Learning how to be healthy can start at an early age. Northwest Vista College students from Biology 1322 Nutrition and Diet recently visited children of the Guadalupe Community Center after school program to teach them about nutrition and physical activity.

The NVC students participated in a service learning project this semester that included several components to it, which included their final project yesterday at the Guadalupe Community Center.

The goal was to education children about nutrition in an effort to prevent childhood obesity and the development of chronic diseases linked to nutrition.

NVC Biology Instructor Jo Ann Gonzalez said the NVC students “did a wonderful job and the children loved them.”

The NVC class presented different subjects to the kids, such as:

• Snack Attack group was all about comparing healthy and unhealthy snack options.  Kids were able to make their own snacks from what the team provided.

• KillCalories taught kids how to read the Nutrition Facts panel of a food label and compare serving sizes and calories of different products. As a demo, kids served themselves cereal and then were shown how that compared to what the actual serving size is. Kids were also able to portion out their own snacks to-go.

• Fitness Fun team was all about physical activity. They educated the kids about the benefits of physical fitness and had them do a relay that involved jumping rope, Hula hoops ,and bubbles.

• The Sugar team educated the kids about sugar and fat in foods and the negative health effects on the body.  Their board showed how much sugar is in a variety of drinks and snacks.

The last NVC team actually cooked for the kids. They cooked and then displayed it on a table and educated the kids about the different foods groups and MyPlate, added Jo Ann. The kids were then able to build their meal which consisted of all the basic food groups.