Biology Assignment

I.

1. Compare 3 food labels or nutritional information of a breakfast food such as bread, cereal or granola bars. Please try your best to get labels of the food found in a grocery store or at home. You may take a photo of a food label (with a phone etc.) instead of buying the product if you don't wish to.

2. Look at the 3 food labels and notice the differences in areas such as nutrients, packaging, price, quantity and ingredients.

3. After analysis of the labels, produce an easy to read comparative chart for the products. It cannot be hand written.

4. Be sure to choose a uniform serving size and convert the calculations accordingly - i.e. let's say you choose 1 cup of cereal as your uniform serving size, but some of the labels serving sizes could be ¾ cup or ½ cup. You will need to double all of the nutrition info for the ½ cup serving size cereal.

5. For each product, list:

1. Serving Size (all must be converted to the same)
2. Calories
3. Total Fat
4. Saturated Fat
5. Sodium
6. Total Carbohydrate
7. Total Sugar
8. Dietary Fiber
9. Protein

10. Price per ounce of product or other practical equal amount so that they are equal for comparison

11. Any other information you deem important for comparison or interesting observations that may deter or encourage someone to buy the product - i.e. taste, claims/advertisements, calcium etc.

12. Vitamins and Minerals

II. Attach a separate sheet of paper answering the following questions concerning your products. Please make sure to refer to EACH of the 3 brands in every answer:

1. How many grams of fat are in each of the chosen items? What is the percentage of calories coming from fat for each brand? Ex. Is it < 25% of total calories? (show your work). Comment on the comparison of fat percentage.

2. How many grams of sugar are in each these products? AND how many grams of fiber? Approximately how many teaspoons of sugar does each brand use? Is this a "natural" or "added" sugar? (HINT there are 4 grams sugar / teaspoon). If no sugar or fiber is in one or more of the brand's products, write a few sentences commenting on why, or what ingredient you think could have been used as a substitute.

3. How many milligrams of sodium are in each of these products? This of the brands produces a food product that could be consumed if someone were on a restricted sodium diet (ie? < 2300 mg/day)?

4. Explain in a short paragraph the differences between these brands of the same product. Comment on significant differences in nutrients, vitamins and/or mineral content and ingredients.

5. Which of the brands provides the most economical choice? Is it necessarily the healthiest choice? Explain your answer.

6. Which brand would you purchase and why?