Percentages and Eating?

The other day, I was introduced to a hard seltzer drink.  It was mango flavored with 5% alcohol by volume. .  I thought 5% sounded a bit much and wasn't sure I wanted any.  I sat down to calculate how much alcohol was in the actual drink.  The can was 12 ounces so I multiplied 12 by .05 to get .6 or 6/10 of an ounce.  So just over half an ounce of liquor in the can. Not that much in reality.

So what about other liquids such as juices that often have 10% fruit juice.  This means if you have a 12 ounce bottle of orange juice with only 5%  real fruit juice, it means there is only 6/10 or .6 ounce of orange juice.  The rest of it is flavorings, water, and sugar.  

Another area we run across percentages everyday is in regard to the labeling on foods.  Every food has a nutritional label which helps you decide how much you are consuming.  For instance, if you have one serving of cheese and the label says it provides 15% of your daily calcium requirement, that means you are having 300 mg of calcium out of the required 2000 mg needed each day.  

Labels also include how many calories of the recommended intake of 2000 calories per day you are eating.  For instance, you will see when you look at the amount of fat or sodium on the label, you will see that it tells you what percent of your daily intake the fat or sodium.  For instance, if you look at a 300 calorie food with 60 grams of fat, the label will show you that the fat is 20% the calories and it is recommended you consume 50 to 80 grams of fat each day or no more than 30% so this would not be a good choice to eat.

Three examples from the labels on three different products.  There are so many more examples but most of us do not pay attention to those labels.  I had a friend who would just pick any juice off the shelves because she'd never been taught to read labels.  I showed her that the bottle of juice had only 5% juice.  She started looking at every bottle of juice on the shelf until she found one stating it was 100% juice.  After that she always read labels.

If you look at the recommendations, you'll see it is recommended one consume between 50 to 60 percent of your calories as carbohydrates, 12 to 20 percent should be taken in as protein, and no more than 30 percent should be in fat.  Again, percentages rather than actual numbers. 

This topic is a great way to combine real life applications of percentages with science or home economics so students see a relationship.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.