Category: 9-14 Years Old

Fast Food Alert

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Lesson Overview

Finding a healthful, well-balanced meal in most fast food restaurants can be a challenge, but there are always choices you can make that are better than others. In this lesson, young people will explore common fast food choices and the corresponding nutritional information. They will list healthier choices to make when eating at fast food restaurants.

Introduction

Today’s families are busy and on the go with work and activities. Kids are eating away from home more than ever. To introduce the topic of fast food, ask the youth:

  1. How often do you usually go to a fast food restaurant? Once or twice a week? More than that?
  2. Why do we go to fast food restaurants? (Quick, easy, tastes good)
  3. Ask young people to list some of their favorite fast food restaurants? List their answers on the chalkboard or whiteboard.

Activity: Your Fast Food Menu

Each young person will need a blank piece of paper and pencil.

  • Have the youth fold their paper lengthwise into thirds. (A fun way to tell them is to fold it the “hot dog” way for lengthwise.)
  • In the first column (left side) ask young person to write down each food and drink item they order from one of their favorite fast food restaurants. Tell them to make sure to include the size they get, such as small, medium or large.
  • In the second (middle) column, have them write down which of the five food groups each food or drink item belongs to (vegetables, fruits, grains, protein, dairy). Review the five food groups with the youth as needed. Show MyPlate graphic or use our Interactive Whiteboard activity (see What You Need) to talk about MyPlate. If their food doesn’t fit into one of the food groups have them write “extra” instead. Remind them that some foods fit into more than one category. A cheeseburger would be protein/grain/dairy and “extra” for added fat.

Activity: Fast Food Nutrition Information

How can we find nutrition information about the meals you typically choose?

  • You can find the nutrition facts on the individual website link including the amount of sugar, salt, calories and nutrients in each food and drink.
  • We’ve provided links here to nutrition information from the fast food places kids are most likely to name, but if the young people name others, you are likely to find nutritional information on each restaurant’s websites.
  • Help the youth find their favorite choices in the links below, and take a look at the nutritional information that’s provided. It will be helpful to write down calories, sodium (salt), sugar, fat and vitamins. Be sure to watch portion sizes as you compare!

Fast food nutrition information
Pull up different fast food restaurant nutrition information on a projector. Here is a list of restaurants:

McDonalds® Nutrition Information
Wendys® Nutrition Information
Burger King® Nutrition Information
Arby’s Nutrition® Information
Dairy Queen® Nutrition Information
Subway® Nutrition Information

Ask the following questions:

    1. What size French fries do you usually order? Notice the difference between the calories, fat and salt (sodium) between the large size and small size fries.
    2. What size burger do you usually order? Compare the nutrition information of the biggest burgers to the smallest ones.
    3. How about drinks? If you choose pop, the same idea is true—smallest is best.
    4. Ask if there are better food options available at fast food restaurants. What have they tried or heard about?
    5. What could you have instead of French fries that would be a better choice?
      • McDonalds® – apple dippers (peeled apple slices with low fat caramel dip), Yoplait Go-Gurt, or Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait.
      • Wendy’s® – apple slices
      • Burger King® – natural applesauce
      • Arby’s® – applesauce
      • Dairy Queen® – applesauce or banana
      • Subway®- baked chips or apple slices
    6. What are some other ways we can make better choices when eating out at fast food restaurants?  Allow young people to offer ideas. Here are some example:
      • Try salads with low-fat dressing, use less dressing or try it without dressing.
      • Use mustard instead of mayonnaise on sandwiches, ask for half the normal mayo/special sauce or go without mayo/special sauces. (lowers calories, fats)
      • Always choose the smallest size of whatever you are ordering, especially if it is a menu item higher in calories, fat, salt and/or sugar.
      • Choose grilled instead of breaded and fried. (lowers fat and calorie content)
      • Choose water or low-fat milk to drink. Juice can be ok sometimes if the portion size is a single serving of four to six ounces and made from 100% juice. (lowers calories and added sugars and fats)
      • Choose fruits/vegetable options when available as sides to increase intake of fruits and vegetables to make it a more healthful meal.

Conclusion

After completing the exercises above, have the youth take out their folded sheets again. Using the nutrition information they have learned, in column number three (right side), have the young people list other options for food and drink choices to make their meal better and include more of the five food groups.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish so that families can continue discussing health food choices at home

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

You have options: choosing healthy foods on the run

Additional Instructor Resources: 

Get the Facts: Know Your Food Label

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how using the Nutrition Facts label helps them make healthy food choices. They will practice reading food labels, looking for calories, ingredients, and daily value percent’s.

