Grade: Senior
Subject: Health

#4583. Is This Diet Healthy?

Health, level: Senior
Posted Sat Mar 31 14:33:20 PDT 2012 by AHealthTeacher (AHealthTeacher).
The Best Health Lesson Plans: Free and For Sale Lessons, FREE Health articles, +
High School, Seattle, WA
Materials Required: worksheet-provided, optional PowerPoint
Activity Time: 1-2 class periods
Concepts Taught: Nutrition, Fad Diets, Food Guide Pyramid

FREE! "Is This Diet Healthy?" 10 Questions to Analyze and Give a Grade to Any Diet (see below for the link to my complete 2-3 day lesson for this worksheet)

Summary: Use these 10 questions based on the Mayo Clinic Food Guide Pyramid to analyze and grade fad diets.

Goals:

The goal of this lesson is for students to know the revealing questions to determine if a diet is healthy, and to confidently use these standards in the future.

Lesson Instructions:

1. Give background information on dieting and obesity in the United States, why Americans often choose unhealthy, quick-fix diets that don't work, and how to recognize how advertisers manipulate consumers to buy diet products (see below for a link to a complete lesson plan on these topics)

2. Print and hand out the "Is This Diet Healthy?" 10 questions to each student. (see below for a link to an easy to use finn-in-the-blanks format of these questions)

3. Have each student choose a diet to research. You could do this assignment as in the classroom if you have the resources there, or as homework, or in a computer lab. (see link below for over 50 diets to choose from)

4. Students fill out the 10 questions (based on the Mayo Clinic Food Guide Pyramid) as they research their diet, and add up the score to give their diet a grade.

5. Have students follow up this activity by presenting out to classmates what grade their diet received. Next, explain to students the dangers of many of these diets, (see lesson link below). You could also discuss our brain and habits and how each individual should look at his or her own negative habits and try and change them.

10 QUESTIONS:

Is This Diet Healthy?

YOUR NAME:_________________________ PER:________ DATE:______

NAME OF THE DIET:____________________________________________

Total up your yes answers and write the score, and grade for your diet. (These questions are based on the Mayo Clinic Food Guide Pyramid, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=357FAABB-312F-414A-A8D6401C15EE66B4


1 point for yes,
leave blank for "No"
If you don't know, leave it blank:

_______1. Does the diet include a variety of food daily from these parts of the Mayo
Food Guide Pyramid? (breads/grains, fruits, veggies, and proteins/dairy) _____


_______2. Does the diet program also encourage you to exercise? ______

_______3. Does the diet include foods daily that will provide plenty of fiber
such as whole-grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice, veggies, and fruit? ______

_______4. Does the diet include the "7-a-day" rule? (eating 3 servings of fruits
and 4 servings of veggies per day) ______

_______5. Does the diet keep sugar in moderation? ______

_______6. Does the diet include mainly foods that are low in fat or food that have
mainly "good" (unsaturated or omega) fats? ______

_______7. Does the diet keep your daily calorie total above 1200 for girls and
1500 for boys? ______

_______8. Does the diet make sure you don't lose more than 1-2 pounds per week?______

_______9. Do YOU consider this diet "healthy" and "balanced"? ______

_______10. Is the diet a program that you could continue for life?
(would you realistically be able to make it a life-style change for
the rest of your life?) ______

10 points = A
9 points = A-
8 points = B
7 points = C
6 points = D
5 points = F Total "yes" score points ______

The diet's grade _______


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I have this complete 2-3 day lesson for sale on my TeachersPayTeachers website for $6.00.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Is-This-Diet-Healthy-Lesson-Analyze-and-Recognize-Unhealthy-Diets

Here is what is inlcuded in the full lesson:

Students will be surprised as they complete this informative activity and they learn just how unhealthy many diets are. The students in my Aerobic class really liked this lesson!

In this 2-day lesson, students learn how to recognize the common traits of fad diets (plans that: promise quick weight loss, offer an easy plan, use famous testimonials, are full of scientific jargon, and often taut their use as critical.)

Each student will research an assigned or selected diet from a list of over 50 different diets. Next they will answer 10 questions on a worksheet about how healthy their diet is and they will score their diet from 0-10 and give it a grade: A through F.

Diet Types listed for students to research include:

Low Carbohydrate Diets: Such as Atkins, Sugar Busters, The Zone
Moderate Calorie Restriction Diets: Such as Weight Watchers, Dieting For Dummies
Very Low Calorie Diets (Under a Dr.'s Supervision): Such as Optifast
Low Fat Diets: Such as The Rice Diet, Fit or Fat
Novelty Diets: Such as The Beverly Hills Diet, Cabbage Soup Diet

Finally, a follow-up discussion will help students understand why medically and nutritionally some diets are not healthy, and why some diets are healthy and beneficial for you. Students will come away with the ability to judge a weight loss plan and be able to answer with conviction the question, Is this diet healthy?

This product includes:

-"Is This Diet Healthy?" PowerPoint - 77 slides

-Obestiy in the United States PowerPoint - 27 slides

-Portion Distortion PowerPoint - 14 slides

-35 pages of easy step-by-step teacher directions

-"Is This Diet Healthy" Worksheet

-Over 50 diet titles to research

-Healthy Eating Survey and Goal Sheet

Included in both Word and PDF formats

Click here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Is-This-Diet-Healthy-Lesson-Analyze-and-Recognize-Unhealthy-Diets [www.teacherspayteachers.com]

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Here are some links to my other nutrition lessons and activities:

1. NUTRITION UNIT: 3 WEEKS OF DAILY PLANShttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nutrition-Unit-3-Weeks-of-Daily-Plans-190-Slide-PwrPt-Directions-

2. FREE! NUTRITION FORMULAS: HOW MANY CALORIES, FAT, AND SUGAR GRAMS SHOULD YOU HAVE?

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nutrition-Formulas-How-many-caloriesfatsugar-grams-should-you-have

3. FAST FOOD LESSON-HEALTHY VERSUS UNHEALTH POWERPOINT AND POSTER PROJECT

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fast-Foods-Lesson-Healthy-Versus-Unhealthy-PowerPoint-and-Posters

4. EATING FROM ALL THE FOOD GROUPS LESSON: A POWERPOINT AND WORKSHEET

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Eating-from-All-Food-Groups-Lesson-PwrPoint-Worksheet-Own-Pyramid

5. FOOD LABEL SCAVENGER HUNT

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Food-Label-Scavenger-HuntLessonWorksheet-42-Food-Labels-to-Read

6. "The Best Heatlh Curriculum"- A Complete 90-Day Semester of Health Lessons NEW!!!

(If you liked the step-by-step format of this lesson and how it followed the PowerPoint, you'll love this complete curriculum!) Each lesson has step-by-step teacher directions that go along with a daily PowerPoint. It's 772 pages of teacher directions with documents and there are over 1800 total PowerPoint slides!) Check it out at:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Best-Health-Curriculum-A-Complete-Semester-of-Health-Lesson-Plans