And what about nutrition?

Before approaching the nutrition unit, I thought it could be a good idea to survey the students in order to find out which are the myths and facts they are familiar with, which are their actual habits and their own perception about their nutritional requirements.
We used Google forms and these were the very interesting results.

GOOD NEWS! MOST OF THE KIDS THINK THEY EAT WHAT THEY NEED.

Not knowing is a very honest answer. How could you know if you get what you need if you´re not sure about what you really need? Adolescents have special nutritional requirements!

   

Yes, so common to see that many adolescents do not breakfast, or don´t do it in the proper amounts and composition. This is a task for the parents: care for your child´s breakfast, it is the most important meal to begin a day and be able to concentrates. Ideally high in proteins, low in carbs!

A hot topic, given that so many adults engage in extreme trendy diets. The soup diet, the no-carb diet, the paleo diet, the detox diets. But it is so simple: just avoid added sugars, fats and DO EXERCISE! Good to see that more than half of our students already know this. Perhaps greater awareness than adults?

Well, let´s talk about diabetes? Did you know how scaringly growing the child diabetes rates are?

The ONLY CORRECT ANSWER HERE would have been "avoid everything except water and natural fruit juices". Natural means natural: you make them yourselves. You don´t believe any marketing label on the tetrapacks! Read ingredients!

Wow, that was such a nice result to see. Seventy seven students surveyed, 87% of them share the meals with their families. Experts unanimously agree on this: sharing meals with family or beloved ones are the BEST protecting factor for eating disorders and nutrition disorders! Please, share you meal with your child (and put the cell phone and netflix away from the table!)

Well, there were many more questions, but in the end it was great to perceive the self-awareness of our students about their eating habits. They know they are ok, but there are many things they could do better and avoid. Like candies. Or excessive soda drinks.



Let´s hope this exercise and the information that was provided in the following lessons, makes some change for better!