Johnson Central High School has over 125 students in its freshmen class. Of those 75% said that they drink very little water, if any at all. From that total 35% of the students participate in an after school sports program and choose sport drinks and soda over water.

The Johnson County SNAP-Ed Assistant did a series of lessons with the freshman class using the Teen Cuisine Curriculum and Rethink Your Drink lesson. The students discussed the importance of eating breakfast and healthy snacks. Along with other topics, the students realized that their bodies need water to function properly. They talked about how water helps regulate the body’s temperature by cooling it down after activities and it’s a major component of blood which carries nutrients and oxygen to and from the cells. The students read the ingredients in sports drinks, sodas and flavored juice drinks. They discovered that there could be at least three types of sugars if not more in these popular drink choices. After learning this, they added up the calories consumed for a week and multiplied it by four weeks. Their totals showed that they would consume about 63,504 calories in a month and could gain 25 pounds in six months.

After six lessons and making fruit-infused water in the classroom the students that participated in school sports said that they were now choosing water during and after practice. One student said that he had lost 3 pounds in three weeks. Of the students who said they rarely drank water, 50% of them are now drinking water throughout the school day.