Lisa Nguyen DFM 655 Lesson Plan: How to Read Nutrition Labels. To encourage children to try to make better choices while grocery

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1 Lisa Nguyen DFM 655 Lesson Plan: How to Read Nutrition Labels Audience: Middle school aged children. Ages Overall Goal: To encourage children to try to make better choices while grocery shopping with their families as a jumping off point for making more healthy food choices as a whole. Objectives: 1. Students will recognize parts of a nutrition label. 2. Students will be able to identify what each section means. 3. Students can apply basic rules to determine whether a packaged food is a healthier choice. Introduction Pre-assessment: How many of you go grocery shopping with your family? How many of you take a look at the nutrient facts? Do you think they are confusing? Learning how to read the nutrition facts is essential to being a smart and healthy shopper. It presents a lot of information and every food is required to display the same format so you can compare easily. We will be looking at 3 sections of the nutrition label: 1. Calorie and Portion Awareness (Serving size, Servings per container) 2. Beware of Heart Stoppers (Fat, Saturated Fat, Trans Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium) 3. The Good Stuff (Dietary Fiber, Vitamins and Minerals) Daily Value: How a food fits into a daily plan 5% or less is low aim low for section 2

2 20% or more is high aim high for section 3 Section 1: Calorie and Portion Awareness Serving Size Ask class to find the serving size on the nutrition label. Explain the definition of serving size; the nutritional information on the label is all based on this measurement of the food product Example on the handout and on poster: ¼ cup is the serving size of this product. All the other information (the amount of sugars, fat, calories, etc.) corresponds to this amount food. Questions for class: does this seem like a reasonable serving size? If you were to eat this food, how many serving sizes would you eat at one time? Servings per container Make sure you know how many calories you are really eating! Example: chocolate bar 3 servings. Calories Ask class to find calories on the nutrition label. Calories are a measurement of energy that can be used when eating a food product. Eating too many calories per day is linked to both overweight/obesity chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. We need approximately 2,000 calories per day, but the total depends on various factors such as age and gender Section 2: Beware of Heart Stoppers Saturated Fats & Trans Fats

3 Ask class to identify saturated fat on the nutrition label. Aim for foods that are close to 5% or less. Eating too much of these fats may increase risk for chronic disease and increases bad cholesterol in your body. Trans fat and saturated fats are found mostly in processed foods (Hot pockets, instant noodles, frozen pizzas, fast food) Use hot pocket packet as example for saturated fats Cholesterol Found in products from animals such as meat and dairy products. It has also been shown to raise bad cholesterol. Sodium Ask class to find sodium on the nutrition label. These are also food in processed and prepared foods. Eating too much sodium may lead to high blood pressure and other health problems. Have student read sodium % on instant noodles package and hot pockets Section 3: The Good Stuff Dietary Fiber Fiber helps with weight loss, helps lower cholesterol, helps control blood sugar and keeps our digestive tracts on the move. Have students compare fiber % of the two cereal boxes. Which one is a better source of fiber? Vitamins and minerals

4 This list on food labels helps us decide if a product contains important nutrients. Eating enough nutrients can improve your health and help reduce your risk of some diseases. Follow up questions: How can food labels help us decide which foods to buy? Are food labels confusing? What kind of information is important for you to look for on a food label? Conclusion After today, I hope I made reading nutrition labels a bit easier and I hope you will want to try to look at labels next time you are in the grocery store!

5 Lisa Nguyen DFM 655 Materials: Poster, handouts Measuring cup ¼ cup Trix cereal box Granola cereal box Instant noodles container Hot pockets box