Understanding Nutrition Facts Labels

Understanding Nutrition Facts Labels Target Audience: Job Center clients who participate in Job Club workshops NOTE: Several of the activities in this lesson may also be appropriate for other audiences such as teens, parents of young children, or older adults. Time Allotted: Approximately 45 minutes (including ANCHOR, ADD activity and pre/post evaluation). Allow more time if additional activities are used. Overall Lesson Objectives: Identify the items that comprise a Nutrition Facts label including serving size, calories, and nutrients. Compare Nutrition Facts labels of various food package examples and identify if they are high or low in specific nutrients. Use servings sizes on Nutrition Facts labels to be aware of the volume of food and calories in the amount of food they choose to consume. Use Nutrition Facts labels to identify and select the food that is lower in fat and calories. Materials List: READ IT before you EAT IT! poster Assortment of 10-15 snack food containers with Nutrition Facts labels (or at least one for every participant) place in a brown grocery bag Cans with labels removed for ANCHOR activity Labels that were removed from cans for ANCHOR activity Copies of game cards for Nutrition Tic-Tac-Factos label reading game Dried beans or marking pieces for game Copies of Pre/Post Reading Labels WNEP Statewide Evaluation Tools Copies of Label Logic Get the Nutrition Facts handout Copies of Label Logic What s in it for me? handout White board or flip chart Dry Erase Marker or Flip Chart Marker Pencils Activity Summary: Pre-lesson Assessment ANCHOR activity ADD Activity Label Logic Get the Nutrition Facts activity Optional Activities: Choose 1 or more Nutrition Tic-Tac-Fact-os Label Reading game Label Logic What s in it for me? activity Post-Lesson Assessment Background for Educator: New food labels are designed to help consumers make more informed decisions about the foods they choose to eat. They provide information that can help consumers to make food 1

choices that meet a certain dietary need or compare the nutritional value of one food with another. For FoodShare clients, purchasing foods at a low cost is important. Using Nutrition Facts labeling information can help clients select healthier choices at a lower cost. Evaluation: Pre/Post Lesson Assessment - Time Allotted: 5 minutes The Label Logic lesson will use the Reading Labels WNEP statewide evaluation tool before and after the lesson in order to assess the learner s ability to use the Nutrition Facts label to make a food choice. Instructions on how to use the evaluation tool, as well as the before/after evaluation tools are available from the following website: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/wnep/evaluate/stwevalproj/08_reading_labels_eval.doc Content: ANCHOR Activity Mystery Cans Activity Time allotted: 10 minutes Activity included with permission from Gayle Coleman, WNEP Specialist Overall objective of this ANCHOR activity: Connect information found on food labels to learners lives by: Listing the kinds of information that can be found on food labels. Identifying what information they use on food labels. Materials needed: Cans of a variety of foods with labels removed and mark the corresponding label (before removing labels, be sure to mark cans so you know what they contain). For example, but an A on one can and add an A on the back of the corresponding label. Labels from these cans White board or flip chart and marker Doing the activity: 1. Put 1 or more cans of food (with labels removed) at each table where learners are sitting or place them around the room if you prefer that learners move around the room. 2. Challenge learners to guess what food is in each can. Learners can pick up the cans and shake them. 3. Have learners share their guesses and how they made their guesses. 4. Show learners the labels for the cans and ask them to match them to the cans. 5. Let learners know what food is in each can. 6. Ask learners what information they have seen on cans of food. Record responses on a whiteboard or flip chart. 7. Ask learners what information they have used. ADD Activity: Label Logic Get the Nutrition Facts Time Allotted: 30 minutes Objective: Identify the items that comprise a Nutrition Facts label including serving size, calories, and nutrients. 2

