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Is it so bad to eat only pizza?

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  • Option D - Human physiology Activities for learning/
  • Is it so bad to eat only pizza?

In this activity we are introduced to Josh, a man who eats only pizza. Students look up the nutrients in pizza and compare these to recommended daily amounts to evaluate whether all the essential nutrients can be found in Pizza. If not, which nutrients are missing? What problems might this cause? Students then explore a range of cases of child malnutrition to evaluate some causes of malnutrition and the roles of vitamins and minerals in the diet.

Lesson Description

Guiding Questions

  • Do pizza's contain all the essential nutrients?
  • What are the essential nutrients for a healthy diet?

Activity 1 - Why is it unhealthy to eat just pizza?

Watch the short video about Josh who is trying to change his diet.

  Adult picky eaters - the man who eats just pizza !

Questions

Imagine a day in the life of Josh. What does he eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

.......................................................................................................................................................................

How long has Josh been eating just Pizza?

.......................................................................................................................................................................

Why does Josh want to change what he is eating?

.......................................................................................................................................................................

Why would a doctor say that Josh's Pizza only diet is unhealthy?
Malnutrition can be caused by too little or too much of a nutrient.
What is it missing, what is too much?

......................................................................................................................................................................

Activity 2 - Nutrient analysis of pizza and diet

Imagine that Josh eats 10 slices of pizza's per day. Which nutrients will he be lacking, which will he have too much of?

Look up the nutritional value of pizza using this the pizza nutritional analysis worksheet​ shown below.

Hopefully you eat a more balanced diet than Josh. Test your fruit and vegetable consumption using this online nutrition screener from Nutrition quest

Activity 3 - Micronutrients - Hidden hunger

'Hidden hunger' is when people get enough food, but their food is missing some essential nutrient, like a vitamin or mineral.  Having too much or too little of a nutrient is called malnutrition.

This graphic  Micronutrients infographic from https://www.uea.ac.uk/ shows some of the main causes



 

Questions

1. Which vitamin and which mineral is most lacking in the diets of children in poor countries of the world?

................................................................................................................................................................................

................................................................................................................................................................................

2. What is the effect on the body of a diet with a lack of the following essential nutrients;

  • Vitamin A: ............................................................
  • Iodine ..................................................................
  • Calcium ........................................... ...................

3. Which of the nutrients above are minerals? Explain why.

................................................................................................................................................................................

................................................................................................................................................................................

Click the eye icon for model answers.

Questions - model answers

1. Which vitamin and which mineral is most lacking in the diets of children in the Spin the plate activity?

.............................Vitamin A

.............................Iron...................................................................................................................................

2. What is the effect on the body of a diet with a lack of the following essential nutrients;

  • Vitamin A: ......Vitamin A is important for growth for the immune system and good vision.......
  • Iodine ............Iodine is essential for production of thyroid hormones and for growth an development
  • Iron ................Iron is essential for hemoglobin so a lack of iron causes anaemia........

3. Which of the nutrients above are minerals? Explain why.

.................................. Minerals are chemical elements, therefore iodine and iron are minerals.

Vitamins are chemical compounds

Teacher's notes

Activity 1 is deliberately provocative. Pizza could be quite a good source of nutrients if it is made from whole wheat flour, fresh tomatoes, with a range of meat and vegetables in the topping and not too much cheese. So why is it so bad to eat just Pizza? This raises two questions which are worthy of discussion, (and they are mentioned in the IB guide)

  1. TOK: How can conflicting knowledge claims be balanced? Nutritional advice is very common in the media and often conflicting.
  2. How can we investigate the nutritional value of Pizza further. Skill: Use of databases of nutritional content of foods and software to calculate intakes of essential nutrients.

Of course most fast food pizza is not made from fresh ingredients and often contains high levels of cholesterol, and salt.

Activity 2 is a simplified worksheet activity to look up essential nutrients in pizza only. This covers the main points in the guide but it could be enhanced by adding an analysis of other food.

A vast range of foods and meals can be analysed using this database.

http://www.food-nutrients-calculator.com/

A particularly nice option is the Food Comparator where two foods can be compared side by side.

Food Comparator

  1. Cheese Pizza (standard portion - 140g)
  2. Cream of Vegetable soup (standard portion - 250ml)

Activity 3 looks more broadly at micronutrient difficiency around the world. There is a super Canadian organisation doing great work improving childrens' health in many countries using food suppliments

This video   Scaling up nutrition a short video shows some of the activities undertaken by micronutrient inititative and it's partners around the world.

There are some great posters which could be used in the classroom during this option on the MI Infographic Flickr collection