I came across this blog that is written on school lunch by an anonymous teacher that goes by Mrs. Q. She has made a project out of eating school lunch every day and documents the progress. She is an advocate for improving the national school lunch program. Interesting read if you have time.
Food Inc. (DVD): If you haven’t watched this documentary I would highly recommend it!
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults
Encouraging people to learn where their food comes from is becoming a popular trend these days and rightfully so as all the packaged, processed food we consume tends to cause some people to forget where their food actually comes from. Depending on your students background, some may have never been to a farm or have ever grown their own gardens. What better way to discover the origin of food then take a field trip to the orchard? Picking apples, peaches, and pears is a lot of fun. So you’re going to pick a whole lot of fruit for what? To bake with of course! Here are a few of my favorite orchard recipes.
My students were aghast that the new Five Guy’s Burgers and Fries that opened up in town were selling 800 calorie hamburgers! Apparently one of them had done their research. I wanted to confirm this information for myself hoping it was only an exaggeration so I went to their website. Quite frankly I was surprised at what I found and thought surely not all restaurants were the same. My hunch was correct, not all restaurants and fast food places are the same some were much worse than an 800 calorie burger! Thus a new lesson was born.
Save money and boost nutrition through a school yard garden, part of national trend to focus on eating local, whole foods. “Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.”
Lesson Plans The Science of Taste (PDF) PowerPoints Fruits (PPT) Submitted by R.Amy from NJ Worksheets Chicken Broth(Word) Kitchen Equipment Index (Excel) Mini Refrigerator Poster on Sanitation (Word) Pork Cuts Extra Credit Culinary Extra Credit Paper (Word) Links Ice cream…
A picture is always worth 1000 words and in this case can reflect your health. Inspired by the IPhone app called dietSNAPS, this unique lesson for visual learners allows students to track and assess their diets. The dietSNAPS app for the IPhone is a photo journal that allows users to take pictures of everything they ate and drank even pictures of themselves exercising and even send it to someone else for accountability. The app is fairly cheap at $1.99 and has generated a social following on Twitter and Facebook.
I always have my students look at cereal labels and compare two different kinds. We’ll this lesson takes it to the next level by allowing students to bake their own cereal, make an accurate nutrition label for their cereal, create advertising, and delve into FDA regulations on food labeling.
Objective Students will evaluate their own diets, sleep, and exercise to see if they are healthy or not and set goals that will help improve upon their diets, exercise, or amount of sleep. Set Ask the students if they consider…
