Nutrition/Health: Hidden Sugar Assignment

Pat Aitken

    Your students should be aware that sugar comes in many forms and that there's hidden sugar in many food products. 
    The major culprits are pre-packaged foods. Many students would never realize these products contain sugar at all, even if they looked at the label.  That's because sugar exists under many names:

 

  •     GLUCOSE - blood sugar
  •     SUCROSE - table sugar
  •     FRUCTOSE - fruit sugar
  •     DEXTROSE - fruit sugar
  •     LACTOSE - milk sugar
  •     MALTOSE - starch sugar
  •     GALACTOSE - milk sugar


    Our bodies do need sugar, but the most efficient forms are from the carbohydrates found naturally in fruits, vegetables and grains, because they also provide essential vitamins and minerals. Refined sugar provides energy only.

Identify the Sugar Exercise
To help your students see hidden sugars in their foods, ask them to examine the labels on ten prepared food products in their homes (soups, cake mixes, cereals, salad dressings, etc.) and record the sugars they find. Click here to download a chart to help them in this exercise.

//www.physicaleducationupdate.com/public/hidden_sugar_assignment_form.pdf

References
1. Patricia Rizzo Toner, Diet and Nutrition Activities, The Center for Applied Research in Education, 1993.
2. Carol Ann Rinzler, Nutrition for Dummies, 5th Edition, For Dummies, 2011.



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