Download the Nutritional Information for School Lunch Program Foods PDF.

In this quick opening, you will be introduced to the concept of calories and nutritional content. You will work in groups to design a single meal to be served for lunch in their school for the foreseeable future. Your challenge is to design a nutritious lunch that appeals to the entire student body. But will your “Best Lunch Ever” have an appropriate number of calories?

Do you have a favorite lunch served at school? Why is it your favorite?

What if you had to eat your favorite school lunch every day for the rest of your life? In this activity, you are going to imagine that the world has experienced an agricultural crisis that has limited our food production. As a result, the US Department of Agriculture is looking for recommendations for a new school lunch plan that will serve the same lunch to high school students across the country every day for the foreseeable future. 

Get into your small groups and take no more than 10 minutes to complete the worksheet. The worksheet includes common school lunch foods and their corresponding caloric and nutritional information. This will be the start of your recommendation to the USDA. Your teacher may allow you to access the Internet to do some quick research on the topic. Be prepared to share with the class the total calorie count of your “Best Lunch Ever” by totaling the calories of example foods provided on the worksheet.

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In this video, Dr. Maya Adams and Professor Michael Pollan present the major macronutrients needed for survival: carbohydrates, proteins, and dietary fats. These nutrients give us the components we need to grow, rebuild tissue, and to convert calories into short and long-term energy. While science has been examining the human diet and macronutrients since the 1800s, we still have not determined what the “ideal” diet should be. Although today we understand the basic elements of human nutrition, food is actually a highly complex system.

In this video, you will learn about how nutrients give the body energy and the three major categories of nutrients necessary for life: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

Preview

In this video, Dr. Maya Adams and Professor Michael Pollan explain the basic nutrients humans need to survive, and also explain that the study of human nutrition is more complicated than simply understanding these nutrients. Humans require carbohydrates, proteins, and dietary fats to build body tissue, and convert these dietary necessities into energy. If humans have a low-energy output and a high-energy intake then the body stores excess calories in the form of adipose tissue, or body fat.

Key Ideas—Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

1. If we understand what the basic nutrients are needed for human survival, why can’t we determine through scientific experiments what the ideal human diet should be?
2. What type of nutrient is table sugar?
3. What are the component parts of proteins?
4. What is the most energy dense type of macronutrient that we eat?
5. If energy demands are low, how does the body store excess calories, or energy?

Thinking Conceptually

Review the three types of macronutrients our bodies need: carbohydrates, proteins, and dietary fats. Our bodies break these nutrients down into component parts to rebuild cells and tissues, to burn as energy, and to store for long-term energy. Imagine what life would be like if we only ate nutrients in the form of powders or pills. What do you imagine might be gained or lost if we consumed nutrients instead of eating food?

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During certain times of the year, the amount of protein in the wild gorilla’s diet almost doubles, but they aren’t suffering from obesity. Humans in modern society are also overeating, and developing health problems as a result. This study suggests that humans are eating a diet diluted with too many sugars, fats, and starches in order to gain the protein we need, and this is contributing to the current obesity epidemic.

This article explains the observations scientists have made regarding the diet of the mountain gorilla and how studying these gorillas’ diets might shed light on how we can improve our own diets to combat obesity. 

Skimming for Gist

Wild gorillas consume about the same percentage of protein as humans should. Wild gorillas overeat protein during times of the year when they can’t find fruit, but they don’t become overweight. By studying these primate relatives, we can learn more about why humans are suffering from obesity.

Understanding Content

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What percent of a human’s diet should be made of protein, according to the American Heart Association?
2. During most of the year, what do mountain gorillas in Uganda eat?
3. What do mountain gorillas eat when fruit is not available?
4. What substances are “diluting” our diets and causing us to overeat in order to gain the protein we need?

Thinking Conceptually

< />In the article, Dr. Raubenheimer says that humans “are diluting the concentration of protein in the modern diet… But we eat to get the same amount of proteins we needed before, and in so doing, we’re overeating.” Can you think of an example of how our modern day diet is “diluted” with sugar, starch, or fat content? Considering some of the ways we manipulate our food to taste better, how can your body be fooled into thinking that it is getting more protein than it really is?

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Most Western cultures consider eating insects taboo. But throughout history, and in many cultures around the world today, humans have eaten insects as a source of protein. Insects provide more than three times as much protein as beef by weight, and contain a healthy source of unsaturated fat. Rather than fighting off insects, we could be maximizing resources and reducing chemical use by harvesting insects for our food supply.

Most Americans and Europeans are squeamish about the idea of eating insects, even though they are a great source of protein and more economical than raising farm animals for meat. This article presents scientific, historical, and ecological arguments for putting insects on the menu.

