Food Choices

Media Food Search

Rational

Australia's youth are some of the most overweight in the world. This is due to a lack of physical exercise as well as consuming foods which have poor nutritional contents. Learning healthy food habbits is essential at a young age to promote a healthy lifestyle through adolescents and through adulthood. The media plays a large roll in what we consume, especially for children.

Stimulus Material

Magazines

and...

(The Food Pyramid, 2007)

Syllabus Outcomes

5.6 A student analyses attitudes, behaviours and consequences related to health issues affecting young people.

SLA

Socio Cultural influences on food choices

SLT

Investigate factors that influence food choices, eg culture and customs, gender and media.

Skills

Decision Making
Communicating
Planning

Description

- Students are to get into small groups of three
- Each group is given a selection of contemporary magazines
- In their groups, students are to search for and cut out 30 food and/or drink promotional ads.
- Ten should be aimed at kids, ten at adults, and ten at families.
- Students are then to cut out three separate pyramids and divide it into three sections. Eat rarely should be at the top, eat moderately in the middle, and eat always at the bottom.
- Each pyramid needs to be labeled as kids, adults, and families respectively.
- Students then take the ten items they have chosen for kids and place them each in the appropriate section of the pyramid labeled kids.
- Students then repeat this with the remaining two categories.
- Observe the results of every body’s food pyramids by sticking the pyramids around the room.

Follow Up Activity

- Students discuss in the class:
a) Were the results surprising?
b) What does this mean for consumers in all categories?