LESSON PLAN

Kelci McHugh and Darian Burks

Title: Reading and Understanding Nutrition Labels on Foods Around Campus

Target audience: UK 101 class

Average of 18-22 years of age.
Wide range of ethnicity, just depends on who is enrolled for the class.
Male and Females present, probably an even mix between the two.
Some college experience for education.
Special considerations are they may know little about nutrition, they may not be
interested in the topic, and they may have meal plans on campus.
Topic has been modified so explanations and activities are taught in a way that
can aid people with basic to no nutrition education.

Needs Assessment:

Needs assessment was conducted by secondary data found on CDC, National

Center for Education Statistics, and PubMed. The teacher for the UK 101 class did
indicate that she felt the students needed a lesson on nutrition. She already had the
day we are going blocked off for a lesson on nutrition. This was the only
communication we had with primary data for the class, but the lesson was designed
based on experiences when we were freshman in college at the University of
Kentucky.

Percentage of adults over the age of 20 with overweight, including obesity is

70.7% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016).
20.5 million students are expected to attend a college or university in
America (National Center for Education Statistics).
Study found that roughly of the college students involved had never read
or been taught information on how to use a nutrition label (Misra, 2007).
Study found of the college students were unsuccessful when comparing
nutrition labels and
College students believe that classes on basic nutrition information need to
be offered because nutrition is important (Fernandes et al, 2015).
The students believe more information needs to be given on menu labels,
rather than just calorie count, to provide them with a better understanding of
which item is healthier. They thought this could be possible by labeling
ingredients (Fernandes et al, 2015).

Goals and Objectives:

Goal 1: Increase knowledge for college students in UK 101 class about how to
properly read and assess a nutrition label.

Goal 2: Increase knowledge for college students in UK 101 class about how to read
an ingredients list and become mindful that a shorter, simpler list could be more
beneficial to health.
Objective 1: College students in the UK 101 class will be able to choose the
healthier snack based off of a side-by-side nutrition label comparison during the in
class activity.

Objective 2: College students in the UK 101 class will be able to read an ingredients
list and state which compared list sounds more appealing for health after the lesson
is presented.

Materials:
Computer
Power point slides
In class activity sheet with nutrition labels
Pencils or pens
Evaluation sheet
Flash drive
Internet

Activity:

Students will have a side-by-side nutrition label sheet with examples of snacks
offered on campus. The first page of the activity is a picture of a box of chicken
wings and the nutrition label which has more than one serving size in the box. The
first question is how many servings are included in this box of chicken wings? The
second question is how many calories are there per serving? The third question is
how many calories are there in the whole box? The last question is, if you bought
this box on campus, how much of it would you eat in one sitting? The backside of
this activity has pictures of two granola bars and their ingredient list. The question
for this side is, based on the ingredient list, which granola bar do you think is the
healthiest?

Lesson timeline:

1. Plug in flash drive or pull up email with presentation powerpoint before class
time starts.
2. Set up power point slides and pull up first slide with topic title and names.
3. Introduce yourself and state the main topic being discussed.
4. Start the presentation off by asking how many people have meal plans or buy
snacks on campus and do the ice breaker slide and game.
5. State what you want them to get out of the presentation, essentially why you
are up there talking about the topic with demographics and goals.
6. Proceed to next slide to start the presentation details and advance like you are
following the content detail below.
7. Go through step by step procedures on how to read a label with each slide
being a different topic.
8. Once you get to slide number 13, pass out in class activity. Give class about
five to seven minutes to complete.
9. Go over answers to worksheet and give explanations if necessary.
10. Proceed to next slide and sum up take home message in just a minutes time.
11. Proceed to slide 15 to give students extra resource web links for more
information.
12. Open up class for questions, about five to ten minutes.
13. After questions, pass out evaluation sheets.
14. Collect when students are done filling out or until the class ends.

Content outline:

1. Introduction
a.) Hi everyone I am Kelci and this is Darian and we are both seniors in the
dietetic program here at UK. I am applying for internships to hopefully obtain my RD
credential. Darian will start her internship through the coordinated program with the
University of Kentucky in January.
b.) First we are going to play a game, match that nutrition label. How many
calories do you think is in one piece of starbucks pumpkin bread? The answer is 410
calories. How many grams of sugar do you think are in a French toast egg sandwich
from Einsteins? The answer is 27 grams. How many grams of fat do you think is in
the Steak and Shake Patty Melt? The answer is 40 grams.
c.) So some of the reasons why we are here teaching are because of the
demographics towards college students and their eating habits. It has been found
that one half of college aged students had never read or been taught to read
nutritional labels. Building from that statistic, one third of students unsuccessfully
compared labels.
d.) Our goal by the end of this lesson is for you all to increase knowledge
about how to properly read and assess a nutrition label. Also, increase knowledge
on how to read an ingredients list and become mindful that a shorter, simpler list
could be more beneficial to health.