Understand the 5-20 Rule and how it can be used to compare similar foods. Materials needed: READ IT before you EAT IT! poster Assortment of 10-15 snack food containers with Nutrition Facts labels (or at least one for every participant) place in a brown grocery bag Copies of Label Logic Get the Nutrition Facts handout Pencils ADD - Doing the activity: 1. Take out the READ IT before you EAT IT! poster and display it prominently so all learners can see the parts of the label. Pass out copies of the Label Logic Get the Nutrition Facts handout to each learner so they can follow along and make notes on their handout. Use the poster to help learners discover what information is contained on a Nutrition Facts label. Discuss the following parts and explain what each of them mean: Serving size similar serving sizes for similar foods help consumers to compare foods. The amount of calories and nutrients listed on the Nutrition Facts label is based on one serving. Servings in the package this tells how many servings are in the given food package. Sometimes we eat all the servings found in the package at one time. Calories in a serving tells the number of calories (or the amount of energy) in one serving. If you were to eat two servings you would get twice the amount of calories given. Nutrient amounts in a serving use this information to get less of some nutrients, and more of others. Nutrients to get less of: fat (especially saturated and trans fats), cholesterol, and sodium. Eating too much of these can lead to health problems. Nutrients to get more of: fiber, vitamins A & C, calcium, and iron. Eating enough of these nutrients is important for health and can decrease the chance of getting some diseases. Use the 5-20 Rule as a guide to compare nutrients in similar foods. 5% Daily Value (DV) or less is low for nutrients you want to get less of, choose foods with a low % DV. 20% Daily Value (DV) or more is high for nutrients you want to get more of, choose foods with a high % DV. Percent Daily Values (% DV) these percentages can show how the food fits into your daily diet. Try to remember the 5-20 Rule when looking at % DV. APPLY 2. Now have each learner select a food package from the grocery bag. Ask them to look at their food package and locate the Nutrition Facts label. Have them look at the following information: 3

Serving size ask them to decide how much they would eat out of the food package. Would it be less than one, one, two, or more servings? Will it matter if you eat more or less than the serving amount on the label? Calories ask them to look at the calories in one serving. If they choose to eat more or less of the food in the package, the total calories consumed may be lower or higher, depending on the number of servings. Using the 5-20 Rule, have them decide if their food is high or low in the different nutrients. 3. Ask the learners how they might use the 5-20 Rule when selecting snacks, drinks, and other foods? Optional Activity 1: Nutrition Tic-Tac-Fact-os Label Reading Game Time Allotted: 20 minutes Objective: Provide a fun, interactive way for the learners to become more familiar with Nutrition Facts labels and the information they contain. Preparations: Before the lesson, make copies of the playing cards, using four different colors (the cards are labeled 1-4 to help with this). There are four different playing cards so all participants will not have the same labels on their card. You may choose to make a permanent set of game cards by copying masters onto card stock or laminating copies of the game cards. Use dried beans or other markers to mark the squares. Materials: Copies of game cards for Nutrition Tic-Tac-Factos label reading game Dried beans or marking pieces for game Doing the activity: 1. Tell the group that you are going to make a statement about a product. Participants should look for the label on their game card that contains the answer. Questions will all be related to the Nutrition Facts label. 2. If they find the correct label, they should place a marker on their square. The first one with 3 markers in a row (across or down) is the winner. Read the following clues: ANSWER: 1 serving contains 0g of Fat and 3g Dietary Fiber Apple This dessert food contains 80 calories per serving Gelatin Dessert The fat in one serving of this food makes up 68% Trail Mix of your Daily Value Using the 5-20 Rule, a serving of this food is high in Calcium Fruit Bar A serving of this food contains 2.5g of trans fat Snack Crackers 1 bar contains 25% of the DV for saturated fat Granola Bar One serving contains 120 calories and 3.5g fat Pudding One serving contains 10g of fat Snack Cake Serving size is 10 twists Pretzels 4

1 serving provides nearly 40% of the DV for iron and is low fat Chex Mix ½ cup of this contains 10% of the DV for Total Fat Choc. Ice Cream A 1 oz. serving contains 11% of the DV for Total Fat Chips Optional Activity 2: Label Logic What s in it for me? Activity Time Allotted: 20 minutes Objective: To help the learners apply the information about Nutrition Facts labels in order to calculate the amount of fat and calories in a given serving and determine which snack is the more nutritious choice. Materials: Pencils Copies of Label Logic What s in it for me? handout Doing the activity: 1. Pass out the Label Logic What s in it for me? handouts to each of the learners. 2. Discuss how the Nutrition Facts label can help us compare foods and help us to make healthier choices. Help the learners to calculate the information needed on the worksheet, and ask them to answer the questions at the bottom. Explain the following: Calculating the calories in your serving determine the number of servings you are consuming based on the information given. Multiply the number of servings by the calories in 1 serving. Calculating the total fat in your serving determine the number of servings you are consuming based on the information given. Multiply the number of servings by the total fat grams in 1 serving. Summarize: Mention that they can use the calculation method, or simply compare the percent daily values of the foods in order to determine which snack might be a healthier choice. Using Nutrition Facts labels will allow them to locate foods that might be more nutritious and enable them to do more comparison shopping in order to find the healthier choices at a lower cost. Resources: United States Department of Agriculture. (2004). How to understand and use the Nutrition Facts label. Retrieved October 17, 2006, from http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~acrobat/foodlab.pdf#search=%22nutrition%20facts%20label% 20reading%22 READ IT before you EAT IT! Poster available in PDF download from http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/resources/read_it.pdf Label Logic Lesson was developed by Cara Cross, WNEP Coordinator Marquette/Waushara Counties 5

