Good nutrition is important for people of all ages. But learning about nutrition can be a fun activity for kids. Here's a scavenger hunt to help them see that nutrition is all around:
For kids:
You can do this scavenger hunt with your favorite grown-up or with your friends. See how many ways you can discover nutrition.
1. Get a menu from your school cafeteria and circle one food from each of the five food groups in the Food Guide Pyramid. The groups are:
- bread, cereal, rice and pasta
- fruit
- vegetables
- milk, yogurt and cheese
- meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts.
2. Ask your teacher to bring in the Nutrition Facts panel from the wrapper, box or bag of his or her favorite snack food. Which nutrients does it supply? To which Pyramid group does it belong.
3. Look at the Nutrition Facts panel from a box of your favorite cereal. How much fiber does one serving have?
4. Go to the section of your supermarket that has milk, cheese and yogurt (dairy foods). Look at the Nutrition Facts. Which nutrients does the dairy food group supply the most of?
5. Find a fruit that you've never tried. Close your eyes and taste it. Does it taste sweet, sour or sweet and sour? Then hold your nose while tasting it. What happens?
6. Write down your favorite meal. How many food groups are in it? What other food could you add in the missing food groups?
7. Get a menu from your favorite fast-food restaurant. Plan a meal that has at least one serving from each of the five food groups.
8. Carbohydrates give you energy for activities and sports. Look in your kitchen cupboard or pantry and find foods that have the most carbohydrates per serving. What types of foods are they?
9. Variety means eating a lot of different types of foods. For one day, make a list of every food that you eat. How many different foods did you eat?
10. Look in your refrigerator and kitchen cupboard. Find three foods that supply at least 10 percent of the Daily Value for vitamin C.
For adults:
Here are some answers and help after kids have completed their scavenger hunt:
1. The Food Guide Pyramid can help you eat right. It tells you how many servings to eat every day from each food group. When you eat according to the pyramid, you get the energy, protein, vitamins and minerals you need.
2. The Nutrition Facts box tells you how much you get of each nutrient per serving. To figure out which food group your snack belongs to, look at the ingredient list. If the first ingredient is flour, like in crackers and cookies, your snack is in the bread group.
3. The grains in breakfast cereal supply fiber. Cereals made from whole grain or bran usually have a lot of fiber.
4. Milk, cheese and yogurt are rich in calcium and protein.
5. You need your sense of smell in order to taste foods. When you hold your nose, foods are hard to taste.
6. For a healthy, well-balanced way of eating, include as many food groups as possible in each meal.
7. Here is how a meal of a hamburger, carrot sticks, apple juice and frozen yogurt stack up: The hamburger bun from the bread group, the carrots from the vegetable group, apple juice from the fruit group, frozen yogurt from the milk group and the hamburger patty from the meat group.
8. Food in the bread group, like bread, cereal, rice, pasta, cookies and crackers, have a lot of carbohydrates. So do fruit, vegetables and dairy foods.
9. When you eat plenty of different foods, you get the nutrients your body needs to grow and be healthy. The more foods you try, the more you'll learn to enjoy.
10. Vitamin C is found in fruit, vegetables and juices.