| Healthy Lifestyles - Diet and Nutrition |
| Sandra's guide pages |
| What is a balanced diet? The government's definition Tips from the BBC for eating out more healthily What's in the food we eat? Reading nutrition labels Discussion: Make a list of 20 or so foods and get guides to say which they consider "healthy" and which "unhealthy" Then give them the labels or nutrition information (this can often be found on http://www.foodcount.com )and get them to work out if they are right or not. Use this to lead on to the fact that it's more important to eat what you like in moderation than to never eat less healthy foods. Memory game: Get 5 or so labels from tins and packets, with nutrition information. Give each patrol an identical set of lables. Give them a few minutes to look at the labels then take them away and ask questions... which was the best source of vitamin C, which had the most calories, etc. They may be able to guess some questions correctly, others will rely on memory. Energy values: We cook by converting energy into heat. This can be demonstrated very clearly using nuts: take a paperclip and an almond, unbend the paperclip and bend it round the nut to hold it. Make sure water is available nearby then set light to the nut. How much food can you cook on it? Toasting marshmallows is fairly easy - can your guides use mini-pie containers (the foil ones) to fry an egg or make a mini-pancake over one almond? Where's the Fat? This simple test from the Nutrition Information Resource Center can help figure out which foods have lots of fat. Note this is a pdf file - you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it. Calcium Do your girls appreciate the importance of calcium? Try this exercise to demonstrate the effects (more or less! this is not very scientific) of osteoporosis, caused in later years by not eating enough calcium NOW! Get two different weights of paper, provide each small group of guides with one sheet of each. You could use typing paper and photocopy paper or “normal” paper and thin card. Get them to roll each into a tube with the same diameter. The tubes represent bones. Then balance stuff on top until it collapses: of course the thinner paper collapses first. Calcium “fills” the bones to become more like the heavier paper. Explore ways of increasing calcium in the diet – try making different milkshakes (see recipes section) or have a blindfold taste test of different yoghurts or cheeses. Drink enough - many of us don't drink enough Have a non-alcoholic coctail making session, preferably without fizzy drinks too. Try frosting the rims of glasses, using champagne flutes or adding cherries and coctail umbrellas. Food colouring can make some of them even more interesting! Have a drink taste session. Try different brands of fresh orange juice / diluting juice / lemonade / coke. Food hygiene The Food Standards Agency has advice on most aspects. A quiz on food hygiene from the American Food and Drug Administration - aimed at householders rather than children but worth a look nonetheless. How to cook safely on a barbecue (from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) Healthy recipes Using fruit - milkshakes, fruit kebabs... Savoury food ideas - mini pizzas, snazzy sandwiches... Dips to use with crudites or whatever - from NetGuides (all of these recipes can be used in a meeting, most require little or no cooking) |
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