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Fit To Be Taught, Vol. 60

Cantaloupe Instead of Cupcakes? Believe It!

Nutrition can't be a unit; it has to be ongoing." Those are the words of Sabina M. Mosso, who teaches preschoolers and kindergartners at Anna Boyd Child Development Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Recognized by the Dole Food Company for her efforts to improve student nutrition, both in her school, and in other state school districts, Mosso knew she had won a huge victory when one of her students showed up on his birthday with a fruit tray instead of cupcakes!

A simple homework assignment started it all. Several years ago, a nutrition professor in Mosso's graduate program assigned her to go back to her classroom and make a change -- improve student nutrition. That wouldn't be an easy task by any standards. "These kids were bringing a bunch of garbage to school," she recalled.

Mosso decided the most effective strategy was establishing a new school-wide healthful snack policy. She received the endorsements of the school administration and her fellow teachers and turned her attention to getting parents on board.

Mosso and other staff members offered evening parent workshops about nutrition so efforts would not end in the classroom.

Read the full article on Education World

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Teaching Adolescents about Sports Nutrition

A sports nutrition program offered to in Pennsylvania school districts provides the resources for educators to promote healthful nutrition practices among students in grades 7-12 participating in school or community-based athletics.

The program is offered in 697 public high schools and middle schools in 501 school districts. The curriculum contains five multidisciplinary hands-on lessons that can be taught in health, family and consumer sciences, math, statistics, and science in grades 7-12. Lesson titles include Sports Drinks, Sports Bars and Energy Foods, Sports Diet, Protein Power, and Recovery Carbs.

Sports Drinks: Students appraise sports drinks to determine their benefits to athletes and recreational exercisers. Students determine the percent of carbohydrate concentration in various drinks, examine the sodium and potassium content of these drinks, and also create a homemade sports drink in the classroom.

Sports Bars and Energy Foods: Students examine the pros and cons of commercial sports bars versus other energy foods. Students compare and contrast the nutritional value and economic costs of popular bars as well as create their own sports bars in the classroom.

Sports Diet: Students examine and calculate the recommended number of calories, protein, fat, and carbohydrates for specific levels of activity and body weights.

Protein Power: Students determine the amount of protein needed for strength training, aerobic training, and muscle weight gain. They also appraise protein bars, powders, and shakes and compare them to other foods, and they plot the percent of protein by weight and cost per serving of supplements and protein-rich foods.

Recovery Carbs: Students calculate the amount in grams of carbohydrates to be consumed within 30 minutes of competition, examine a variety of foods for carbohydrate content, and design recovery carbohydrate snacks to meet individual needs.

After participating in the program, students and teachers demonstrated increased knowledge about specific products used for improving athletic performance and the importance of using food first to meet nutritional needs and relying less on supplements.

Read more about this program at: Sports Nutrition for Adolescents.

Click to learn more about Action for Healthy Kids.

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