Canada’s Health Minister wants everyone to remember two simple numbers: “five” and “15.”
You’ll hear a lot about five and 15 in the coming months. They’ll be in ads, on websites, on posters in the grocery store and on foods themselves.
What does five and 15 mean? It has to do with how nutritious food is. Five means “a little” and 15 means “a lot.”
When you look at the list of “Nutrition Facts” printed on food items in the grocery store, you’ll see that each nutrient is given a percentage. It tells you how much of that nutrient is in a product, compared to how much you should have of that nutrient for the entire day.
For instance, if it says a product contains 4% Fat, it means it contains four per cent of the fat you should have in a whole day.
According to the new five and 15 rules, if a nutrient is five per cent or under, the food contains “a little.” If it’s 15 per cent or more, the food contains “a lot.”
So if you want more fibre in your diet, look for foods containing more than 15 per cent of the daily allowance of fibre.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to cut down on sodium, look for foods that have less than five per cent of the daily allowance of sodium.
The new guidelines will help consumers better understand how the foods they buy can affect their health. A new ad campaign about “five and 15” will begin in December.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Do you think the new ad campaign will be effective and help people eat better? Why do you think so? Where should these advertisements be shown in order to be as effective as possible?
Reading Prompt
“What questions do you ask yourself to make sure you understand what you are reading?”
“How do you know if you are on the right track?” “When you come to a word or phrase you don’t understand, how do you solve it?” “How do you figure out what information is important to remember?” “What do you do when you get confused during reading?”
Primary
Identify, initially with some support and direction, what strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading and how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).
Junior
Identify the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading and explain, in conversation with the teacher and/or peers, or in a reader’s notebook, how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).
Grammar Feature: Number Words
Number words. When writing, how do you know when to write the word for a number or the digits? The rule that most writers follow is: numbers less than 10 are written as words and numbers 10 or over are written as digits.
“What does five and 15 mean?”
“… four per cent of the fat you should have in a whole day.”
