What's+On+Your+Plate-Reading+Food+Labels


 * Why is it important to learn how to read food labels?** Manufacturers are [|required to label food products] so that consumers can see what is in them. For people with allergies or special dietary needs, this is extremely important. Some ingredients in food have been linked to adverse health effects or environmental problems. By reading the labels on the processed foods you buy, you can try to avoid certain ingredients that you don't want to eat.


 * Background:** For me, reading processed food labels is a perfectly natural thing. I've had to check the labels of most foods since I was five or six, for milk and other ingredients that I was sensitive to. It always surprises me that not everyone does this. I have also read a lot about nutrition and specifically do not eat certain preservatives and artificial ingredients since I feel like the possible negative consequences of eating such products far outweigh any benefit they may bring to me (and in the case of the food ingredients that I do not eat, the benefits are not really mine since it does not matter to me if a food lasts for a long time or if it is brightly colored).


 * Foods:** Mixture of less processed foods (such as bread) and highly processed foods (such as candy), some of them "natural" or organic. I'm thinking several different types of soup or other canned goods, some candy (although children will probably want to eat it, I think that this is the most appropriate time of year for candy since the workshop will be soon after Halloween; at least some of the candy should be colored-maybe candy corn?), peanut butter or something else with palm oil in it, popular snack foods like cheez-its or "fruit" snacks, and any other dry goods we can think of. I have chocolate chips and peanut butter (no palm oil, has to be stirred) in my room that I'd be willing to let be part of the workshop provided I get it back unopened or ruined in any way.


 * Activity:** First, the children were given a hand-out with a list of ingredients to look for and a few questions (see below for hand-outs, although these were slightly modified for the actual activity) and a pencil. Then, the students were told to look for various ingredients. During this time period, as well as after the "scavenger hunt", discussion questions were posed as well as information provided about the various ingredients on the list. Some of the questions were designed to help the children critically think about foods and the environment.


 * Further Suggestions:** One thing that I would do differently if I were to run this activity again would be to just have a scavenger hunt on the sheet of paper for the children. I would have more detailed information available for myself concerning what the different ingredients are, as well as the questions I wanted to ask. My original plan had been for the children to take notes, but there were not enough clipboards available and plus we did not have a lot of time. The discussion questions seemed to work the best, especially when I asked the children a question and let them answer it themselves. I did feel like they learned more about reading ingredients and I hope they will continue to use that skill throughout their lives.

Artificial Food Colors General Rules: Lots of ingredients and long-named hard-to-pronounce ingredients=food is more processed Which foods have more ingredients? [|Definition of artificial ingredients] [|Food dye and ADHD study] [|ABC news article]
 * Grades 1-3: Identifying Key Ingredients**

Scavenger Hunt! HFCS [|HFCS and weight gain] [|Wikipedia article on how corn syrup is produced] [|Sugar and Empty Calories]
 * Grades 4-5: What's in Food?**

Scavenger Hunt! Palm Oil and Orangutans [|whatever "sustainable palm oil" means...]
 * Grades 6-8: Food and Social Effects**