Lesson - Super Market Smarts Objectives Students will be able to compare the nutritional value of similar products using food label information. Students will be able to apply food labeling skills to make food purchasing decisions. Materials Needed Nutrition Facts Label with Guidelines Pineapples and Carrots: Putting Food Labels to Work For You  (.pdf) Supermarket Smarts Fact Sheet Putting Food Labels to Work For You  - worksheet Empty food packages Food Labels Introduction Review the basic components of the food label: serving size, calories per serving, calories from fat, total fat grams, sugar, sodium and percents of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron. Put the formula for figuring out the percent of total calories coming fat on the board: Ask students what the criteria is for a food to be considered low fat. (Low fat foods have less than 30% of their total calories coming from fat.) Ask students what the criteria is for low sugar foods. (Low sugar foods should have less that 5 grams of sugar per serving.) Remind students that milk and fruit naturally have more sugar, but that they provide lots of important vitamins and minerals as well. Ask students what percent of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium or iron a food has to have to be considered a good source of these nutrients. (Answer: 10% or more) Activities This lesson consists of 2 activities. 1. Supermarket Smarts - Fact Sheet Have students break up into 9 small groups. Give each group 3 or 4 food packages from one of the following food categories: breads, cereals, yogurts, snack chips, sweet snacks, fruits, vegetables, beverages and milk beverages. Pass out the worksheet Supermarket Smarts - Fact Sheet, and the handout with the food label for the fresh pineapple and the fresh carrots. Have students fill out the table for the food packages they have. Instruct students to use the handout with the food label for fresh pineapple when they are identifying the information for the other fruit products, and the label for fresh carrots when they are identifying the information for the other vegetable products. These products should be included on the Fact Sheet. On the Fact Sheet they should indicate the name of the food item, the food group in the Food Guide Pyramid that the food belongs to, the total calories, total grams of fat, grams of sugar, and milligrams of sodium. You may decide to have each student complete their own Fact Sheets or have the group complete one Fact Sheet together. After all groups complete the chart for the food labels they were given, have the groups switch labels. Continue this process until all groups have completed the Fact Sheet for all food packages. If the class period ends before students have finished, collect the food labels and continue with lesson 3. 2. Putting Food Labels to Work For You After students have completed their Supermarket Smarts - Fact Sheet, distribute the handout Putting Food Labels to Work For You, and a blank piece of paper for students to write their answers. Assign each group a set of discussion questions (numbered 1 through 9), and give that group of students the appropriate food labels for them to re-examine. Have the student groups discuss the questions and write down their answers. Give students 15 minutes to complete their group of questions. Then have each student present the questions and their answers to the class. You can use the following information to give students tips and hints as they work on their questions, for guiding them during their presentations, or for summarizing the important points after their presentations. Breads: Breads are in the Grain Group of the Food Guide Pyramid. They do not differ very much in their carbohydrate content, and they are all good sources of carbohydrate. Remind students that carbohydrates provide their muscles and brain with "high performance fuel". The fat content in bread is low. Have students determine the percent of calories coming from fat using the formula on the board. Some breads, especially those with added nuts, may have more fat. Most bread is made from wheat flour. However, only "whole" wheat bread is made from "whole" wheat (unprocessed) flour. Whole wheat breads are usually higher in fiber, although some breads made from milled wheat flour (the label may say wheat flour or unbleached wheat flour) have other added ingredients to increase their fiber content. The milling process removes the iron from the grain, but manufacturers are required to add this iron back. This process of adding back nutrients that were removed by processing is called enrichment. However, the enrichment process does not include adding the fiber or many other nutrients back into the food. Cereal Products: Cereals are also in the Grain Group of the Food Guide Pyramid. Cereals vary in their sugar content. Cereals with more than 5 grams of sugar per serving (which is usually one ounce) are considered high in sugar. Cereals that are high in sugar can still be nutritious, because they provide a lot of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Most cereals are low in fat, however, some with added nuts have more fat. Students should determine the percent of total calories coming from fat using the formula on the board, and evaluate whether any of the cereals have more than 30% of their calories from fat. Fiber content of cereals varies, too. Foods that provide more than 1 gram of fiber per serving are good sources of fiber. Yogurt Products: Yogurt is found in the milk group of the Food Guide Pyramid. There are many types of yogurt available now, such as low fat plain yogurt, non-fat plain yogurt, fruit flavored or chocolate flavored low fat or non-fat yogurt (which usually has a lot of added sugar), and fruit flavored yogurt sweetened with artificial sweeteners, such as NutraSweet or Aspartame. Yogurt naturally has about 11 to 13 grams of sugar per cup, because it is made from milk which has this amount of sugar. Yogurts with more than 5 grams of added sugar, or a total of 15 to 18 grams of sugar or more per cup of yogurt, would be considered high in sugar. All yogurts should have a similar percent of calcium on the food label, about 35% of recommended daily intake, and all are considered good sources of calcium. Yogurt is a good source of protein, and is higher in protein than other foods on the Fact Sheet. Snack Chips: Some snack chips are made from grains, like pretzels which are made from flour, and others are made from vegetables, like potato chips. Students should determine the percent of calories coming from fat for each of the snack chips. Those that have less than 30% of their total calories from fat are considered low in fat, and therefore, better snack choices. Most snack chips are high in salt or sodium. Students should check the percent Daily Value of sodium on the food label. Sweet Snacks: Sweet snacks vary a lot in their fat content. Students should compare the total grams of fat, as well as the percents of total calories coming from fat. Students can then compare the grams of sugar per serving, and note which provides the least amount of sugar. Students should note which snacks provide more than 10% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium or iron. Those that provide more than 10% of these nutrients are considered good sources of these nutrients. Students should use their creativity to pick out foods that can add nutritional value to the snack food, for example fruit could be added to ice cream or low fat milk can be added to cake or cookies. Fruits: Fruits canned in heavy syrup are the highest in sugar. Fruits canned in light syrup or in their own juice have intermediate amounts of sugar. Fresh fruit has the least amount of sugar. Vitamin C breaks down when exposed to heat. Fresh fruit has the highest vitamin C content, because it is the least processed. Vegetables: Vegetables are naturally low in sodium, but during the canning process a lot of sodium is typically added. The canning process decreases the vitamin C content, because vitamin C breaks down in this environment. Vitamin A on the other hand is very stable, and is not affected by these conditions. Therefore the vitamin A content is similar. Beverages: Soda, fruit drinks and sweetened iced tea all have large amounts of added sugar. Their sugar and calorie content is about the same. Seltzer, on the other hand, has no added sugar and no calories. The fruit drink has added vitamin C, so it has more of this vitamin than the other drinks. Milk Beverages: Fat and sugar both contribute calories to these milk beverages. The lists according to the calorie content and fat content will be different, because the low fat chocolate milk will be low in fat like 1% white milk, but higher in sugar and, therefore calories, than the 1% white milk. The calcium contents are similar. The low fat chocolate milk is still nutritious because it has calcium, Vitamin D, riboflavin and protein, even though it has some added sugar. Conclusion Remind students to compare the Nutrition Facts food label information for similar products. Discuss that students have a choice, especially when purchasing snack foods. Encourage students to look for those items with the least fat, sodium and sugar, and highest vitamin and mineral content. When they choose items that are high in fat or sugar, (those in the Tip of the Pyramid), they should limit the amount they eat.