This is what I felt like after teaching a nutrition class to 10 enthusiastic Cadettes girl scouts. I could have crashed on a splintery wooden post just like this little panda. These are 12 year olds that are working on an Interest Patch. The catalyst for this is that one of there members has developed Type 2 Diabetes. Yes a 12 year old with diabetes. Unfortunately something that has become more common due to our more sedentary life styles and abundance of high calorie "foods".
Kids like visuals and girls like jewelry, so we made necklaces denoting there needs for calories, fat, sodium, fiber and sugar. The typical girl created a necklace with 14-17 purple beads (1 bead=100 calories), 20 blue beads ( 1 bead= 100 mg of sodium), 7 pink beads, (1 bead = 1 tsp of added sugar), 10 yellow beads (1 bead= 5 grams of fat) and 17 green beads (1 bead=1 gram of fiber).
The next step was to compare the bead they had with foods that they might eat. They were suprised to find that a quarter pounder, plus medium fries and a medium drink took up 9 of their calorie bead and that a package of instant oatmeal took 3 of there sugar beads, even though it was "organic". Being able to visualize was really helpful. I might try this with my adult victims. hmmm.
When we looked at sodium contents of frozen dinners and fast foods, there eyes got big. They were actually able to come up with meals that are lower in salt, including cooking from scratch.
I love the insights and honesty of the kids. One said "How come they get to lie on package labels". One adult piped in that they were not lying, they were stretching the truth. In my book that's a lie, especially when it comes to people's health.
No comments:
Post a Comment