How to create a healthy food chart for your school project
Have you been assigned to create a chart of healthy foods? It may seem like an easy task, but how do you know what to include? How do you make the chart appealing? What about variations in food groups or acceptable substitutions? There are many factors to consider when creating a chart of healthy foods. The following steps will help you create an informative and eye-catching chart that will impress your teacher!
Decide what type of chart you want to make
There are many different types of charts out there, so it can be hard to decide which one is best for your needs. Charts come in all shapes and sizes, but the most popular ones are: pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, and scatter plots. Pie charts are used when you want to show the proportion of something. Bar graphs are used when you need to show how much of something there is. Line graphs work well if you want to show how something changes over time or space. Scatter plots work well if you want things that might not be related. If you're still having trouble deciding what type of graph to use, just ask yourself what information do I have and what do I want to show?
Choose a theme or focus for your chart
There are many different types of charts, and they all use their own system. The most common one is the bar graph, which has bars of varying heights that show you how much each item weighs or how many it is. The point of these charts is not just to show you what something weighs or how many there are, but also to give you an idea of the range in between. For example, if I have three bars on my chart and one bar is taller than the other two, then you know that its weight or number is higher than the other ones. And because we can see the difference in height between the bars, we know that this bar's weight or number is greater than those smaller bars.
The pie chart can be another way to display data. It has slices (usually circles) with different colors inside them and a percentage next to them that tells us what proportion of the whole this slice represents. If a person had 20% total cholesterol (which means 20% of his/her blood is made up by cholesterol) and 40% HDL (or good) cholesterol, then this pie would be divided into 4 sections: 10% for LDL (bad) cholesterol; 10% for triglycerides; 10% for total fat; and 5% for HDL cholesterol.
Find images to represent each food group
The food groups are divided into three sections. The first section is vegetables and fruits, the second is whole grains, and the third is protein. For vegetables and fruits, you could use images of different types of produce like carrots or apples. Whole grains could include breads, rice or cereal. Protein could include meat, eggs or tofu. You can also use icons that show what each item looks like. Images of foods might be hard to find, but there are many free image sites online. Another option is to take pictures of the items at home!
If you're going with icons instead of images, it may be helpful to have one person research an icon for each food group and then put them all together in a design program. Keep in mind: It will probably take some trial-and-error before you find an icon that best represents the food group's message.
Create a key or legend for your chart
Healthy foods are those that have little or no sugar, fat, or sodium. A few examples of healthy foods include vegetables, fruits, grains (such as whole wheat bread), beans, and dairy products. Unhealthy foods are those with high levels of sugar, fat and sodium such as soda, sugary desserts and snack foods such as chips or cookies.
Include the following on the Healthy Food Chart:
-Name of food
Label each food group on your chart
Add any other information you want to include
Hang up your chart and enjoy!
