Nutrient Exploration Project

Lisa Heckert, Family and Consumer Science

The Interactive Healthy Eating Index (IHEI)
http://209.48.219.53/Default.asp
The Interactive Healthy Eating Index is a great site where students enter the foods they have for an entire day, and the site will give a readout. This readout tells how well they have incorporated the food groups, how much nutrition they have received, and what is lacking. It goes from percentages of each nutrient, to smiley and sad faces for each food group, so may be helpful with a variety of age groups. It does take time to enter foods and amounts, but is worth it!

American Society for Nutritional Sciences.
http://www.nutrition.org/
The American Society For Nutritional Sciences is a site where you can read their latest magazine or research from old issues. I have my students research individual nutrients on this site, but be warned the wording may be better suited to college students - be prepared to interpret.

Ohioline - Food
http://ohioline.osu.edu/lines/food.html
Ohioline is from Ohio State University. It has brief articles on a variety of food related topics that I could use for my students to gather info on nutrients, food safety, alcohol & pregnancy, lead poisoning, etc.

Food Nutrients
http://www.daawat.com/resources/feature/nutrition/foodnutrients.htm

Nutrition Analysis Tool v1.1
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~food-lab/nat/mainnat.html

All About What Vitamins and Minerals Do
http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/vitamin.html

The Food Guide Pyramid
http://www.nal.usda.gov:8001/py/pmap.htm
Dietary Guidelines For Americans This site is about the food guide pyramid. It shows the pyramid, explains the categories, gives activities, you can figure out your ideal weight, etc. A good overview, perhaps best used for middle school.

Chef's Palate - Nutrients
http://chefpalate.com/NutritionGuide/FoodNutrients.html

Nutrient Data Laboratory
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/

Using the Food Guide Pyramid
http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/960201.pdf
A Resource For Nutrition Educators This is a government site that gives the handbook for using the food pyramid. It is on Adobe Acrobat, and prints easily. (131 pages)

Fight Bac
http://www.fightbac.org/main.cfm
Fight Bac is a Canadian site about food safety. It has alot of material for all age groups about food safety, including coloring pages and games. Has a print out version of a game for high schoolers.

The rest of these I thought you might like:

Brainpop
http://www.brainpop.com
Brainpop.com is a really neat site! It features videos, games and info on a huge variety of topics. It is very interactive and made for kids, though the info was so good, even adults could learn from it! Items I found to use included articles on health issues, food pyramid game, nutrition video, diabetes video, etc.

How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com
How Stuff Works.com is a great site for looking up just about anything! Things that I specifically found to be used in my class were in on vitamins, minerals, calories, fats, food safety, botulism, etc. There is a great calorie calculator where you enter your weight, height, age, etc. and it tells you how many calories you should have daily.

Teen Health Issues
http://teenhealthissues.org
Teen Health Issues is a site that teens can come to for answers to questions from peer pressure to STD’s to date rape. It send them to other people’s articles, some are government articles, and may be a little dry or over their head.

Kids Health
http://kidshealth.org/
Kids Health is an interesting site which is actually three sites. There is a Parents site, a kids site and a teen site. The first two would be good for a childcare class. I use the Teen Health site. It contains info from Drugs to Nutrition to Sex Ed. It’s another good site when you have free-time to let the kids explore. Also good for researching diseases, nutrition, alcohol, etc. The articles are written for teens, fun graphics. Answers questions they are too embarrassed to ask.

Multicultural Children’s Literature
http://www.multiculturalchildrenslit.com/
This site introduces children’s books with ethnic themes. There are seven cultures and a bibliography for each. There are also sites for elementary teachers and a link to Barnes & Noble to purchase books. I specifically liked the lists of books for each ethnicity for a Childcare class.

So You Wanna
http://www.soyouwanna.com/
So You Wanna.com is the site to go for any odd info you need to find. Info that I thought would be useful in class include: decorate your apartment, set up a living budget, stock your kitchen, table manners, be a vegan, and several wedding related articles.