Help students learn about healthy eating through a balanced diet of daily journal

prompts!

1. Why do we need to have balanced diets?

2. How will eating healthily now affect your body in the future?

3. What do you think of when you think about healthy foods?

4. How will you celebrate Good Nutrition Month?

5. Is there anything about nutrition that you would like to learn more about?

6. How could you eat more healthily?

7. Why do our bodies need nutrition?

8. How can people with little access to food be properly nourished?

9. Do you ever cook with your family?

10. Describe a day of your normal meals.

11. How do you feel after eating a healthy meal?

12. If you could make your own balanced diet, what would it include?

13. What is your favorite healthy food?

14. If you were a fruit, which one would you be?

15. How much water do you drink each day?

16. How do you feel when you think of animals as food?

17. Do you prefer fruit or vegetables? Why?

18. Could you ever be a vegetarian?

19. What is your favorite food group?

20. Is diet and exercise both important? Is one more important than the other?

21. Does your family have any special dietary rules?

22. What are some of your favorite healthy snacks?

23. Do you have a balanced diet?

24. Write a poem about the food groups.

25. What tips for healthy eating would you give to someone interested in changing his
or her diet?

26. When is it okay to have treats?

27. How often do you eat during the day?

28. Record everything you eat for a week. What do you notice about your eating
habits?

29. Are there any foods you eat just because they are healthy?

30. How does nutrition influence wellness?

31. Do you eat until you’re full or until your plate is clear?

32. Should anything in your normal diet change?

33. What do you do when you encounter foods you don’t like?

34. Do you get to choose what you eat, or do your parents determine your meals?

35. What do you think of the food pyramid?

36. How can you encourage your family to honor Good Nutrition Month?

37. If you had to eat fruit or vegetables every day for the rest of your life, which would
you choose?

38. How can you inject more color into your diet?

39. Write a poem about the importance of eating healthily.

40. Why doesn’t junk food grow on trees?

41. Would you rather be a vegetarian or a vegan?

42. What is your favorite meal?

43. How often do you eat meat?

44. How do you feel when you eat too many sweets?

45. How do Americans eat differently than people in other countries?

46. Why is hydration important?

47. Does your family eat meals together?

48. Why are processed foods unhealthy?

49. Do you know of any alternate ways to get nutrients?

 50. Why do you want to eat healthily?

51. What are five ways you could improve your overall diet?

52. What have you learned from Good Nutrition Month?

The 38 most controversial issues in nutrition up for media debate

1. Food misinformation in the media and the lack of disclosure to consumers of what’s
in the nutritional supplement or food or whether what’s on the label is the same as
what’s in the product.

2. The need for more resources, education, and directories on type 2 diabetes
prevention

3. Does the FDA Protect the Public?

4. Can You Blindly Trust Big Business, Food Companies, Prescription and Over-the-
Counter Drug Manufacturers, Vitamin and Nutritional Supplement Firms, and the
Government?

5. What’s the Way the Public Thinks about Nutrition in Different Countries?

6. Can Your Diet be Tailored or Customized to Your Genetic Signature?

7. Is the Mercury in Canned Fish or Farmed Fish Safe to Eat?

8. Are your Amalgam-Silver Fillings Full of Mercury and Affecting Your Health?

9. What Can You Do About Childhood Obesity?

10. Are Nutrition Journalists Taken as Seriously as Licensed Nutrition Healthcare

Professionals?

11. What Kind of Fats and Oils are Healthiest?

12. Does Homogenized Milk Scar the Inside of Arteries? What about Pasteurized milk?

13. Science Versus Nature in Nutrition

14. Is Bottled Water Safe?

15. Fad diets versus nutrition research by scientists.

16. Does a High-Carbohydrate Diet Contribute to the Formation of Cataracts in Women?

17. Taking Control of Health Through Food Choices, Activity, and Exercise

18. Sugar or Sweeteners Added to Foods for Taste

19. Genetically-Engineered Vegetables and Cloned Farm Livestock.

20. Putting in Perspective Scientific Reporting and Risk Communication in Health News
Stories

21. Establishing Scientific Basis to Support Claims for Health

22. Reversals of New Studies Regarding Food Benefits

23. Newspapers Devoting Less Space to In-Depth Nutrition Reporting

24. General Assignment Reporters Having Not Enough Training in Explaining the
Importance and Meaning of Scientific Research in Plain Language

25. Reliance By Media on Experts with No Knowledge of How to Verify or See Flaws in
the Expert’s Explanation

26. Reporting in the Media Differences of Opinion Within Scientific Community

27. Scientists Not Sharing Findings in Different Fields that Affect Nutrition

28. Reporting Functional Foods Providing Health Benefits Beyond Basic Nutrition

29. Food Labeling Issues (missing ingredients from labels such as ‘spices’ meaning
MSG rather than a natural spice such as garlic powder.)

30. Claims of a developing relationship between components in a diet and the risk of
disease, as approved by the FDA and supported by credible scientific evidence.
(How large is the size of the body of research needed in order to confirm health
benefits?)

31. Consumer confidence in the scientific criteria used to document health effects. If the
consumer has no scientific training, what method is used to gain consumer
confidence? Is that method verifiable? By whom?

32. Issues of Mad cow disease, prions transmitted from animals to humans, hog-related
influenzas and pneumonias that people can catch, and avian (bird) flu which is
transmittable to humans handling the birds or poultry. Dog flu is under scientific
study.

33. Soy protein: Does it cause health problems or is it healthy and may reduce risk of
heart disease? Does it help prevent bone loss? Or does it over stimulate the thyroid?
Is soy milk safe to drink or not? What is the ongoing debate about, and what are the
issues and evidence? How much soy should or should not be consumed for what
types of health effects?

34. A food allergy affects six to seven million Americans, according to the IFIC
Foundation Media Guide, chapter nine, page 1. What should be on food labels?

35. Too much added salt to processed, packaged foods and restaurant foods.

36. Too many added sweeteners to processed, packaged foods and restaurant foods.
37. Trans-Fats added to packaged, processed, or prepared and restaurant foods and
the issues regarding the effects on health of eating trans-fats.

38. World Hunger Versus Zero-Risk Food Safety for Longer Life and Improved Health
39. Is sea salt a healthier alternative than table salt?

40. Is fresh the best?

41. Do I have to diet in order to maintain or lose weight?