Title: Produce Project Lesson One: Nutrition Basics and the Food Label
Target Audience: High School age students.
Time: About 1 hour
Materials Needed:
Instructor Materials: Lesson plan, Key Terms Matching game, Key Terms Matching
game answer sheet, Key Terms flashcards, Understanding the Nutrition Facts Label, a set
of measuring cups, a set of measuring spoons, the Produce Project Nutrition Booklet,
pens, boards for writing on.
Learner Materials: Healthy Eating survey (optional), 1 packet per student containing: the
Key Terms Matching game, a copy of the Understanding the Nutrition Facts Label, the
nutrition label for the day’s snack (optional).
Goals: At the end of the lesson, the learner will:
1. Learn what basic good nutrition consists of.
2. Understand the basic terminology that is used on a food label.
3. Have basic comprehension of how to read a food label
Objectives: At the end of the lesson,
1. Define common nutrition terms found in food advertising and on food labels.
2. Differentiate between nutrient categories that do and do not yield energy.
3. Locate the major nutrients on the Nutrition Facts Label.
4. Identify the nutrients on the label that should be limited in consumption.
5. Identify the nutrients on the label that promote proper nutrition.
6. Use a label to determine if a food is high or low in specific nutrients.
7. Analyze how food labels indicate the nutritional value of foods.
Teacher’s Note: If proceeding with Lesson 2 – Food Justice, start this lesson with the completion
of the Healthy Eating Survey. This material can be used to guide Lesson 2. (5-10 mins.)
Phase 1: Introduction (1 min)
In this lesson, we will talk about basic nutrition concepts, terminology, and how to apply that to
reading food labels.
Phase 2:
Presentation #1: Basic Nutrition (5 mins)
Point #1: What is Nutrition?
 Ask students what they think nutrition is.
 Define nutrition: Good nutrition requires eating the right balance of foods
without overeating and consuming too many calories.

Define calories: are the amount of energy that is in a food. Our bodies use this
energy to perform all tasks, from weeding to garden, to breathing, to sleeping.
 Everyone’s caloric needs are different. Factors that determine this difference are
age, growth (children, teens, and pregnant women), height, weight, and physical
activity.
Point #2: How Do We Maintain Proper Nutrition?
 Be physically active.
 Focus on Nutrient Dense Foods and minimize Energy Dense Foods.
 Define Nutrient Dense Foods: Foods that give more “bang for your buck”. In
other words, they are low in calories and high in nutrients.
 Define Energy Dense Foods: Foods that have a lot of calories with very little
nutrients.
Point #3: Why Is it Important to Focus on Nutrient Dense Foods?
 The more calories, or energy, you take in than what your body needs to use, gets
stored as fat.
 Eating a variety of nutrient dense foods allow us to eat more, stay full and keep
closer to the healthy balance our bodies need.
 Basic rule of thumb: nutrient dense foods are closest to their natural states; energy
dense foods are more processed.
Presentation #2: Food Label Terminology (10 mins)
Intro: We can think of the food label like a map. Each term is like a symbol on our map,
but we need to know what those symbols mean before we can read our map correctly.
Here we introduce these terms.
Point #1: Nutrients are broken into two groups; those give us energy and ones that are
involved with overall healthy body functions:
 Energy: Carbohydrates, fats, protein
 Help with body functions: vitamins, minerals, and water
Point #2: Energy Yielding Nutrients
 Carbohydrates:
o Are made of combinations of starches, fiber, and sugars.
o Main source of energy for the body.
 Starches:
 Are broken down for energy.
 Found mainly in veggies, fruits, beans and grains.
 Fiber:
 Is the indigestible parts of plants, beans, and grains.
 Their benefit is to keep us feeling full longer, and helps
protect us against heart disease and diabetes. (Teacher’s
note: this happens by lowering cholesterol in the body)
 Sugars:




