Healthier Snack Promotion

Cathy Fitzgerald, MS, RD, and the MFit nutrition staff at the University of Michigan Health System would like to share some activity ideas that they have done with small groups of up to 30 people.

Choosing Healthier SnacksThis activity focuses on making healthier choices when there aren't really healthful foods around, such as fresh fruit, vegetables or whole grains.1. Pass out various snack choices from convenience stores and vending machines.2. Teach the participants how to read the nutrition label for calories, total fat and saturated fat adjusting for how many servings are in the package.3. Recommend choosing snacks with fewer than 5 grams of total fat and less than 1 gram of saturated fat per serving.4. Then, the participants read the labels sharing the information with the group.For both activities, it helps to give the participants general daily guidelines for total calories, total fat and saturated fat so they have a reference from which to start.