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Lesson details

Learning outcome

I can explain why the amount of food humans eat is important.

Key learning points

  1. A dietician is a scientist who studies food and advises people on their food and nutrition choices.
  2. Eating too much, or not enough, of certain types of food can be harmful to our health.
  3. Information about amounts of food can be found by using secondary sources of information.
  4. The Eatwell plate is a guide based on how much you should eat from each food group.

Keywords

  • Dietician - A dietician is a person who scientifically studies and gives advice about food and eating.

  • Nutrition - Nutrition is what you take into your body as food and the way that it influences your health.

  • Amount - An amount is a quantity of something.

  • Secondary sources - Secondary sources are texts, images or objects created using information gathered by others.

Common misconception

Pupils may think that 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 different amounts of foods and that the Eatwell plate shows us the amounts of each food that we should eat.

Teacher tip

Visit the NHS website for lots more information about the Eatwell plate.

Equipment

You may choose to gather a selection of real food for pupils to place onto a larger scale Eatwell plate.

Content guidance

Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2026), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
What do fruit and vegetables provide our bodies with?

protein
fat
Correct answer: fibre

Q2.
Why is it important to eat foods containing carbohydrates?

Correct answer: They give us energy.
They help to keep our bones healthy.
They give us fibre which helps us to go to the toilet regularly.

Q3.
Which of these foods is a good source of protein?

bananas
bread
Correct answer: fish

Q4.
Why is it important to eat food containing protein?

They contain vitamins and fibre.
They give us energy.
Correct answer: They help our body to grow and repair itself.

Q5.
Dairy and alternatives contain calcium which is good for our that make up our skeleton.

Correct Answer: bones, bone

Q6.
Which of these statements is true?

An image in a quiz
To have a healthy diet, humans should not eat any food containing fat.
Correct answer: To have a healthy diet, humans should eat some foods containing some fat.
To have a healthy diet, humans should eat a lot of food containing a lot of fat.

6 Questions

Q1.
What is the name for a scientist that studies food and advises people on their food choices?

a botanist
a geologist
Correct answer: a dietician

Q2.
True or false? Eating a lot of the same type of food is good for your health.

Correct Answer: false, False.

Q3.
What is an amount of food?

how spicy a food is
how healthy a food is
Correct answer: how much food there is

Q4.
Where can we find information about the amounts of food we should eat?

An image in a quiz
Correct answer: a secondary source
a prediction
a method

Q5.
What does the Eatwell plate show us?

An image in a quiz
how much sleep we should get each night
Correct answer: how much food we should eat from each food group
how much exercise we should do

Q6.
Which two groups should we eat the most food from?

An image in a quiz
oils and spreads
Correct answer: fruit and vegetables
protein
dairy and alternatives
Correct answer: carbohydrates
Q5 © Crown copyright 2016, Public Health England in association with the Welsh Government, Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland Q6 © Crown copyright 2016, Public Health England in association with the Welsh Government, Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland

To help you plan your 3 science lesson on: Amounts of food, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...