharathi V; Lovelina Little Flower F. X.

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.86405

Junk Food Unwrapped: Development and Content Validation of a Five-Day School-Based Intervention Module to Promote Sustainable Dietary Choices among Adolescents in Tamil Nadu

Author(s)	Mr. Asvin Amala A, Ms. Trisha Bharathi V, Prof. Dr. Lovelina Little Flower F. X.
Country	India
Abstract	Background: Adolescence is a formative period during which dietary patterns are established, yet junk food consumption remains widespread among Indian school-going adolescents, driven by taste, convenience, marketing, and peer influence. Structured, culturally grounded, school-based interventions that simultaneously address health literacy, marketing awareness, environmental sustainability, and mindful eating are scarce in the Tamil Nadu context. Objective: This paper describes the development, content validation, and structure of “Junk Food Unwrapped: Eat Smart, Live Strong!” a five-day intervention module designed to enhance sustainable dietary behaviour among adolescents and proposes a framework for evaluating its effectiveness. Methods: The module was developed in three phases: a formative needs-assessment phase drawing on regional adolescent dietary-behaviour data, a content-development phase grounded in behavioural-education theory and experiential learning, and a content-validation phase using an expert-panel review process. The module comprises five thematic chapters that the junk food identification, health consequences, marketing and social influence, sustainable food choices, and mindful eating each combining didactic content with participatory activities (card-sorting, group discussion, advertisement analysis, essay writing, structured debate, and reflective journaling). Results: The resulting module offers a low-cost, teacher-deliverable, five-session curriculum suited to Tamil Nadu secondary schools, incorporating locally familiar foods (e.g., ragi dosa, sundal, murukku) to enhance cultural relevance. A pre-post evaluation framework using a Junk Food Frequency Index and knowledge-attitude-practice measures is proposed, informed by comparable Indian and international school-based nutrition education interventions that have demonstrated significant gains in knowledge and attitudes, with more modest effects on behaviour. Conclusion: The module offers a scalable, theory-informed, and culturally contextualized resource for adolescent nutrition education; empirical pilot testing is recommended prior to wide-scale deployment.
Keywords	sustainable diets; adolescents; junk food; nutrition education; intervention module; food marketing literacy; mindful eating; Tamil Nadu
Field	Sociology
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-08-24
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.86405

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Junk Food Unwrapped: Development and Content Validation of a Five-Day School-Based Intervention Module to Promote Sustainable Dietary Choices among Adolescents in Tamil Nadu

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