Unit 04 · Building a Healthy Diet
A healthy diet is something you can reason about from evidence rather than follow on faith. This unit covers reading a nutrition label — serving size, % daily value, and added sugar — making sense of an ingredient list, and planning balanced meals using a plate or guideline model instead of a fad diet. It also takes apart the popular idea that a “detox” cleanse rids the body of toxins, when the liver and kidneys already do that job. Mastery means you can plan a real meal and defend it with data, not marketing.
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Label literacy (serving size, % daily value, added sugar) | Reads a nutrition label as a single number and misses serving size entirely. | Finds the numbers on the label but cannot say what serving size or % daily value means. | Reads a nutrition label fluently — scaling by serving size, interpreting % daily value, and spotting added sugar. |
| Reading an ingredient list | Ignores the ingredient list or thinks a long list always means “bad.” | Reads the list but cannot use the order to judge what a food mostly is. | Reads an ingredient list critically, using the order-by-weight rule to tell what a food is mostly made of. |
| Evidence-based meal planning | Plans meals by copying a fad diet rather than any evidence. | Uses a plate model loosely but cannot justify the balance with evidence. | Plans balanced meals with a plate or guideline model and defends the choices with evidence — not a calorie-cutting diet. |
| Debunking “detox” | Accepts that a “detox” cleanse rids the body of toxins. | Doubts detox claims but cannot explain what actually clears toxins. | Explains that the liver and kidneys already remove toxins, and shows why “detox” cleanses are a marketing myth. |
| Anchor lab (meal-planning & label-analysis project) | Skips the project or plans meals without reading a single label. | Completes the project but cannot back the plan with label data. | Completes the meal-planning & label-analysis project, reading real labels and defending an evidence-based plan. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts; makes no cross-domain connection. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend why it matters. | Connects the unit across History · Reading · Writing — including the James Lind scurvy trial as the root of evidence-based health — and defends why the connection matters. |
“The label says one serving is a third of the bag, so I scaled the numbers up to what I’d actually eat — that’s where most of the added sugar was hiding. And a ‘detox’ tea can’t clean me out; my liver and kidneys already do that. I planned the meal off a plate model I can defend.”
“The label says it’s got some sugar, I guess. Detox teas clean out the bad stuff. I’d just pick the diet everyone online is doing.”
You demonstrate this unit through the meal-planning & label-analysis project, reading real nutrition labels and defending an evidence-based plan aloud — not a multiple-choice test. A criterion counts as mastered only when your plan is backed by label data and you can justify the health science behind it. Mastery is demonstrated, not awarded.
A 5-page clipboard packet — unit overview, key terms, the mastery rubric, anchor examples, and a score sheet you can print and grade against.