Food and Agriculture Education Lesson Plan Training Series: Sugar Crisis Themed Course

At first glance at the course title "Sugar Crisis," everyone can easily guess that the core theme of this class is "sugar," but how to proceed so that the participants, and the audiences who will later receive these lesson plans, can recognize sugar, understand sugar, and further develop the ability to distinguish sugars -- that is the focus of our learning this time.

At the very beginning of the class, Teacher Weilin shared her own experience with us. Because of some health issues, she began to pay attention to her sugar intake, to the labels on the back of products, and also began to quiet down and listen to her body's signals. She discovered that sugar is "everywhere," and far more complex than we had imagined. So we returned to the original question of "why do people love sweet things," then discussed what role sugar plays now, and what consequences it causes for the human body and the environment, and in the face of the "Sugar Crisis," what can we do.

◎Post-class Summary Discussion

At the end of the class, we deepened our discussion of the issue of artificial fructose: "When artificial fructose is as addictive as tobacco and alcohol, should it be regulated? How should it be regulated?"

Although artificial fructose does not have the immediate effects of tobacco and alcohol (as proven by disease research) or the effects on others (the smell of smoke, drunk driving), and is more like a matter of personal choice, so it seems hard to find grounds for regulation, the participants unanimously agreed that regulation should be carried out, in the form of government regulations, health education, and individual consumers' self-regulation. The most direct approach would be for the government to regulate the proportion of this artificial fructose that manufacturers may use (setting an upper limit standard), with infant and young child foods not allowed to contain it; and if a manufacturer does use it, it should be clearly labeled, similar to our country's current regulations on genetically modified crops, and through health education and family education (parent-teacher meetings, parent cooking classes, etc.) to spread the word, so that the broad public can understand the "Sugar Crisis" and have the power to make their own choices.

In the face of the Sugar Crisis, we must start with ourselves. We hope that future participants can share this important concept and knowledge with more families, and also gradually restore everyone's sense of taste, because "every bite of food you eat changes the world (Michael Pollan)."