Teacher sheet · Ages 10–11 · about 45–50 minutes
Nutrients: what food does for you
Lesson page: echoesof.science/school/healthy-eating/ages-10-11/ · Pupil worksheet: echoesof.science/school/healthy-eating/ages-10-11/print/
Learning aims
- Describe the balance of food groups in the Eatwell Guide.
- Name the main nutrients and give one job of each.
- Explain what free sugars are and know the daily limit for ages 7 to 10.
- Compare food labels fairly using values per 100 g.
Lesson plan
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 min | Starter: what do you think is inside a slice of bread, apart from 'bread'? |
| 10 min | Read the text; match nutrients to jobs on the board. |
| 20 min | Sugar detectives with food packets. |
| 5 min | Discuss fair comparison and natural versus free sugars. |
| 5 min | Quiz or the Which nutrient? game. |
Materials for the experiment
- 6–8 empty, clean food packets (breakfast cereals, yoghurt pots, cereal bars, drink cartons)
- A ruler
- Red, amber and green pencils
Safety: Use empty, clean packets only and do not open or taste any food (allergies). Be kind: nobody should be judged for the foods their family buys.
Common misconceptions
| Pupils may think… | Actually… |
|---|---|
| All sugar on a label is added sugar. | 'Total sugars' also includes natural sugars from milk and fruit, which do not count as free sugars. |
| Fat is always bad for you. | The body needs some fat for growth and energy; we only need small amounts, preferably unsaturated oils. |
| Comparing per portion is fair. | Portion sizes differ between products; per 100 g compares equal amounts. |
Worksheet answers
- Fruit and vegetables (e.g. apple), starchy foods (e.g. rice), protein foods (e.g. beans, eggs), dairy and alternatives (e.g. yoghurt), oils and spreads (e.g. olive oil).
- Class data, listed from lowest to highest sugars per 100 g.
- Products have different portion sizes, so per 100 g compares the same amount of each food: a fair test.
- Protein: growth and maintaining/replacing tissues such as muscle and skin. Fibre: helps digestion and can prevent constipation.
Quiz answers
- On the Eatwell Guide, about how much of what we eat should be fruit and vegetables? Just over a third. Fruit and vegetables should make up just over a third of what we eat.[1]
- Proteins are made of building blocks called… amino acids. Proteins consist of amino acids strung together.[6]
- Which mineral helps carry oxygen in the blood? Iron. Iron is needed to transport oxygen in the blood.[7]
- About how much fibre do children aged 5 to 11 need each day? About 20 g. The NHS gives about 20 g a day for ages 5 to 11.[4]
- What is the most free sugar children aged 7 to 10 should have in a day? 24 g (about 6 sugar cubes). The NHS limit for ages 7 to 10 is 24 g of free sugars a day.[3]
- A label says 30 g of sugars per 100 g. Is that high, medium or low? High. More than 22.5 g per 100 g counts as high.[3][8]
Going further
Compare the sugars in a whole fruit with a fruit juice label: which sugars count as free sugars, and why does the NHS say whole fruit is kinder to teeth? Be sensitive about food at home, budgets, allergies and cultural or religious diets.
Sources used in this lesson
- [1] The Eatwell Guide (NHS (UK National Health Service)): reliability High
- [3] Sugar: the facts (NHS (UK National Health Service)): reliability High
- [4] How to get more fibre into your diet (NHS (UK National Health Service)): reliability High
- [6] Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats (Merck Manual Consumer Version (Merck & Co.)): reliability Medium-high
- [7] Anatomy and Physiology, 24.7 Nutrition and Diet (OpenStax, Rice University): reliability High
- [8] 10 tips for understanding food labels (British Heart Foundation (BHF)): reliability Medium-high
Full list with links and a note on each source's reliability: echoesof.science/school/healthy-eating/sources/
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