Indoctrination Part II

My food props for the Super Size Me lesson... Part of my little intro/pre-assessment was giving the kids three foods (peanuts/peanut butter/peanut butter cups or corn on the cob/popcorn/Doritos) and having them put them in order from least to most processed. I am proud to say that I had to go out and buy all of the examples of the super-processed food since we didn't have any on hand... Less proud to say that the Doritos aren't in the picture because I let the kids eat them.  They are so much quieter when they are stuffing themselves with high fructose corn syrup...

I also had the students take an anonymous survey on their eating habits and activity levels. After they finished, I collected the surveys, redistributed them, and had the students mark the responses on chart paper on the walls. I was pleasantly surprised by their answers to many of the questions. The vast majority know how to cook, eat a home-cooked meal with their families three to five times a week, and eat fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.

I realize that this may look like my students are serious booze hounds, but they were supposed to indicate how many sugary, non-water or milk drinks they have a day.

Despite the fact that every single kid said that fast food was very unhealthy...

most of them eat it once a week or more with McDonald's and Jack in the Box battling it out for their fast food eatery of choice.

After the survey, they calculated their BMIs, figured out their caloric needs, and took an online quiz on "portion distortion" where they had to guess the number of calories in the average muffin, Starbucks drink, bagel, etc. I also showed them a couple of clips from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution in the hopes that they might get fired up about the disgusting food they are served at school. Plus, I wanted to gross them out with the clip where Jamie shows us where chicken nuggets come from. It is alarming at best.

They returned from lunch bragging about the healthy choices they had made, fluorescent orange fingers, however, told a different story... After lunch we watched Super Size Me, and they were appropriately horrified.  I am hoping that the graphic images of Morgan Spurlock throwing up his Big Mac, the footage of the gastric bypass surgery, plus the truly alarming bonus footage of the french fries that seem to be preserved in formaldehyde will be enough to keep them away from the Golden Arches at least until Monday....