Download Hands-On Activity: Measuring the Sugar in Beverages In this activity

Hands-On Activity: Measuring the Sugar in Beverages
In this activity, you will learn how to look for information on the amount of calories and sugar a
food contains. After completion of the activity, you hopefully will have gained an appreciation of
how many calories and how much sugar is in some of the beverages you may consume.
Materials:
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Ziploc bags
Sugar
teaspoon measure
Gram scale (optional)
Wide variety of sweetened beverages (feel free to use as many or as few for this activity
as you would like) including:
o Can of regular soda
o 20 fl oz bottle of regular soda
o Big gulp or other large container of soda
o 20 fl oz bottle of diet soda
o Coffee drink with added sugar and cream
o Frappuccino type beverages can be purchased in bottles at most grocery and
convenience stores
o Container of juice (hint: grape juice has one of the highest sugar contents of all
juices)
o Energy drink
o Lemonade or iced tea drink
o Gatorade
o Sweetened milk beverage such as Nesquik or Ovaltine
o Bottle of water
Procedure:
1. Without looking at the Nutrition Facts label on any of the beverages, predict which drinks
have the most and least sugar. You may want to rank the beverages from most to least
amount of sugar. Put your predictions aside until the end of the activity.
2. Determine the number of teaspoons (tsp) of sugar in each beverage by following these
steps:
o Find the amount of total carbohydrate on the Nutrition Facts label. Determine the
number of servings in 1 container of the product. Multiply the number of grams of
total carbohydrate times the number of servings in each container to get the total
amount of carbohydrate per container. Record this number for each beverage.
o
Determine the number of tsp of sugar in each beverage container. There are 4.2
grams of sugar in 1 tsp. Divide the grams of total carbohydrate calculated for each
beverage in the step above by 4.2. Record the amount of sugar for each beverage.
o Measure out the amount of sugar in each beverage. If you have a gram scale, you
can weigh out precisely the number of grams of sugar (same as the grams of
carbohydrate for most products), and place the sugar in separate ziploc bags. If
you do not have a scale that is capable of measuring gram weights, use the answer
you received from the calculation in the step above to measure out the number of
teaspoons of sugar in each beverage with a household tsp measure and place in
separate ziploc bags. Label each bag with the number of grams and/or teaspoons
of sugar that it contains.
3. Place each bag of sugar next to its corresponding beverage container. Are you suprised
by how much sugar is in each drink?
Compare your results to your predictions from the start of the activity. How accurate were your
expectations about how much sugar is in each beverage? Does actually seeing how much sugar is
in some of these beverages make you more or less likely to drink them regularly?
NOTE: You can modify this activity to use in your classroom, either as a demonstration or as an
activity for the students. Do the preparation as described above, and then have the students look
at each container and try to match which bag of sugar they believe goes with each beverage
container.
Additional Considerations:
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Diet beverages typically have zero calories per serving
There are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate, so these beverages are contributing
additional calories to their diet. Many of the beverages contain little or no nutrients and
can contribute to weight gain if consumed in large amounts.
Beverages such as lemonade and sports drinks usually have less sugar when compared to
the same quantity of regular soda.
Larger amounts of the same sweetened beverage have more calories, so if you want to
consume a sweetened beverage such as a soda, select a smaller container.
Even though juices contain some nutrients, they also contain a lot of sugar too. Juices
(even 100% juices) consumed in large amounts can contribute just as many calories to
your diet as other sweetened beverages, and can also lead to weight gain.
Sweetened beverages like soda typically contain little or no nutrients. The calories that
you consume when you drink sweetened beverages displace calories that you could be
getting from other beneficial foods that do contribute nutrients to the diet such as milk,
fruits, vegetables, meats, and whole grains.
Background Information:
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) surveys (1976–
1980 and 2003–2006) show that the prevalence of obesity has increased: for children aged 2–5
years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 12.4%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence
increased from 6.5% to 17.0%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0%
to 17.6%.
Obese children and adolescents are more likely to become obese as adults. For example, one
study found that approximately 80% of children who were overweight at aged 10–15 years were
obese adults at age 25 years. Another study found that 25% of obese adults were overweight as
children. The latter study also found that if overweight begins before 8 years of age, obesity in
adulthood is likely to be more severe.
Evidence is limited on specific foods or dietary patterns that contribute to excessive energy
intake in children and teens. However, large portion sizes for food and beverages, eating meals
away from home, frequent snacking on energy-dense foods and consuming beverages with added
sugars are often hypothesized as contributing to excess energy intake of children and teens.
Added sugars are sugars that are added to foods during processing or preparation or at the table.
In the area of consuming sugar-sweetened drinks, evidence is growing to suggest an association
with weight gain in children and adolescents. Consuming sugar-sweetened drinks may be
associated with weight gain because these drinks are high in calories. Children may not
compensate at meals for the calories they have consumed in sugar-sweetened drinks, although
this may vary by age.
Taken from NSTA.org, Learning Center, SciObject, What is Food?, Carbohydrates