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Get the Nutrition Facts! Food labels tell you a lot about food. They don t suggest what foods to eat that s your own decision. But using food labels can help you make choices about the food you eat. What s the point? Nutrition Facts labels provide nutrition information in an easy-to-read format, but the label can be overwhelming with its abundance of information. Don t try to use all the information at once. Instead, choose a target area (ex. Total fat) and make a choice based on that information. The Nutrition Facts label is meant to serve as a guide in order to help you make healthier food choices. So- what s on a Nutrition Facts label? Check out the sample label below to learn more about the information found on a Nutrition Facts label. Serving size similar serving sizes for similar foods helps consumers to compare foods. The amount of calories and nutrients listed on Nutrition Facts is based on one serving. This is the total number of calories found in 1 serving. The nutrients listed on this part of the label are important to your health. You should eat less of some nutrients, like fat, cholesterol, and sodium, and more of other nutrients like fiber and calcium. Percent Daily Values are based on recommended intakes when eating 2000 calories per day. Percent Daily Values are also listed for persons eating 2,500 calories per day. The % Daily Value can be used to compare foods and see how the food fits into your overall daily diet. These numbers can help you avoid eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium. These numbers can help you get enough dietary fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, and iron. If the % Daily Value for a nutrient is 5% or less, that means the food is low in that nutrient. If the % Daily Value is 20% or more, that means the food is high in that nutrient.

What s in it for me? Just looking at a Nutrition Facts label doesn t always tell us what we re actually eating. All amounts listed on the label are for one serving but what if you eat two or even the whole package! A few simple calculations will help you figure out how many calories or grams of fat are in the servings that you actually consume. Compare these snack food Nutrition Facts Labels and fill in the information below. Then select which snack you would choose. Serving Size ¼ cup Servings Per Container 45 Your serving: 20 twists Serving Size on label: Your serving: 1 apple Serving Size on label: Your serving: 1/2 cup Trail Mix Serving Size on label: Calories per serving: Total Fat grams per serving: Calories per serving: Total Fat grams per serving: Calories per serving: Total Fat grams per serving: Calories in your serving: Total Fat grams in your serving: Calories in your serving: Total Fat grams in your serving: Calories in your serving: Total Fat grams in your serving: Based on your servings: Which snack is the lowest in Total Fat? Which snack is the lowest in Saturated Fat? Which snack is the lowest in calories? Which snack would you choose?

ANSWER KEY What s in it for me? Just looking at a Nutrition Facts label doesn t always tell us what we re actually eating. All amounts listed on the label are for one serving but what if you eat two or even the whole package! A few simple calculations will help you figure out how many calories or grams of fat are in the servings that you actually consume. Compare these snack food Nutrition Facts Labels and fill in the information below. Then select which snack you would choose. Serving Size ¼ cup Servings Per Container 45 Your serving: 20 twists Serving Size on label: 10 twists Your serving: 1 apple Serving Size on label: 1 apple Your serving: 1/2 cup Trail Mix Serving Size on label: ¼ cup Calories per serving: 228 Total Fat grams per serving: 2 Calories per serving: 65 Total Fat grams per serving: 0 Calories per serving: 150 Total Fat grams per serving: 9 Calories in your serving: 456 Total Fat grams in your serving: 4 Calories in your serving: 65 Total Fat grams in your serving: 0 Calories in your serving: 300 Total Fat grams in your serving: 18 Based on your servings: Which snack is the lowest in Total Fat? Which snack is the lowest in Saturated Fat? Which snack is the lowest in calories? Which snack would you choose? Apple Apple or Twists Apple Up to individual use for discussion