Nutrition for High Schoolers

A nine week course covering nutrition in an entertaining, engaging way.  There will be plenty of videos, online games, and discussion about key topics in nutrition.  

What would happen if you drank only sodas for 16 years?  What about if you ate only McDonalds food for a month?  Are vegetarians healthier than the rest of us?  What is the Paleo diet and should we really eat like cavemen?  What happens to food once after you chew it?  Is there such thing as a healthy fast food meal? Why does Michael Phelps eat 8,000 calories a day?  What is a calorie? What would happen if you never ate vegetables?  

Class 1:Carbohydrates, Fats, Protein, Fiber.  We will discuss  simple vs complex carbohydrates, the types of fats, proteins, and fiber.  The majority of the class will be spent looking at junk food and fast food and guessing how much fat is hiding in them.

Class :2  Reading Food Labels, Sugar in Drinks, Snacks.  We will look at the crazy amounts of sugar hiding in drinks and snacks as well as figure out how much sugar you are supposed to have in a day.

Class 3: Serving size/Portion Size, Dietary Guidelines  We will discuss appropriate serving sizes, US dietary guidelines, The Food Pyramid and My Plate guidelines.  How do we figure out how much is the right amount to eat?

Class 4 :  Weight Management and Metabolism. We will discus energy in/energy out formulas.  Are all calories equal?  Why are obesity rates in the US skyrocketing?  Is this just a US problem?  What are the health consequences of obesity?

Class 5: How to make healthy food choices.  Students will play a 'This or That?' game in which they have to choose which food is healthier and why.  We will look at calories, fat, saturated vs unsaturated fat, sugar and sodium when evaluating foods.  Popular snack foods, ice creams, crackers, frozen meals and drinks will be examined.

Class 6: Plant Based eating- is it healthy, why do people go vegetarian or vegan?  Where do they get their protein?  Are their any risks?  What do they eat in a day?

Class 7: Paleo, Keto and Fad Diets.  How to recognize a fad diet, what are the benefits and dangers of various popular diets

Class 8: GMO's and Organic Foods- what is a GMO- is it dangerous?  Why do people eat organic?

Class 9: The final class is a fun jeopardy style, quiz show game on all the topics the students have learned about.  It is not competitive and just a fun way to reinforce the healthy eating skills they now know.

The content of the class can be adjusted based on the age of enrolled students and their abilities. I'm flexible about age- if you have an interested 12 yo, that's fine.  Please let me know if your child has learning differences.    If you need a more substantive class to meet a high school level health requirement, including written assignments and a grade, please take a look at my offering- The Hows and Whys of Health Eating/Semester Long Class.  This course is more casual with no out of class assignments and no homework.  I will suggest videos if students are interested in learning more about a topic we discuss but they are not required for this course.  

I am flexible on date and time of this course also. If listing doesn't work for you, feel free to contact me and I can add another section at a more desirable time. 

The flex version of this course is no longer available.  If you are interested in a flex version or prerecorded lessons, please contact me at npritikin@gmail.com