Sugar, Sugar, Sugar - Recap From Haines High Health Class

This Wednesday morning, I had the privilege to guest speak at Mrs. Hutton's health class in the Haines High School. Prior to my talk, Mrs. Hutton had taught them about the 6 nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, water), major digestive system organs (pancreas, liver, gall bladder), and the importance of fiber.

All in all, extremely impressive background information for a month into the school year. I expected to do a bit of review with the students and then introduce them to simple and complex carbohydrates.

I brought homemade granola bars (source, but with walnuts instead of almonds and flaxseed instead of chia seeds, based on what I had in my kitchen) and started the review. Imagine my surprise when all 9 students remembered each nutrient, the organs previously discussed, and had examples of simple and complex carbohydrates without much prompting.

Within 5 minutes, we had run through everything I had planned on talking about. We moved onto a Q&A style for the rest of the hour, and I was incredibly impressed.

What would the future health of our country look like if everyone graduated high school with this knowledge?

For example, one student asked about the health effects of coffee - so I responded with, "what do you typically add to your coffee?" Their response "half and half, sometimes sugar". When asked if any of those contained simple carbohydrates, they were very confident that sugar would contribute simple carbohydrates and that half and half would contribute extra calories.

We talked about Hot Pockets, the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and Mountain Dew. We touched a bit on best places to find fiber, the discovery of the first vitamin (B1, thiamin, in pellagra-stricken China), and a cautionary tale of inadequate fiber intake over the whole lifetime.

Other questions revolved around some health systems they hadn't addressed yet (does coffee actually help people sober up, like they say it does in the movies? What does the "H" and "N" stand for in virus names? Why does drinking water prevent headaches?).

These students are heading towards a healthy adulthood, thanks to honestly and scientifically learning about anatomy and physiology in their health class. I likely won't be seeing them in my office in the future, except for a friendly chat - that sounds great to me.


Kate Fossman, RDN, LD

September 25, 2015