Learning from labels

group activity adapted from People's Grocery Peer Nutrition Educators
 
Supplies:
variety of foods that list the nutritional information
clear cups
water (dyed with blue food coloring)
sugar
lard/Crisco
 
Instructions:

1. Break into small teams, each team getting an equal number of food items with which to work.
2. Look at the food and discuss the following questions:
   
   1. Which food have you eaten?
   2. Why haven't you eaten the others?
   3. Which ones taste good?
3. Look at the nutritional information of the foods. You will create visuals of the nutrients in each food as follows:
   
   1. Fat - Measure 1 tablespoon of lard for each gram of fat and put in a cup(s)
   2. Sugar - Pour 1 teaspoon of sugar for each gram of sugar into a cup(s)
   3. Vitamins and Minerals - Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron and Calcium should all be listed as percentages. These are percentages of the total daily amount needed for each. Add up the total percentages of these four. 100% = 1 cup of blue water. (For example: 25% Vitamin A + 10% Vitamin C + 5% Calcium + 10% Iron = 50% total vitamins and minerals = 1/2 cup of blue water)
4. Put the cups of nutritional components (lard, sugar and blue water) in front of the food that goes with it.
5. Compare the nutritional value of the foods. What are the differences?
6. Bring your food and nutritional components to the front table, lining them up next to the other teams' and assign one person from your team to report to the whole group.
7. Share your findings. Look and listen to the other groups' finding and discuss.