Food for Thought II

By Olivia

Yum, food!!! GIVE ME FOOD!!! On 26th of March Marewa a nutritionist from Food For Thought came to tell us about what we should eat, what we shouldn't eat, what the food pyramid is, how much sugar drinks have in them and how to read food labels. Then on the 27th of March we went to the super market and find out how much energy,  total fat, sugar, dietary fibre, sodium and (for the dairy products) calcium, different foods really have.

There are three groups on the food pyramid food we should 'eat most', food we should only 'eat sometimes' and food we should 'eat least'. In the food we eat most there are two parts, the fruits and vegetables and breads and cereals. Fruits and vegetables can be fresh, frozen, dried, canned or juiced and you should have 5+ a day. Breads and cereals include rice, pasta, crackers, popcorn (but it has to be plain), bread and toast. You should have 6 servings a day of breads and cereals. In the food we 'eat sometimes' group there were also two parts, meat and alternatives, and milk and dairy products. You should have 1 to 2 servings a day from this group. The milk and dairy products has yoghurt, milk, cheese and vanilla ice cream but it has to be vanilla ice cream. In the food we eat least group there are lollies, ice cream, chocolate and muffins.

Marewa brought nine drinks. There was coke, V, e2, powerade, lemon lime and bitters, chocolate milk, juice, milk and water. We had to guess how much sugar each one had in them. The one that had the most was lemon lime and bitters. V drink was next, then coke, juice, e2, chocolate milk, powerade, milk and water doesn't have any sugar in it.


We had to learn how to read the nutrition labels on the back of food packets. The nutrition label tells you how much energy, total fat, sugar, dietary fibre, sodium and (for the dairy products) calcium the food has. Energy has to be the lowest amount, sugar should be less than 10 grams,  total  fat should be less than 10 grams, fibre should be more than 76 grams and sodium should be less than 400 milligrams.


When we went to the supermarket we had a sheet of paper to write down the nutrition in each food from the labels. We had a group of 4 or 5 childern and then we had to go around the super market and fill in the sheet of paper. 


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