Skimming for Gist

This article explains that insects have been on the menu for humans for a long time, and they still are for many people today. Insects are a good source of nutrition, but cultural taboos prevent many people from incorporating bugs into their diet.

Understanding Content

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What are some insects that humans have eaten or still eat today?
2. Why don’t Westerners eat insects?
3. What are some of the nutritional advantages of eating insects compared to beef?
4. What are some of the agricultural and economic advantages of harvesting insects instead of beef?

Thinking Conceptually

Would you ever try an insect burger? What do you think it would take to put insects on the menus of popular restaurants in Western societies? Do you think giving people historical and scientific reasons to eat insects would be enough to change what they want to eat?

Download the Nutritional Information for School Lunch Program Foods PDF.

In this activity, you will compare sample diets of a hunter-gatherer and an early farmer. See if you notice anything about the variety of food sources available to hunter-gatherers as compared to early farmers, and also compare where these groups found their high-energy food sources. You will also analyze the food they typically eat during the day for calorie content.

Your teacher will break the class into small groups to look at the Nutrition Hunt Worksheet. You will compare the sample diets of hunter-gatherers and early farmers, and then compare these diets with what you eat throughout a typical day.

Review the types of foods eaten by hunter-gatherers and early farmers. Discuss your observations with the members of your group.

After your discussion, complete the Nutrition Hunt Worksheet with a list of foods you ate yesterday. To find the caloric amount for each food, use the Nutritional Information for School Lunch Program Foods PDF, or do some quick Internet research if you have access.

Answer the following questions and be prepared to share your group’s answers with the class:

• As we look at the diets of a hunter-gatherer, an early farmer, and your diet today, are there any trends that you notice?
• Does anything surprise you about the diet of a hunter-gatherer? An early farmer? How do they compare with each other?
• What kinds of foods are we getting most of our calories from today?

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In this video, Michael Aranda explains that there is a lack of scientific information behind the claims of the Paleo Diet fad. We aren’t able to copy the diet of Paleolithic humans because there is no single diet that early humans had, and the food available to us today is very different from what would have been available then. Science does support reducing sugar, salt, and fat intake, which is too prevalent in most modern day diets. The idea of going back in time to eat the food of our ancestors doesn’t take into account some of our recent adaptations, including mutations that allow adult humans to digest cow milk and to derive more nutrients from starch.

In this video, you will learn that there is a lack of scientific data to support the claims of the Paleo Diet fad. It isn’t possible for us to eat like Paleolithic humans because of the tremendous range of food sources hunter-gatherers ate. As the majority of those Paleolithic food sources are no longer available today, our bodies have adapted in order to derive nutrients from sources that weren’t available to early humans.

Preview

In this SciShow video, Michael Aranda highlights some of the scientific gaps in the popular Paleo Diet, which suggests that modern humans would be healthier if we ate the food that Paleolithic humans ate. One of the problems with this claim is that we simply don’t know what early humans ate. Best guesses of a Paleolithic human’s diet, based on modern hunter-gatherer people, include a very wide range of diet and nutrition content. In other words, there was no “one diet” that Paleolithic people ate. 

Key Ideas—Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

1. What is the main idea behind the Paleo Diet?
2. Can we determine what Paleolithic humans ate based on what modern hunter-gatherers eat?
3. Even if we picked one early culture to try to eat like, why can’t we eat the same foods that early humans ate?
4. What is an example of how our bodies have changed to keep up with changes in our modern diet?

Thinking Conceptually

The Paleo Diet claims that we would be healthier if we ate like early humans ate, but both our bodies and our food supply have changed too much to eat just like Paleolithic humans. What kinds of changes can you imagine happening to our modern food supply in the future? Do you think our bodies could adapt to keep up with those changes?

Download the Nutritional Information for School Lunch Program Foods PDF.

Make sure you have your completed Best Lunch Ever (Part 1) Worksheet handy for reference.

In this activity, you will revisit your meal plans for the lunch you would want to eat every day. You will incorporate some of what you’ve learned throughout the lesson about the variety of energy sources your body needs to grow and thrive. You will incorporate your understanding of caloric intake, as well as what nutrients the body needs in order to sustain itself.

You are going to revise and finalize your ideas about a single meal that could be served every day at your school.

There are some new constraints to your presentation. Your “best lunch ever” needs to contain between 750 and 850 calories, which is the USDA’s recommended range for a high school lunch. In addition, you should be prepared to explain where sources of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins can be found in the meal you’ve designed.

In your small groups, refer back to the Nutritional Information for School Lunch Program Foods PDF and the Internet, if you have access, in order to find the nutritional content for your chosen lunch.

As part of your final presentation, be prepared to provide the following information:

• Your Best Lunch Ever menu, including specific foods and ingredients
• Total calorie count for the lunch, which must be between 750 and 850 calories
• Sources of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in the meal