Describe the difference between goals and objectives and address why nutrition counselors need both when planning and implementing nutrition education interventions.

Goals are generally referred to as broadly stated learner outcomes and reflect global learner outcomes or the overall intent of an intervention or program . Goals generally include the "who" and "what" and are typically general statements and do NOT follow the mnemonic "SMART." Objectives are specifically stated learner outcomes or descriptions of what the learner will be able to do after participating in a learning experience. Objectives follow the mnemonic "SMART" and should be specific and measurable unlike objectives. Nutrition counselors need to establish goals for nutrition education interventions to provide an overall direction of the intervention or program. Objectives are necessary as they serve as outcome measures for an intervention or program.