Topic: Making Healthy Food Choices

Prescribed Learning Outcomes:

Personal Development (Healthy Living)

It is expected that students will:

• identify factors that promote health
• classify foods into groups, including the food groups identified in Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, Revised
• describe the influence of the media and the community on their attitudes and values regarding healthy living
• identify health-related services and resources that contribute to healthy living

Personal Development (Mental Well-Being)

It is expected that students will:

• demonstrate responsibility for their choices

The teacher developed a unit on nutrition to help students understand healthy eating and the potential impact of advertising on their food choices. Evaluation was based on:

• Healthy Living logs
• Healthy Choices charts
• advertisements

• Throughout this week-long unit, each student kept a Healthy Living log. In the logs, they identified their personal diet restrictions and recorded their daily food intake. Each day they assessed whether their diet reflected the daily requirements set out in Canada’s Food Guide For Healthy Living, Revised and their own personal diet restrictions. At the end of the unit, students reviewed their logs, identified areas of strength and weakness in their dietary choices, and made plans to address the weaknesses.
• The teacher began the unit by organizing learning activities to introduce students to Canada’s Food Guide To Healthy Eating, Revised. In small groups, students created webs of everything they knew about healthy eating and the guidelines. The teacher then asked each group to take a second piece of paper and write down as many different questions as they could think of about healthy eating.
• The teacher invited a nutritionist to class to present information about daily nutritional requirements and tips for making healthy food choices at home and at food service outlets. Students were encouraged to ask the questions they had developed in their groups.
• The teacher discussed factual and non-factual messages in advertising media. Students generated ideas about how food advertising affected their choices in selecting and eating foods. The also discussed other things that influence food choices such as customs, family habits, food preferences, and food intolerances and allergies.
• The teacher gave each student a blank Healthy Choices chart and modelled how it could be used to categorize food choices at a food service outlet such as a restaurant or bakery. (The chart is included under Assessing and Evaluating Student Performance.)
• The teacher arranged a field trip during which students visited a variety of food service outlets such as fast food restaurants, bakeries, family restaurants, hot dog stands, concession booths, and school cafeterias. For each site they visited, students completed an entry on the Healthy Choices chart.
• Following the field trip, students completed their charts by selecting one site and describing their personal choices for lunch and explaining their reasons.
• Students each selected one food service site and developed an advertisement to promote that place’s healthy meal choices. They used the information from their charts to create advertisements to encourage healthy choices. Each student also wrote a statement explaining how the advertisement would persuade the consumer.

The teacher reviewed with students the prescribed learning outcomes for these activities and explained the requirements of each task. The teacher and students together decided that the following key criteria should be demonstrated in the assigned tasks.

Healthy Living Log

• includes personal diet restrictions
• relates personal diet restrictions and nutritional information to food choices
• describes the consequences of failing to accommodate diet restrictions (where relevant)
• relates food choices to Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, Revised
• accurately identifies healthy and unhealthy diet choices
• develops a plan to select foods that promote health

Healthy Choices Chart

• differentiates between nutritious and non-nutritious foods
• includes a variety of information (at least one entry for each category)
• identifies how food choices relate to Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, Revised

Advertisement

• communicates purpose clearly
• uses appropriate advertising strategies and medium to persuade the chosen audience
• promotes a healthy meal choice
  makes the meal appealing
  provides nutritional information about the meal including how it relates to
  Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, Revised
• clearly identifies the audience and how this advertisement will persuade consumers in an accompanying statement

The teacher used the following rating scales to assess student performance. Students participated through self-assessment.

Healthy Living Log

Healthy Choices Chart

Rating Scale for Healthy Choices Chart

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