Fast food meals are a reality for most kids, at least occasionally, if not more often. When teaching nutrition, you can help influence their choices by explaining how they can make fast food options healthier. According to a recent study, two choices can help ensure kids get the nutrition they need when eating fast food kids' meals. First drinking milk instead of soda, and second, ordering fruit. Using criteria from the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) as a benchmark for appropriate nutrient requirements, researchers assessed kids' meals for 12 fast food restaurants. The only meals that met all NSLP guidelines included milk and fruit. These meals also provided more iron, vitamin A and calcium, and less fat and added sugar than meals that did not meet the guidelines.
Here are some tips to help kids put these findings into action when you teach Arianna's Nutrition Expedition™:
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Teach Activities 2 and 3 — Teach students how milk and fruit help to keep them healthy with Activities 2 and 3 in your kit, 
Decide What Arianna Would Do — Extend these lessons by helping Arianna order different kids' meals. Use it as an opportunity to remind students that the healthy choices would be to order white or flavored milk instead of soda, and to order fruit, such as apple slices, as a side dish with their fast food kids' meals.
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"I love that this curriculum tells me everything to say and do." |
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"I like the Smart Snacking list, which I send home with each student." |
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"I made stick puppets out of the characters and had students write a play to put on for the other classes. The kids loved it!" |
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Source: O'Donnell, SI, et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 88: 1388-95, 2008.