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Do Something about... Eating Healthy - Day 3: Nutritious Choices
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Title - Do Something about... Eating Healthy
Day 3: Nutritious Choices
By - Do Something, Inc. / www.dosomething.org
Primary Subject - Health / Physical Education
Secondary Subjects - Other
Grade Level - 9-12

Do Something about...
Eating Healthy
10-Day Unit

The following lesson is the third lesson of a 10-day
Eating Healthy Unit from Do Something, Inc.
Other lessons in this unit are as follows:
    Day 1: Green Scene
    Students learn the benefits of green vegetables and the number of recommended servings
    Day 2: Vital Vitamins
    Students learn about different types of vitamins and how they function in the body
    Day 3: Nutritious Choices (See the lesson below)
    Students examine their eating habits and learn about a balanced diet
    Day 4: International Food Day
    Students learn the differences in people's diets from around the world
    Day 5: Super-size Me
    Students learn about America's growing obesity and its relationship to portion size
    Day 6: Got Greens?
    Students learn ways foods are marketed towards youth in order to start their own green campaign
    Day 7: Getting the Skinny on Obesity
    Students learn about the New Food Pyramid and how to evaluate their Body Mass Index
    Day 8: Action Plan
    Students evaluate their own activity levels and plan ways to add more movement into their lives
    Day 9: Fitting in Fitness
    Students evaluate how they spend their time and how to include physical activity into their day
    Day 10: Green Day
    Students plant a garden and/or fix up a community space for physical activity

More student resources for this cause are at:
www.dosomething.org/causes/healthy_eating

Day 3: Nutritious Choices

Goal:

Students will examine their own eating habits and learn about eating a balanced diet.

Steps:

  1. Warm-up: Ask students if to report on their eating habits. How many eat while watching television? Who prepares his/her own meals? How many students help with food shopping? What type of snacks do students eat?
  2. Bring in a 2-3 lbs bag of sugar to demonstrate the amount of sugar an average American consumes throughout the week.
  3. Read the following information about sugar:

  4. http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Sugar?open
    http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/sugar.htm
    Discuss how sugar effects a person's bodies. Ask students to note how they feel after consume sugar and have them explain why this might be.
  5. Give the students the following handout, or write the information on the blackboard. Allow them 10 minutes to construct a story about Jeff. Here are the last 5 checks written by "Jeff Bradley."
  6. Reconstruct his story:
    Date PaidToAmount
    Feb. 12Quality Gyms$75
    Feb. 15Natural Foods$55
    Feb. 16Grandma's Sugar Shack$56
    Feb. 20Dr. Hamden$150
    Feb. 23Al's Quickie Mart$25
  7. What story did you construct? Does your story make sense? What message does it convey about Jeff's fitness choices? Did he make good choices? Why or why not?
  8. Ask students to write down everything they ate yesterday. Encourage students to list snacks, small bites, and drinks (including if it was diet or regular). Tell students that "Junk food grabs the highest share in the children's market at 34.6%. It even ranks above spending on toys, games, and crafts, which garner a combined share of 31.3% (McNeal 1992 cited http://www.rprogress.org/newpubs/1999/consuming_kids.html)
  9. Have students create a survey to find out about the eating habits of students in their school. If possible, work in conjunction with the math teacher to have students analyze the results statistically. Post findings for school community.
  10. Reflect: Have students reflect on how they could save their money usually spent on snacks and save it for other things they might want.
  11. Have a few students share their lists with the class and discuss their choices.

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