Educazione alimentare e salute. Un approccio interpretativo multisensoriale

This paper examines the dietary habits of pre-service special education teachers as indicators of the embodied educational capital available for activating inclusive multisensory learning experiences. The study, conducted at a Southern Italian university, employs the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS; Agnoli et al., 2018) and the Food Frequency Questionnaire for Italian adults (FFQ; Marventano et al., 2016). Results document moderate-to-high Mediterranean diet adherence, with an FFQ profile revealing strengths in condiments and cereals alongside gaps in fresh fruit, fish and legumes. Significant age-related differences emerge across four food groups, with older cohorts displaying richer experiential capital in fruit and vegetable consumption. The findings constitute an original descriptive baseline for a population not yet investigated in the literature; the embodied pedagogical consciousness framework is proposed as a theoretical horizon for future research aimed at exploring the relationship between experiential food capital and inclusive pedagogical competence within Italian special education teacher training programmes.