In this lesson, students pick out a full day's worth of meals from a McDonald's menu with an eye towards the Zone Diet, which specifies percentages of fat, carbohydrates, and protein. The gist of the Zone Diet is that whenever you eat, you should strive to consume 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat. As a result, this diet has also been referred to as the 40‑30‑30 diet.3170 burger fries
Many sources indicate that an average person requires about 2,000 calories per day. That number varies based on several factors, but is used as the target for this lesson. To prepare for the lesson, you might research some details on the Internet. For example, you can find out what various athletes consume in a day. You will find that it's much more than 2,000 calories. There was an urban legend floating around for a while that Michael Phelps (Olympic swimming gold medalist) was consuming 12,000 calories per day. That turned out to be untrue, but it might be interesting to start things off with a classroom discussion regarding how many calories various athletes consume. That could lead into a discussion regarding whether students know how many calories they consume and what proportion of nutrients are contained in the foods they eat.