Introduction

Understanding and using the Nutrition Facts label is an important step in helping young people fight obesity and prevent health problems later in life. By reading labels, young people will become more aware of what’s in the foods they eat. They will also get the information they need to make healthful food choices and establish good eating habits for life.

Show the youth the FDA’s “The Food Label & You” video. (Teacher to select entire video or any of the individual segments to show.)

Activity: Reading Nutrition Labels

Pass out two to three nutrition facts labels to each young person or group.

Ask the youth to take a few minutes to do the following:

Locate the Nutrition Facts label for your food item(s).

  • Find the Serving Size and Servings Per Container. Remember: all of the nutrition information on the label is based on one serving of the food. A package of food often has more than one serving!

  • Find the calories. They are the “fuel” our bodies need for our daily activities.

  • The calories listed are for one serving. Tell the youth that many people don’t even realize how many servings they are eating.  Remind young people that for the most part calories are good.

  • Find the Total Fat grams (g) for one serving. Under Total Fat, find the grams (g) of Saturated Fat. The grams (g) of Saturated Fat are part of the Total Fat grams (g). To keep our hearts healthy, it is important that we are aware of how much Total Fat (especially fats that are not good for our hearts such as Saturated Fats and Trans Fats) we are eating. We want to eat less of these nutrients.

  • Find the % of daily value. The percent of daily value shows how the amount of a nutrient fits into a 2,000 calorie diet.  Individual calorie needs will vary based on age, sex, size and activity level. The 5/20 rule says that if a food has 5% of daily value then it is low in that nutrient. If it has 20% of daily value then it is high in that nutrient. This can be good or bad depending if it is a nutrient that you want to have more of, such as calcium, iron, or less of, such as cholesterol or fat.

  • Ingredients: This shows the order of ingredients found in the food product from the most to least. This is where you will find if a food product is made from whole grains, has added sugars, and/or other ingredients that may have a positive or negative impact on your overall health.

Call on young people or groups and have them share their findings with the others.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish so that families can practice reading food labels and discuss good eating habits at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

Tobacco and E-cigarettes

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Lesson Overview

Tobacco companies use messaging, advertisements and now different flavors in their tobacco products to try and gain new consumers that could potentially be life-long users. By knowing the dangers, risk factors, and marketing strategies associated with cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and the relatively new e-cigarettes young people will be aware of and able to discuss reasons not to use any type of tobacco product.

*Note: This lesson can take up to several hours (each activity below can be done separately in less time).

Introduction

What happens when you use tobacco:

  • It causes your heart rate and blood pressure to increase, and your major blood vessels to become smaller, making your heart work harder.
  • It slows your ability to heal.
  • It reduces the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream, making you short of breath.
  • It decreases your taste and smell.
  • It causes your blood to clot faster. Smokers have a higher chance of heart attack, stroke and circulatory problems.

Other facts:

  • Tobacco makes your teeth turn yellow or brownish in color.
  • Smoking makes your skin wrinkle more.
  • Your breath, hair, clothing and household furnishings all smell like smoke if you smoke or live with a smoker.
  • Secondhand smoke can have harmful effects on the health of your entire family.
  • Seventy-five percent of smokers have at least one parent who smokes.
  • Restaurants and public places don’t allow smoking.
  • Your furniture, curtains, and carpeting smell like smoke if you smoke in your home, which you don’t notice. (This smell is caused by thirdhand smoke.)
  • Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Many others are known to be toxic.

The human body was not designed to smoke.

Adding Up the Cost – Financial Facts

Smoking one pack each day, at $7.50 per pack costs:

  • $7.50 a day
  • $52.50 a week
  • $210 a month
  • $2,730 a year
  • $13,650 in 5 years
  • $27,300 in 10 years
  • $68,250 in 25 years.

Nationally, the total health care cost of smoking is estimated at more than $167 billion every year.

 E-cigarettes

What is an E-cigarette?

  • An e-cigarette is a device used in place of smoking tobacco. It is also known as an electronic cigarette, e-cig or water vapor cigarette.
  • An e-cigarette is a small tube that is often made to look like a cigarette. However, they do come in many varieties.
  • All major tobacco companies own and make e-cigarettes.

