Society is currently pushing for healthy eating, and throwing numerous articles at consumers on how to do so. From fad diets to magic pills to exotic berries, the nutrition information that the general public receives can be extremely confusing, overwhelming, and just plain frustrating. People want to be healthy, and they try to be, but when they realize that they can’t do it on their own because they don’t know how, they turn to magazines and the internet and find millions of articles that confuse them even more.
As we all know, the nutrition facts label can be a little scary. It has a lot of little numbers and a lot of big words, which turns people off right away. The ingredients listed look like they are from another planet (D-Alpha Tocopherol?!), and 250 mg of sodium could either be really good or really bad, we aren’t really sure…The problem is that even adults (let alone kids) do not know how to properly read and understand a nutrition facts label and pull the crucial information that they need from it. The solution? Teach them how!
The website http://www.superkidsnutrition.com/ is an interactive website that allows kids to get on and read nutrition-related articles and do interactive games and activities to help them learn. The activity that I really focused in on is a simple Nutrition Facts Label Quiz. It is designed for grade levels 5-7, and meant to be easy yet informative.
Nutrition Facts Label Quiz
I like this education material because it is not so hard that it is frustrating, yet it still gets kids looking at the nutrition label and allows them to get a feel for it. It asks them to pull some basic information from the label. By doing this, they can become comfortable with a nutrition facts label and know where to look for the information that they want. I also like that the answers are provided at the end. Without feedback, students won’t know what they got right and wrong, and it won’t help them to learn or remember. Getting answers wrong is really helpful if the correct answer is given because it makes you go back and look at where the mistake was made, and why.
It is never too early to start being health-conscious, and kids could even teach their parents a little about how to read a nutrition label! I find it very interesting that the tool is designed for this grade level because back when I was in grade school, I barely even knew that nutrition labels existed, let alone how to read them! Spreading health awareness to younger generations is what will drive a healthier future. I, for one, truly believe that knowledge is power, and kids are going to have all the power to eat healthy, balanced meals. While they may not be choosing the most healthy foods on their own, kids’ parents can learn and help them. Eventually, kids will grow up and want to choose healthier alternatives. Because of nutrition education tools like SuperKids Nutrition, they will already know how to do so.