Eating healthy can be a challenge, especially for people with special dietary needs. After learning about standard nutritional needs for adults, learners take on the role of a dietician and work together to create a menu for one of the following unique nutritional needs:

• High blood pressure
• Vegetarian
• Pregnancy
• Lactose intolerance
• Type 2 diabetes
• High performance athletes
• Astronauts

By examining the special dietary restrictions for their assigned person, groups determine how to ensure a balanced menu while taking into account the unique issues facing their assigned nutritional specialty. Additionally, each child keeps a food diary to get in touch with his/her own caloric intake. To see what the instructional activity might look like, watch the video included in the Additional Materials section.

Additional Tags

science

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Pros

• Helps learners be more understanding of people with dietary restrictions
• Real-world applications
• Fun and engaging activity

Cons

• Food log is not recommended for anyone with an eating disorder

Common Core

RST.6-8.3 RST.9-10.3 RST.11-12.3