How Do You Use An E-Cigarette?

  • Nicotine liquid or nicotine-free liquid (often called “juice”) is put in the e-cigarette.
  • Each time you take a puff, the liquid moves past a small metal coil.
  • The coil heats up and warms the liquid causing it to come out as steam that looks like cigarette smoke.
  • You breathe in and out the steam, which is usually called “vaping.”

Is The Steam Just Water?

  • The steam you breathe in and out is not just water. It is vaporized chemicals found in the liquid, along with any chemical changes from the heated metal.

Are E-cigarettes Safe?

  • E-cigarettes are not regulated (controlled). They are also not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
  • The chemicals used in the liquid do not have to be safe or listed on the label.
  • Private testing has found many harmful chemicals in the liquid including:
    • lead
    • arsenic (found in rat poison)
    • formaldehyde (used to preserve dead tissue)
    • glycol (used in antifreeze).

Testing has also found chemicals known to cause cancer in humans.

  • The chemical glycerin (used in soap and beauty products) has also been found in the liquid. At this time, there is no information on how breathing in glycerin will affect your body.
  • It is very common for there to be more or less nicotine that what is listed on the label. It is possible for nicotine-free liquid to still have nicotine in it.
  • The nicotine in e-cigarettes is usually not filtered the same way it is in FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies (such as patches and gum). This allows harmful chemicals from tobacco to be in e-cigarettes.
  • E-cigarettes have become popular, very quickly. This means there hasn’t been time to get results on long-term studies on the safety or health effects of e-cigarettes.

Activity: Tobacco Quiz

  1. Begin with the interactive quiz about tobacco. Have youth take the quiz individually or work together as a large group and display the quiz on a large screen.

Activity: What’s Actually in a Cigarette?

  1. Tobacco is just one of many ingredients in cigarettes. They actually contain over 7,000 chemicals – including at least 69 that are known to cause cancer. Distribute the “Toxic Chemicals in Cigarette Smoke” handout to show youth some of the most prevalent examples.
  2. Have youth work in teams to find images from magazines or the Internet of products that contain some of the same ingredients that are found in cigarettes.
  3. Give each group a poster board and ask them to create a poster that raises awareness of the chemicals found in cigarettes. They may want to title it something like “That’s What’s In a Cigarette?” or put the names of the chemicals at the top and the images below that. Encourage them to be creative and also try to get the message across that there are lots of unhealthy and even dangerous ingredients in cigarettes.
  4. See if you can find a place to display the posters where others will be able to see them and learn from them.

Activity: Why Use Tobacco?

  1. We know a lot about how bad cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes and juices are for our bodies. But we also know that lots of people still choose to use these products. So why is that? Lead a conversation with young people about why they think some people choose to use tobacco. You can use these and other questions as prompts:
  2. Why do you think some people start using tobacco?
    • What’s appealing about it?
    • What do they think will happen because it?
    • What do you think they know about it before they start?
    • How old do you think most people are when they start?
  3. Why do you think people continue using tobacco once they have started?
    • Do most people want to stop?
    • Why or why not?
    • If they do want to stop, why don’t they?

Take notes on a flip chart or white board about the different reasons people give. See if you can agree as a group on at least three reasons people choose to use.

Activity: An Honest Tobacco Advertisement

1. Now that young people have learned about many of the ingredients in tobacco products and what these products can do to the body, it’s their turn to make an ad…a truthful one. Show some sample advertisements for cigarettes from magazines, the Internet or other sources. Talk about the meaning of the ads with the youth – or have them talk about it in small groups.

Here are some questions to use as a guide:

  • How is this company trying to get you to buy or want their cigarettes?
  • Who is the intended audience for this ad? How do you know who the intended audience is?
  • Do you think that having or not having the cigarettes will make a difference in your life?
  • Do you know anything about cigarettes that the advertisement is not telling you?
  • Do you think this ad would make someone want to use their product?

2. Have young people discuss what a truth-telling ad for cigarettes would look like.

3. Decide what format to use – print or video or audio – and have the youth work in teams to create their own honest ads.

4. Share the ads with one another and with others if there is a place to display them.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing the negative effects and consequences of using tobacco and e-cigarettes.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Blowing smoke: understanding the effects of tobacco and e-cigarettes

Additional Instructor Resources