Cost of Junk Food

  • Think of your favorite junk food (this is the fun part!).
    1. Make sure you pick a food that you know is not healthy. This could be something you treat yourself with on occasion, or a food you only eat in your dreams – you choose!
    2. Be specific on the amount of the junk food you will pretend to eat/drink (e.g. 32 fluid ounces of a chocolate milkshake, 1 snickers bar (44 g/ 1.56 oz)
  • Research online for the nutrition facts of that food item to locate the total number of calories which come from that food.
    1. Record the name of the site & the URL where you found the information.

    2. Step 2: Analyze and Evaluate

      1. Think of your favorite way of being physically active (this should be fun too!).
        1. You should select a fun method of exercise (an activity which increases your heart rate) and ideally something that you already or would actually do.
        2. Example: My junk food is 1 slice of chocolate mousse cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. It has 1210 calories. Reference: The Cheesecake Factory Nutritional Guide (PDF) The Cheesecake Factory Nutritional Guide (PDF) – Alternative FormatsThe exercise I selected was rock climbing. According to Cronometer, for me this burns 225 kcal per 30 minutes. Obviously, I need to spend more than 30 minutes rock climbing to burn off all the cheesecake!
          Therefore, if I ate 1 slice of chocolate mousse cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory I would have to spend 161 minutes or 2 hours and 41 minutes rock climbing to burn off the calories from the food.

          Step 3: Analyze & Explain

          1. Write a 100-200 word paragraph that includes the following
            1. A description of the process you followed to determine the number of minutes you would need to exercise. (The example above is a description of a process.)
            2. Identify the source of the calorie information (name of website and URL).
            3. A clear statement of the number of minutes of your exercise you would need to burn off the junk food you selected.
            4. An explanation of what you learned in this activity and/or how it will affect your junk food choices in the future.
            5. Write your paragraph on a Word document. Save the document to your computer as a back-up copy.