Choosing healthy foods can be hard, which is why today students will be posted in various grocery stores to help.

The move is part of Nutrition Week and the Healthy Schools Initiative, which is organised by Marie Beach of the Department of Health.

Students are posted at check-out counters to help analyse the food choices of volunteer members of the public. They will then score the carts they examine by healthy standards.

Those who offer up their shopping will be entered into a draw for various prizes.

The main objective of the exercise, however, is to allow the children to put their nutrition lessons into practice and reinforce them in the real world.

"The goal is to transport their classes from school," said Ms Beach. "We usually pick P5 and P6 students because it's the transition point from middle school to senior school.

"If they can read labels, they can be more proactive. We are trying to put into practice what they know about healthy eating."

Yesterday, two students from West End Primary and two others from Somerset Primary helped Cymone Hollis, president of the Bermuda Dieticians Association, analyse foods found in volunteers' carts.

Each had a checklist of different food groups and were asked to grade the volunteers' choices with points from 1 to 10, with 10 being the healthiest, on the level of nutrition in each basket.

Linden Landy, ten, from West End Primary told The Royal Gazette the exercise helped him learn about portion sizes while Joden Bascome, 11, also from West End Primary, said: "I learned today that if you had vegetables or fruit and one of them is darker, the darker one is healthier."

Nasaj Burgess, nine, from Somerset Primary said: "I learned that not every fruit can be in one place (in the grocery store). It could be from the States or somewhere and that not every vegetable is good for you."

Keon Hamilton, ten, added: "I learned that transfats are not good for you."

Mrs. Hollis, who helped walk them through the checklist and reading the labels, said she was thrilled to be involved and hoped the students would start applying the knowledge to their own shopping.

She added: "It's a good exercise for the children for them to know what are healthy foods. The dieticians will be there to help them with any questions."

Yesterday students also helped the public from 2.30 to 4 p.m. at White & Sons grocery store in Warwick and students from other schools will help today from 12 to 1.30 p.m. at Hamilton Marketplace and Somers Supermarket in St. George's.

And later in the day at Lindo's in Devonshire from 2.30 to 4 p.m. Anyone interested can have their carts analysed.