Seafood Safety and Nutrition

Transcription

1 Seafood Safety and Nutrition Subject Areas: Science, Health and Physical Education, Math Setting: Classroom Duration: One class period Skills: reasoning, calculating, speaking, writing, deciding, Vocabulary: Seafood, consumption, risk, advisory, benefit, Omega-3, bioaccumulation, mercury, PCB, Dioxin, media, fats, calories, protein, cardiovascular, saturated Correlation to Core Curriculum Standards: Science: 5.1 (A,B), 5.2 (A), 5.10 (A,B); Health and Physical Education: 2.1 (A,C,D,E), 2,2 (A,B,) Math: 4.1 (A,B) Life Skills: 9.2 (A,C,F) Objectives: 1. Students will know where they can find more about nutrition. 2. Students will understand the role seafood plays in a healthy diet. 3. Students will be able to list benefit and risks to eating seafood. 4. Students will understand that specific food choices can maximize benefits and minimize risks. Materials: handout, AHA data sheet, 3oz. portion demonstration (deck of cards for most protein, checkbook for fish) 62

2 Background: New dietary food guidelines were released in 2005 in an attempt to focus Americans on eating a healthier diet. The resource contains information for adults, children, and educators about the new guidelines, as well as eating nutritious meals. Shellfish and fish are collectively referred to as seafood, when we discuss them in the context of a food source. Seafood presents many nutritional benefits, and should be part of a healthy balanced diet. At the same time, there are some risks associated with seafood, due to the aquatic environment in which it grows and lives. Lately these issues have been receiving a lot of press, and there is a good deal of confusion for the average consumer regarding how to best incorporate seafood into their diet. The Rutgers Cooperative Extension Seafood Safety Website ( is just one of several sources out there trying to collect science based information on seafood to simplify this dilemma. Procedure: Discuss with students the new dietary food guidelines. Ask students which food group seafood falls under (meats and proteins). Demonstrate that the portions of fish are different from the regular meat portion. Ask students to identify how much protein they should eat daily and weekly. Discuss how they could incorporate seafood into meeting this requirement. Discuss the concept of benefits versus risks. Sometimes, something can be healthy for you in moderation, but can have negative consequences also. Ask students if they have heard of reasons why they should or should not eat seafood. Introduce Omega-3 fatty acids as a major benefit of eating seafood. Also discuss the difference between fat and saturated fat, and how this makes fish a healthy heart choice. Discuss how pollution can sometimes contaminate fish, and that the metal mercury is sometimes found in certain foods. Explain that mercury is one of the pollutants that bioaccumulates, which means it gets stored inside of organisms, and continues to increase. When these organisms are eaten, the mercury is then absorbed by the eater. See bioaccumulation 63

3 graphic on CD. The Accumulation of pathogenic bacteria are also a concern in clams and oysters, because they are sometimes eaten raw. Highlighting this example will directly tie in to the next lesson on non-point source pollution. Procedure: Activity - Short Term/Younger Grades Take a poll of how many students in the class eat seafood, and what types of seafood they eat. Have them keep a food journal for a week, noting the type and amount of food they eat at each meal. At the end of the week, have students complete the following activities and questions, using the websites of the organizations below. 1. Have them assess if they ate enough protein by using the pyramid guidelines 2. List how much seafood they ate in a week. 3. How much fish does the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection say people should eat? What contaminants does the Department say they should be aware of? 4. How much fish does the American Heart Association recommend people eat? What benefits do they say seafood offers? 5. How do both of these compare to the amount of protein they should consume per week? (From guidelines) Procedure: Activity - In-Depth/Older Grades Have students reference the American Heart Association Table of Mercury and Omega 3 Fatty Acids in Seafood at the end of this lesson. Have students list the seafood types in order from highest to lowest Omega 3 concentration, and then from lowest to highest methyl mercury concentrations. They may need to take a mean of the ranges of Omega-3 concentrations. Based on these ranked lists which fish seem to be the healthiest? (Oysters, Herring, Salmon) Discuss with students how they can maximize their nutritional benefit, while reducing the risk of contamination by the choices of seafood they eat. 64

4 Extension: Taking it further Have each student find an article about seafood, nutrition, or contaminants and summarize it for the class. Utilize the RCE Seafood Safety Website to link to other information at the NJDEP and FDA. Divide the class in half. Have half the students research the benefits of eating Omega 3 fatty acids, or fish as a lean protein and half the class research the dangers of PCBs and Mercury, or pathogenic bacteria in fish or shellfish. Debate the benefits versus the risks of eating seafood, trying to conclude on how important individual health and individual choices are. Assessment: Individual completion of Mypyramid worksheet Food journals Seafood table, list of preferred fish choices Research summaries Participation in debate 65

5 Average amount of Mercury and Omega-3 fatty acids in Seafood Adapted from the American Heart Association. Seafood Type mean mercury (ppm) Canned Tuna (light) 0.12 Catfish 0.05 Clams Cod 0.11 Crabs 0.06 Flounder/Sole 0.05 Fresh/Frozen tuna 0.38 Grouper 0.55 Hallibut 0.26 Herring 0.04 King Mackerel 0.73 Lobster 0.31 Mahi Mahi 0.19 Orange Roughy 0.54 Oysters Pollock 0.06 Red Snapper 0.6 Salmon (fresh,frozen) 0.01 Scallops 0.05 Shark 0.99 Shrimp Swordfish 0.97 Tilefish 1.45 * = None Detected Omega-3, grams/3oz., Low - High Top 10 consumed * * 0.24 * * * 0.43 * * * 0.17 * *