Are broken down for energy.
There are naturally occurring sugars found in fruit and
milk.
Many times sugars are added to food. Look for words like
sugar, corn syrup, honey, etc. in the food ingredients list to
see if sugar has been added.
Fats:
o Are found mainly in oils, butters, meat and dairy. *Exception avocados
and olives.
o Fat is broken down for energy, but we need very little of it.
o Fat gives twice as many calories as carbs or protein for the same size
portion.
o Types of fats: Unsaturated, Saturated, Trans.
 Good fats:
 Unsaturated, they are liquid at room temp.
 Studies show these types of fats are good for heart health.
Ex: olive oil.
 “Bad” fats: Saturated and Trans Fats
 Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. They have
been linked with heart disease. Ex: butter
 Trans fats are fats that have been chemically changed from
liquid to a solid. Found mainly in processed foods, they are
linked with increased risk of heart disease.
 Protein:
o Mainly used for repairing the body.
o Mainly found in meat, beans, and dairy but also found in nut and grains.
o Average teenager needs about 50 grams a day.
Point #3: Non Energy Yielding Nutrients
 Vitamins:
o Help the body function properly.
o Every food has some vitamins, but no one food has all the vitamins we
need, which is why it is important to eat a variety of foods.
o Ex: Vitamin A helps keep cells healthy, Vitamin C help the immune
system work properly.
 Minerals:
o Helps the body function properly and builds tissues and bones.
o Ex: Calcium helps build bones, Iron helps carry oxygen to the blood.
Point #4: Food labels include cholesterol and sodium. Why are they important?
 Cholesterol:
o Is found only in meat and dairy.
o The reason it is listed on our food labels is because too much cholesterol
can sometimes lead to heart disease.
o Our body makes cholesterol on its own, so limiting the amount of
cholesterol intake is good.
 Sodium:
o Is a mineral that has many functions in the body.
o Most Americans eat much more salt than is needed.
o Salt intake should be limited as well to prevent high blood pressure.
Phase 3: Activity/Assessment #1: Key Term Matching Game (10-15 mins)
Teacher’s Note: Use the Key Term Matching game to assess if the students have understood
the terms presented in Phase 3. Break students into groups and give each group an equal amount
of term flashcards. Have them spend 5 minutes deciding together what the correct answers to the
cards are. After this, take 5 minutes to go through the list of terms and have the teams that have
the corresponding flashcard give their answer. If wrong, give guidance towards the correct
answer. Encourage all members of each team to participate by read the definition of at least one
card from their group.
Phase 4: The Nutrition Label
Presentation #3: The Nutrition Label Overview (5 mins)
Teacher’s Note: Use Nutrition Label provided to demonstrate points as you are presenting them.
Point #1: Daily Caloric Intakes, Daily Values, Easy Reading
 Daily Calorie Intake: The food label assumes that the daily calorie intake of the
person is 2000 calories (which is average). This is how the percentage
 Daily Values (or %DV) is determined by this number.
o %DV helps you see quickly if a food is high or low in a nutrient.
o Rule of thumb: if a food is low in a nutrient if the %DV is 5% or below. If it is
20% or more, it is high in a nutrient.
o Based on this it can easily be seen if the food is high or low in nutrient we
should limit or high or low in nutrients we want to get more of.
 Easiest way is to read the food label is from top to bottom.
Presentation #4: Reading the Nutrition Label (5 mins)
Point# 1: Serving Size and Calories
 Serving sizes give us a frame work for everything on the label.
o Tell us how large of an amount of food we can eat and not go over the numbers
on the label.
o Determines how many servings are in a container of food aka servings per
container.
 Serving sizes can be deceiving. Ex: Dorito Nacho Cheese chips have 140
calories per serving (about 11 chips). But there can be 4 or 5 servings in a
bag! Same with soda, most 20 ounce sodas have 2-3 servings per bottle!

It is hard to tell without measuring, how big a serving is, but with a little
practice, you can begin to get the idea.
Teacher’s Note: At this point demonstrate the serving size on the nutrition
label with a measuring cup. Pass around the measuring cups and spoons to
let students get an idea of size.
 Calories: Reminder! The calories and calories from fat shown are just for ONE serving,
they do not reflect what is in the entire container if it has more than one serving.
Phase 5: Activity/Assessment #2: Interpreting the Nutrition Label (10 mins)
Point #1: What to Avoid and What to Eat
 Based on our knowledge of terms, what on this food label should we avoid?
o Answers: Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium
o Why?
 Based on our knowledge of terms, what on this food label should we make sure we eat
enough of?
o Answers: Dietary Fiber, Vitamins, Calcium, and Iron
o Why?
Point #2: How to Read the % DV
Reminder: 5% or less is considered a low amount, 20% or more is considered a high amount!
 Based on what we know about the % Daily Values, what items on our food label have
what are considered high percentages?
o Answer: Sodium
 Based on what we know about the % Daily Values, what items on our food label have
what are considered low percentages?
o Answer: Dietary Fiber
Point #3: Putting it Together
 Based on what we have learned so far, our knowledge of nutrients to avoid and nutrients
to look for, do you think this is an item of food you should eat a lot of?
o Answer: Most likely not.
 Why?
o Answer: For such a small serving size, this item contains a moderate to high
amount of fat, especially unsaturated fat, a high level of sodium, and is low in
vitamins and fiber.
 Optional: Discuss if the day’s snack would be a better choice and why or why not based
on our knowledge.
Phase 6: Summary: (5 mins)
Explain how with the knowledge of the terms used on a food label, we are able to understand the
information a food label is giving us and how that empowers us to make more healthy food
choices.
Phase 7: Resources Available: (5 mins)
Introduce the Produce Project Nutrition Booklet as a way to practice their skills, learn about the
nutrition content of what we grow on the farm, and become familiar with what different nutrients
do by the glossary in the back.
Sources Used:
Rolfes, S.R., Whitney, E. (2010). Understanding Nutrition.California: Thomson Wadsworth.
Pennsylvania Dept. of Education:
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/lesson_plans/7486/grades_46_nutrition_plans/509167
Frito-Lay Nutrition Facts:
http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/doritos-nacho-cheese-chips.html
Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, Nutrition for Everyone:
http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html