SODIUM CHALLENGE

Due Date: February 11th. ?**THIS IS A REQUIREMENT OF EVERYONE**
If you do not complete this project, you will be missing 10 points.

There are 2 very important reasons for requiring this project.
1. Sodium intake among the US population is much too high. This can have a negative effect on one’s health. I would like for each student to become aware of their total daily sodium intake.
2. To find ways to decrease that sodium consumption (if needed). Three ideas on how to do this.
• Cut the higher sodium foods out of your diet
• Find similar foods or try another brand that has lower levels.
• AID more fruits and vegetables into your diet. These are filling, which may mean that you won’t consume as much of your regular higher sodium diet. Also, the potassium in these foods helps body to rid itself of sodium.

For this project, I would like each of you to track your sodium intake for 2 days. One weekday plus one weekend day would be preferable. Once you are aware of your sodium intake, find ways to reduce levels (if needed). I have included 2 pages for the tracking of your current diet. I have also included 2 pages for the modification of those day’s diets. The pages for your “modified” diet will show a healthier diet, including some of your regular foods plus any new aIDitions and changes made to your diet. YOU DO NOT NEED TO ACTUALLY CONSUME THIS MODIFIED DIET……!
Please submit these 4 pages plus a typed 1 page summary of this challenge. Some ideas for information that you might want to include in this summary are:
• Do hypertension, other forms of cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes run in your family?
• Summarize your current diet and note areas where sodium levels are highest
• Mention any changes that you could make to your diet
• Would you mind replacing or removing these foods?
• Are these changes that you would consider including in your regular diet long term?

Sodium content of foods can be found in many places. Some ideas would include:
• The Nutrition Label on store bought foods
• Fast food websites (i.e. McDonalds.com)
• Other websites: Nutritiondata.self.com, Livestrong.com, etc.
• Google specific foods (i.e. sodium content of an apple….which by the way is approximately 1 mg)
• If you have a Nutrition text book at home, it will have a list of the sodium content of foods
• Phone Apps such as , My Fitness Pal
STAPLE OR PAPERCLIP YOUR PAPERWORK BEFORE YOU GET TO CLASS

CURRENT DIET
WEEK DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings??Total mg’s
Consumed?of Sodium

?
??

?
?TOTAL=

*** to find the total milligrams of sodium in a food, you must multiply the # of milligrams/serving by the # of servings consumed***

MODIFIED DIET

WEEK DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings?Total mg’s of
Consumed?Sodium

??TOTAL=

**to find total milligrams of sodium in a food, you must multiply the # of milligrams/serving by the number of servings consumed**

CURRENT DIET

WEEKEND DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings?Total mg’s of
Consumed??Sodium ?

?

?TOTAL=

MODIFIED DIET

WEEKEND DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings?Total mg’s of
Consumed?Sodiium

?TOTAL=

?

Due Date: February 11th. ?**THIS IS A REQUIREMENT OF EVERYONE**
If you do not complete this project, you will be missing 10 points.

There are 2 very important reasons for requiring this project.
1. Sodium intake among the US population is much too high. This can have a negative effect on one’s health. I would like for each student to become aware of their total daily sodium intake.
2. To find ways to decrease that sodium consumption (if needed). Three ideas on how to do this.
• Cut the higher sodium foods out of your diet
• Find similar foods or try another brand that has lower levels.
• AID more fruits and vegetables into your diet. These are filling, which may mean that you won’t consume as much of your regular higher sodium diet. Also, the potassium in these foods helps body to rid itself of sodium.

For this project, I would like each of you to track your sodium intake for 2 days. One weekday plus one weekend day would be preferable. Once you are aware of your sodium intake, find ways to reduce levels (if needed). I have included 2 pages for the tracking of your current diet. I have also included 2 pages for the modification of those day’s diets. The pages for your “modified” diet will show a healthier diet, including some of your regular foods plus any new aIDitions and changes made to your diet. YOU DO NOT NEED TO ACTUALLY CONSUME THIS MODIFIED DIET……!
Please submit these 4 pages plus a typed 1 page summary of this challenge. Some ideas for information that you might want to include in this summary are:
• Do hypertension, other forms of cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes run in your family?
• Summarize your current diet and note areas where sodium levels are highest
• Mention any changes that you could make to your diet
• Would you mind replacing or removing these foods?
• Are these changes that you would consider including in your regular diet long term?

Sodium content of foods can be found in many places. Some ideas would include:
• The Nutrition Label on store bought foods
• Fast food websites (i.e. McDonalds.com)
• Other websites: Nutritiondata.self.com, Livestrong.com, etc.
• Google specific foods (i.e. sodium content of an apple….which by the way is approximately 1 mg)
• If you have a Nutrition text book at home, it will have a list of the sodium content of foods
• Phone Apps such as , My Fitness Pal
STAPLE OR PAPERCLIP YOUR PAPERWORK BEFORE YOU GET TO CLASS

CURRENT DIET
WEEK DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings??Total mg’s
Consumed?of Sodium

?
??

?
?TOTAL=

*** to find the total milligrams of sodium in a food, you must multiply the # of milligrams/serving by the # of servings consumed***

MODIFIED DIET

WEEK DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings?Total mg’s of
Consumed?Sodium

??TOTAL=

**to find total milligrams of sodium in a food, you must multiply the # of milligrams/serving by the number of servings consumed**

CURRENT DIET

WEEKEND DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings?Total mg’s of
Consumed??Sodium ?

?

?TOTAL=

MODIFIED DIET

WEEKEND DAY

Food/Drink?# of Servings?Total mg’s of
Consumed?Sodiium

?TOTAL=

?