2. Explanation of Material & Learning Experiences

a.) Step one is to looking at serving size of a product. It is important to pay
attention to amount per serving to see how many servings are available. Some
packages can be deceiving about one package actually being two or plus servings
which can have a huge impact on the calories eaten. Using serving size can be a
good tool to compare products when trying to choose a snack.
b.) Step two is to check calories. The number of servings you consume
correlate to calorie intake, so make sure to multiply numbers out if you will be
eating more than one serving. A calorie provides a measure of how much energy is
being consumed to fuel your body. A general rule of thumb is that 40 calories is
low,100 calories is moderate and 400 calories is a high amount to consume in one
sitting.
c.) Step three is to limit certain nutrients of concern like total fat, saturated
fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium. Trans fat is the worst thing for you
and you shouldn't eat more than 1 gram a day. Saturated fats also has negative
effect on health and no more than 7 grams should be eaten in a day. All of these
lead to chronic diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure and even cancer.
d.) Step four is to make sure you are eating enough of certain nutrients like
fiber, vitamins and minerals. Fruits and vegetables are great options
to fulfill these nutrients. They are found to decrease chronic diseases like the ones
stated previously. Fiber leads to healthy gut function, calcium decreases
osteoporosis
or bone breakdown throughout life, and Vitamin C leads to a healthy immune
system, so no colds this semester!
 e.) Step five is just realizing what the footnote is at the bottom of the page.
This shows percents are based on 2,000 calorie diets.This is the same on every label
but it may not be present on some. Consuming more than 2,000 calories a day may
skew percentages for each of your meals or snacks.
f.) The final step is reading an ingredients list. Typically you will want to stick
to simple terms that you can pronounce. This shows less chemicals are added and
the product is less processed. Also, the smaller the list, the better it may be
for health. Smaller lists may show more natural products. For example, which
ingredient list sounds more appealing between the two listed on the slide? The
smaller ingredient list is from a KIND bar, and the second list is a Luna Protein Bar.
Both of these bars are found right here on campus.
g.) Now we have an in class worksheet. Please take about five minutes to
work on this either by yourself or with someone around you. Make sure to pay
attention to servings. Now lets go over the answers (instructors take about 5
minutes to discuss answers). This here was to show you how simple the math can
be for products and when you may be out trying to choose a snack or meal. This is
for you to keep.

3. Summary/Closure
a.) To sum things up, the take home message for you all is to make mindful
decisions on campus when choosing what to eat. Healthier food options instead of
fast food and calorie dense foods leads to an increase in energy throughout the day,
better sleeping habits, improved focus in class and ultimately will just make you feel
better.
b.) Remember to view the label in sections. This will make you less
information overloaded when choosing food.
c.) I promise the more you practice and use this technique, the easier it gets.
Soon enough it could become part of your daily routine and could be applied to
grocery shopping.
d.) Lastly, listed here on this slide are extra resources to be utilized. This first
link takes you to dining halls and associated nutritional facts to food here on
campus so you can plan ahead where to stop for lunch. The second link provides
information on how much of each of these nutrients you should be consuming per
day. MyPlate is another great source to use with any future nutritional based
questions. We can send these slides to your instructor to place on canvas for your
use.
e.) Any last questions?

4. Evaluation
a.) Now that the presentation has come to an end, we are going to pass out
evaluation sheets with a couple questions on them.
b.) Please answer truthfully. This will help us gage our performance and how
well we could have impacted you all.
c.) It will take just a couple moments and then we will collect them back.
d.) Thank you!

Extra Resources:

Resource 1: http://uky.campusdish.com/EatWellContent/ViewMenu.aspx to view

campus menus and nutrition facts of menu items here at the University of Kentucky
Resource 2:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInform
ation/LabelingNutrition/ucm064928.htm to view Daily Reference Value
recommendations for individual nutrients listed on a nutrition label

Evaluation:

An evaluation sheet will be given at the end of the presentation with at least five
questions assessing their knowledge gained from the presentation and how likely
they are to apply it to everyday life when eating on campus. These questions
include;

1. Did you enjoy the information given on nutrition facts?

2. Did you enjoy the information given on ingredients lists?
3. Do you think you benefited from the information given?
4. If given a nutrition facts label could you identify how many servings were
within the package?
5. If given a nutrition facts label could you identify how many calories were
within the whole package?
6. If given two ingredients list could you identify which was the healthier option?
7. Will you use theses techniques when purchasing food on campus?

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity and Overweight. Updated June,
2016. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm. Accessed October
4, 2016.

Fernandes AC et al. Perceptions of university students regarding food calories, food

healthiness, and the importance of calorie information on menu labeling. Appetite.
2015;91:173-178.

Misra R. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Labor Use among College Students. Journal of
the American Dietetic Association. 2007;107(12):2130-2134.

National Center for Education Statistics. Fast Facts.

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372. Accessed October 4, 2016.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts
Label. Updated May 2016.
http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm27459
3.htm. Accessed October 3, 2016.