Questions for students, requiring them to find the answers from the appropriate booklet(s) listed on page 11:
• How many servings per day of each food group are recommended for a nutritionally balanced diet for a person your age?
• What other information do the guidelines give about the more healthy options within these food groups?
• What do the guidelines say about snack foods?

Abbreviated answer for teacher information	For older children and teenagers the recommended servings per day are….. (remember that a serving size is what fits into a cupped hand, which accounts for ther different body size of children and teenagers)
vegetables and fruit	at least 3 vegetable and 2 fruit servings
breads and cereals — especially whole grain	- at least 6 servings
(low fat versions of) milk and milk products (as the major source of calcium)	2-3 servings
lean meats, chicken, seafood, eggs, dried beans, peas and lentils (as the major source of protein and iron)	1-2 servings (note that the video Shop for YourLife recommends that a meat serving should be the size of the palm of the hand)
	These serving sizes have been worked out in consideration of the nutritional and energy content of the food. With these serving sizes, a young person would be getting enough minerals like calcium and iron, and a range of vitamins in their daily diet.

Intended Learning Outcome
Students will access information to make safe food choices about food and nutrition, particularly as it relates to the fat and sugar content of food (achievement objective link
4A3

Links to Key Competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum - Thinking and Using language, symbols and text
By developing the skills needed to read and understand food labels, students will learn how to make safe food choices about food and nutrition.
Task 1: Introductory discussion for the whole class
Indicate to the class that one purpose of this activity is to be able to answer the questions 'why do we all need to learn how to read food labels?' and 'how do we make sense of food labels?"
After viewing the video Shop for Your Life, pose the following questions:
Why would the following people need to know how to read labels on food packaging?
• A person who lives with type 2 diabetes;
• A person who has particular personal, cultural or religious beliefs related to food:
• A person who has food allergies (such as an allergy to peanuts, or gluten, or shellfish);
• A woman who is pregnant;
• A child or teenager whose bones are still growing;
• A person who has a high energy lifestyle or job.

Summarise the discussion with this question:
• If people’s well-being is (in part) achieved through making lifestyle choices like healthy eating, why do you think it is important that we all learn how to read food labels, regardless of our life circumstances?
Pose the question what is ‘healthy’ eating?’ and ask the students what knowledge do we need so that we are able to make healthy food choices?’ Accept and validate a range of responses. Focus students on the purpose for this task - the need to:
• have knowledge to understand what the food labels say;
• be able to ‘interpret’ this food label information in relation to the recommended and age-appropriate guidelines for nutrition.
Task 2: Understanding the Ministry of Health’s recommended guidelines for healthy eating

Ministry of Health booklets on the recommended guidelines for healthy eating: Access these resources directly through the Ministry of Health website, or contact your local Public Health Promotion office for print versions of these booklets. Recommendation: Ask the person in charge of IT at your school to download these documents to the school intranet so that students can view them on the computer. They are full colour PDF files of the print version of the following booklets. Eating for Healthy Children aged 2 to 12/Te Kai Totika mo te Hunga Kohungahunga http://www.healthed.govt.nz/uploads/docs!HE1302.pdf Eating for Healthy Teenagers: A Teenager’s Guide to Healthy Eating http://www.healthed.govt.nz/uploads/docs/HE12300.pdf Eating for Healthy Vegetarians/Te Kai Totika ma te Hunga Pukuwhenua http:llwww.healthed.govt.nz/uploads/docs/21 1 1.pdf