Different types of food

I can describe why it is important for humans to eat different types of food.

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Year 2

Different types of food

I can describe why it is important for humans to eat different types of food.

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Share activities with pupils

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Lesson details

Key learning points

Different types of food can help our bodies in different ways.
Food containing lots of fats and/or sugar can be unhealthy for humans.
Making the right choices about the food we eat can help humans to be more healthy.
Different types of food can be sorted into different groups.

Keywords

Food - Food gives living things energy and helps them to stay healthy.
Healthy - The health of a living thing is how well or ill it is. A healthy diet keeps a person or animal well.
Fat - Fat is found in foods like butter and cheese.
Unhealthy - Something that is unhealthy is not good for your health.
Group - To group things is to put similar things together.

Common misconception

All fat in the diet can cause ill health. A ‘balanced’ diet should include equal-sized proportions of the different food groups (rather than appropriate amounts of each food group).

Explanation that humans need to eat small amounts of fat and sugar, but that eating too much is unhealthy. Explanation of the importance of eating different types of food. The word “balanced” is not used in this lesson.

How often humans should eat different foods can be explained through using a traffic light system. "Green" foods (fruit, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins) are the foods that we should be eating every day, "red" foods (those high in fat and/or sugar) should be eaten very sparingly.

Teacher tip

Equipment

Scissors to cut sorting cards.

Content guidance

Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).