Interactive activity: decoding food labels for middle school

🍎 Topic Summary

Decoding food labels is super important! It helps you make healthy choices by understanding what's actually in your food. Food labels tell you about serving sizes, calories, nutrients like fats, carbs, protein, vitamins, and minerals. They also list ingredients, which are in order from the most to least.

Learning to read food labels empowers you to choose foods that give you energy, help you grow strong, and keep you healthy! It's all about becoming an informed consumer and taking control of what you eat.

🧪 Part A: Vocabulary

Match the term with its definition:

1. Terms:
   1. A. Serving Size
   2. B. Calories
   3. C. Nutrients
   4. D. Ingredients
   5. E. % Daily Value
2. Definitions:
   1. 1. Substances in food that your body needs for energy, growth, and repair.
   2. 2. A list of all the items used to make a food product, listed in descending order by weight.
   3. 3. The amount of food that is typically eaten at one time, used as a reference point on the label.
   4. 4. The amount of energy you get from a serving of food.
   5. 5. Shows how much of a nutrient is in a serving of the food, based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Match the term to the correct definition (e.g., A-3, B-4, etc.)

🧠 Part B: Fill in the Blanks

Use the words below to fill in the blanks in the following paragraph.

Words: Sugars, Fiber, Sodium, Fat, Vitamins

A food label can help you understand the amount of ____, ____, and ____ in a product. It also provides information about _____ and minerals which are essential for good health. Try to limit your intake of added _____, which provide calories but few nutrients.

💡 Part C: Critical Thinking

Imagine you are comparing two different brands of granola bars. One is labeled as "low fat" and the other is labeled as "high in fiber." What other information on the food label should you compare to decide which is the healthier choice? Explain your reasoning.