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Keeping informed about health and safety is an important aspect of consumer education. In its regular department, "Your Health," and in periodic major stories, CONSUMER REPORTS provides up-to-date information on important health, health care, and safety issues (second-hand smoke, vitamins, pesticides in foods, teen smoking, dieting, antibiotics, blood banking, gum disease, hazards at home).
Many product and service reports also have a health or safety aspect, and food-product articles frequently touch on nutrition issues.
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- To understand the importance of keeping healthy, fit, and safe.
- To become aware of life-style and purchasing decisions that impact on health and safety.
- To recognize that health and safety information is constantly changing.
- To understand the importance of keeping up-to-date on matters affecting health and safety.
- To learn where to go for up-to-date and reliable health and safety information.
- To enable students to evaluate sources of health and nutrition information.
- To learn how to shop for products and services that impact on health and safety.
- To explore how health care and fitness services are marketed and sold.
- To review the body's nutritional requirements and use them to plan meals and purchase food products.
- To build skill at using food label information.
VOCABULARY
balanced diet
calorie (kilocalorie)
fitness
food group
health care
mineral
nutrient
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nutrition label
preventive medicine
RDA
serving size
wellness
vitamin
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KEY CONCEPTS
- Health and safety information is constantly changing.
- It is important to keep up-to-date on matters affecting health and safety. It is also important to evaluate information sources. Sources that cite several studies, give more than one side, and have nothing to sell are more reliable.
- Many of the products we buy and use affect our health and safety-- foods, cosmetics, vitamins and food supplements, medicines, bike helmets, even automobiles and home products.
- Many services we buy affect health and safety-- diet and fitness centers, health providers, dry cleaners, etc.
- People are exposed to a number of health and safety hazards in their daily lives. Being aware of these hazards and buying or not buying products to reduce these risks can keep us healthy and safe.
- A balanced diet, comprised of a variety of foods, supplies the body with the nutrients it needs. Following government guidelines for RDAs can help consumers plan a balanced diet. By using nutrition labels, food shoppers can select foods that meet their nutrition and health criteria.
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TEACHING STRATEGIES
BEFORE READING
Explore what students already know about the subject and what they need to find out. Encourage students to first preview the article and to share what they already know about the subject. Then have students identify questions they have about the subject that they hope the article will answer. Have students read the article and answer their own questions.
Explore the importance of keeping up-to-date on health and safety issues and places to get reliable, up-to-date information. Have students identify health and safety information that has changed in their lifetimes (problems associated with saturated fat, for instance). Discuss the importance of keeping up-to-date and the consequences of not being informed. Encourage students to identify ways they can keep up-to-date about health and safety issues. Discuss the role consumer magazines can play.
DISCUSSION AND ACTIVITIES
ARTICLES ON HEALTH OR SAFETY
- Have students identify the main points made in the article. What are CU's main concerns? Why?
- What important new facts, if any, did you learn from the article?
- What recommendations does CU make, if any? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
- What would the consequences be of not following CU's recommendations?
- Debate: This article is/is not of concern to teen-agers.
- Brainstorm places to find additional information on this topic.
Student Activity 8-A1: CONSUMER REPORTS Log
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ACTIVITY OBJECTIVES
- To express reasons for reading a CONSUMER REPORTS article.
- To identify important information contained in a CONSUMER REPORTS article.
- To determine why the information is important to consumers.
- To write a brief report summarizing information from a CONSUMER REPORTS article.
ACTIVITY PLAN
- Have students select an article they've read in CONSUMER REPORTS that relates to what you're studying in class.
- Have students write a brief 1/2- to 2-page research paper.
- Have students present their papers to the class. After the presentation, initiate a class discussion and have the students answer questions.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Assigned reading. Have students keep similar logs for articles from CONSUMER REPORTS that you assign.
Questions and answers. Have students put the important information from the article into a question-and-answer format.
Hot tips. Have students glean the pages of CONSUMER REPORTS for health and safety alerts and/or tips associated with products. Then have students use the information to create news briefs and publish them in newsletter format. |
News brief. Have students use information from a CONSUMER REPORTS health/safety article to write a brief report as if for an evening news program. The report should cover all the main points in the article but take no longer than two or three minutes to read aloud.
Questions and answers. Encourage students to keep a log of health and safety questions they have. Then have students try to find answers to their own questions. If they cannot find answers to any questions, encourage students to write to CONSUMER REPORTS.
FOOD-PRODUCT ARTICLES
- Use a food-product article to engage students in a discussion of nutrition. Discuss: What are the main ingredients in this food? Is this food a good source of any important nutrients? Where does this food fit on the food pyramid? Is this a healthful food? Are there any health issues involved with eating (or drinking) this food? Is this a food you'd eat (or drink) often? Why or why not?
- Use a food-product article to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of eating processed versus homemade foods. Discuss: How does this food or beverage compare to a homemade counterpart in taste? Ingredients? Convenience? Nutrition? Caloric content? What advice would you give consumers about when and how often to eat this food? Explain.
Student Activity 8-A2: Profile a Food
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ACTIVITY OBJECTIVES
- To develop a nutritional profile of a food.
- To evaluate foods based on nutritional information on the label.
- To make food choices based on nutritional requirements.
ACTIVITY PLAN
- Use a food article from CONSUMER REPORTS to launch a nutrition discussion. Review the nutritional needs of the typical teen-ager.
- Supply students with a nutrition label from one of the foods discussed in the article. Have students use information from the label to complete the activity sheet.
- Discuss students' answers. Where does the food fit on the food pyramid? How nutritious is the food? Explain.
- Health professionals and nutritionists recommend that a person not get more than 30 percent of his or her total daily calories from fat. If students are trying to keep their fat intake low and their fiber high, would this food help them do this? Explain. If not, how could students incorporate the food into their diet and still keep their fat intake low?
- Explore limiting fat versus counting calories. What is the limit on daily fat consumption? On daily calories? What are the pros and cons of focusing on one or the other?
- The label lists the values for only vitamins A and C and the minerals calcium and iron. What if students wish to know the values for vitamins B or E in their foods, or other minerals? What can they do?
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Research food ads. Have students look for print and TV advertisements that make low-fat and no-fat food alluring. Analyze the approaches and claims. Are there commonalities? Explain. Also. List all the foods whose packages make "low-fat" or "non-fat" claims. Which are meaningful and which aren't? (e.g., which foods aren't high in fat to begin with?)
Measure serving sizes. Serving sizes given on food labels are designed to meet the government's idea of what a realistic serving size is. Do they meet your criteria for what a serving size is? Your family's? Have students brainstorm a way to determine serving size. Then have them try the test on their families. Follow up. Discuss how misunderstandings about serving sizes could adversely affect people trying to diet and how they might solve the problem.
Research food safety and purity. Have students research issues involving food safety and/or purity --preservatives, pesticides, carcinogens, additives, extraneous matter (filth) in processed foods, genetically engineered foods, etc. Then have students conduct a panel discussion: "How can we make sure our food is safe to eat?" |
Analyze your diet. Most American teens typically consume too much protein and fat and not enough complex carbohydrates and other important nutrients. Have students analyze their own diets: How many servings of complex carbohydrates do you eat per day? High-protein foods? High-fat foods? What foods do you snack on? Do you think these are healthful foods? Where do they fit on the food pyramid?
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