Real Life | Youthlinc Lesson Title: Healthy Snacking & Nutrition Labels
Length of time:
60 min
Lesson Date:
Subject area being addressed:
Nutrition
Objective of the lesson (what is the point):
Engage students in healthy snack making decisions, which includes a refresher on nutrition label reading.
List of materials:
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Enough snack-size bags of chips for half of your group
Enough snack-size bags of pretzels for the other half of your group
Chip/pretzel wrappers, after students finish the snack
Copies of Satisfy Cravings activity
Copies of FDA “Read the Label on Snacks” handouts
Copies of nutrition searches to accompany FDA handouts
Pieces of paper and pencils
1. Hook (5 min) (Something fun and cool to “hook” students’ interest):
Once all of the students are present, let them choose one of the two snacks prepared
• Make sure students save their wrappers. They will need them for the nutrition label search activity.
But ask them to hide them/put them away during the activating background knowledge activity.
Snacks:
• Snack-size bag of chips
• Snack-size bag of pretzels
2. Get Background Knowledge (10 min). Indicate what questions you will ask. Choose a
Questioning Strategy from the list called “Questioning Strategies”
Line-ups
o Pass out 3 small pieces of paper and pencils for students to write their estimates
o Ask each question separately
o After each question, ask students to write their answers and then go lineup in order from lowest to
highest estimate, without talking (they can show their papers while lining up)
o Comment on the range of estimates and then give the correct answer.
Questions:
o How many calories do you think are in a bag of chips? (without looking!)
o How many grams of fat do you think are in a bag of pretzels? (without looking!)
o What % daily value of sodium do you think is in a bag of potato chips? (without looking!)
Real Life | Youthlinc 3. Lesson/Extended Activity
Lesson (5 min):
During adolescence, the body needs more nutrients to grow, but of course we need to pay attention to
what we eat.
• Snacking on healthy food can keep our energy levels high and our minds alert, and also help us
focus on homework.
• It is actually very important to snack instead of skip meals or wait until you’re too hungry
o If we don’t snack, we usually end up eating more than we actually need at meals
Activity + Debrief (15 min):
*Satisfy cravings with healthier approaches activity
• Split the group into partners or groups of three (SMALL groups!)
• Hand them the list of cravings and ask each group to think of an inexpensive, healthy alternative
to each of the snacks.
• Ask a few groups to share their ideas after the activity
Lesson (5-10 min):
*Pass out FDA “Read the Label on Snacks” handouts
Snacking is a good thing, but only if we are choosing healthy snacks throughout the day. How do we
judge whether a food is healthy? By reading the ingredients and the nutrition information on the food
label.
• The first thing we should look at is serving size. If we eat two servings, we need to multiply all of
the other numbers on the nutrition label to find out how much we’re actually consuming.
• Then, we look at calories, which comes from fat, carbohydrates and protein.
o There are different types of fat: saturated fats and trans fats are bad fats. Polyunsaturated
and monounsaturated fats are actually good, in moderation. But of course we still want to
limit the portion of fat because they are high in calories.
• There are also different types of carbs, sugar is one of them and should be eaten in moderation.
• Dietary fiber is healthy and something we want plenty of. It helps with digestion.
• Protein is always good, especially as growing teens because it helps build our muscles, skin and
hair.
• Sometimes vitamins and minerals are listed on the nutrition label. We should try to get at least
100% of each vitamin and mineral everyday.
• Along the right side of the nutrition label, you will see the percentages for each nutrient, also
called the percent daily value. If the percentage is 5% or less, it means it’s low. If it’s 20% or more,
it means it’s high.
o The nutrients that we want to be low are total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and
sodium.
o The nutrients you want to be high are fiber and vitamins and minerals.
o For your potato chips, was the percentage of sodium low or high?
Activity + Debrief (15 min):
*Pass out nutrition label searches — have each group fill out one sheet, as opposed to all four.
• Let’s compare products! Remember to check serving size. Work with your groups to answer a
few questions and determine which snack is the best choice
• After all the groups have finished, ask a few groups to share some of the findings they found
surprising.
Real Life | Youthlinc How would you satisfy these cravings?
Ice cream
Potato chips
Cake
French fries
Gummy bears
Corn tortilla chips
Milkshake
Popsicles
Candy Bar
Real Life | Youthlinc http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/UCM410497.pdf
Read the Label on Snacks – FDA Handouts
(Print from the link above)
o For the popcorn vs. pretzels, students will instead use the nutrition
labels from the snacks they had earlier (potato chips vs. pretzels)
Nutrition Label Searches
(Print the sheets below)
o Have each group/partnership fill out one sheet, then we will all share a
few interesting facts from our snack comparison at the end.
Real Life | Youthlinc Popsicle vs. Ice Cream
How many servings are in the bucket of ice cream? _____________________________________
Calculate the total calories in the bucket of ice cream: ___________________________________
•
Total Calories = Calories per serving X number of servings
Which snack has more fat? ____________________________________________________________
Which has more cholesterol? __________________________________________________________
o Do we want a lot of cholesterol in our diet? Why or why not?
__________________________________________________________________________
How much more sugar does the popsicle have vs. the ice cream?
______________________________________________________________________________________
Which snack has more vitamins (in total)? _____________________________________________
Snacking is good for teenagers. If possible, it’s better to snack throughout the day than
overeat at a huge meal. Which snack would you choose: ice cream or popsicle? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Real Life | Youthlinc Potato chips vs. Pretzels
How many servings are in the bad of potato chips? _____________________________________
Calculate the total calories in the back of popcorn: ____________________________________
•
Total Calories = Calories per serving X number of servings
Which snack has more trans fat? ______________________________________________________
Which snack has more sodium? ________________________________________________________
o Do you think it’s good to have more sodium? ________________________________
Which snack has the most fiber? ______________________________________________________
o Do we want a lot of fiber in our diet? _______________________________________
Snacking is good for teenagers. If possible, it’s better to snack throughout the day than
overeat at a huge meal. Which snack would you choose: popcorn or pretzels? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
Real Life | Youthlinc Yogurt vs. Pudding
The pudding has 3g of total fat, but only 2g of saturated fat.
o What kind of fat is the other 1g? _________________________________________________
o How much more fat does the pudding have vs. the yogurt? ________________________
Which snack has the most fiber? _______________________________________________________
Does yogurt have more protein than pudding? __________________________________________
o If so, how much more? __________________________________________________________
Which snack has the most calcium? ___________________________________________________
o Should we try to choose snacks with more calcium? Why or why not?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Snacking is good for teenagers. If possible, it’s better to snack throughout the day than
overeat at a huge meal. Which snack would you choose: yogurt or pudding? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Real Life | Youthlinc Chocolate Graham Cookies vs. Chocolate Chip Cookies
What is the serving size for the graham cookies? _______________________________________
o How many servings are there per container? _____________________________________
Calculate the total calories for the entire box of chocolate chip cookies: __________________
•
Total Calories = Calories per serving X number of servings
Which cookie has the most sugar? _____________________________________________________
Which has more cholesterol? __________________________________________________________
o Do we want a lot of cholesterol in our diet? Why or why not?
__________________________________________________________________________
Snacking is good for teenagers. If possible, it’s better to snack throughout the day than
overeat at a huge meal. Which snack would you choose: graham cookies or chocolate chip
cookies? Why? ________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________