Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
MEGAN MARTELL from the Michigan State University Extension Gogebic County office discusses nutrition and food labeling with the fifth grade class at Washington Elementary school in Bessemer Thursday. Martell in half way through the nutrition classes with the students, having three more sessions to complete.
By IAN MINIELLY
Bessemer - Gene Goss' fifth grade class at the Washington School in Bessemer hosted Megan Martell from the Michigan State University Gogebic County Extension office.
Martell, including Thursday's session, is halfway through a nutrition curriculum designed to educate the children on healthy eating habits and food sources.
On Thursday, Martell focused on nutrition and food labels. When asked why food in the grocery store has labels, the kids answered in a very disciplined and respectful manner, "Allergies, know what the food is, to know the content of what inside," to which Martell added, "And to compare similar foods due to regulations and testing by the government."
Martell, using a large blow-up of a nutrition label, informed the kids the rest of the label is not regulated and therefore food companies use techniques to make their offering more appealing than their competitors, but the claims and pictures do not necessarily represent truth. At this point, the kids began describing how the labels on packaging seldom look like the food on the inside and Martell pointed out the use of bright, attention-grabbing colors.
Martell informed the fifth grade students some of the claims are regulated on the rest of the label, such as if it says, "lower fat," but then she described the "low fat" labeling does not necessarily mean low fat, it just means the food has less fat than it had previously.
Likewise, if a food says it is "sugar-free," Martell asked the kids if it means it is less sweet? The kids said no, it has something else in it to replace the sugar and began rattling off artificial sweeteners, which led to a discussion on artificial sweeteners.
Martell described the nutrition facts label to the kids next. The kids learned one of the first things they need to pay attention to is the serving size. The nutrition information is for one serving, but people frequently consume two or more servings so they would have to at least double the numbers and facts.
Following the discussion on serving size, the kids and Martell discussed calories and how fats/carbs/proteins are described in grams while vitamins and minerals are given as a percent value. If a food vitamin or mineral is below 5 percent it is negligible and a body does not even notice it according to Martell, but if the food is over 20 percent of the daily recommended amount then the food is a significant source of that substance.
The kids have three more sessions with Martell to conclude their additional nutrition education.
