Healthy New Year - Making Healthy Food Choices
Lesduur is: 25 minIntroductie
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Students weigh healthy and unhealthy food choices, from vitamins and portion sizes to reading front-of-pack labels. The deck ends with a real nutrition label to judge, turning label literacy into a practical skill.
Do you care about what you eat?
Have you ever felt sick from eating too much junk food?
How often do you have days where you have no fruit or veg?
Two personal questions open the lesson by connecting food choices to how students have felt after eating.
Stretch: Students explain whether the way food makes them feel should shape future choices, using a recent example.
Device-Free: Pair talk on one of the two questions, then a few pairs report back.
I am good at making healthy eating decisions...
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Share the three objectives and revisit the food-label objective before the final mystery-food question.
Good Food =
Good Mood!
Vitamin A: supporting good vision in dim light, maintaining a healthy immune system to fight illness, promoting growth and development of cells and tissues, and keeping skin healthy by aiding cell renewal
Vitamin B: supporting good vision in dim light, maintaining a healthy immune system to fight illness, promoting growth and development of cells and tissues, and keeping skin healthy by aiding cell renewal
The slide links food to mood through the role of vitamins; the Vitamin B box currently repeats the Vitamin A text and needs correcting before teaching.
Stretch: Students explain why a varied diet is needed to obtain different vitamins rather than relying on one food.
Device-Free: Students list foods they think are rich in vitamins on mini-whiteboards.
What other vitamins or food groups have you heard of,
and what are the benefits?
The web draws out prior knowledge of vitamins and food groups and builds the vocabulary needed for later slides.
Stretch: Contributors link each vitamin or food group to a specific benefit and a food source.
Device-Free: Build a class mind map on the board, grouping answers by food group.
Fuel your Brain!
Eating a variety of foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and protein-rich snacks gives your brain the energy it needs to stay sharp.
Brain Boosting Snacks!
Healthy Snacks – like nuts, yogurt, or fruit
Whole Grains – like brown rice and oats
Brain Foods – like leafy greens, fish, and berries
A varied diet is connected here to concentration, framing food as fuel for the brain.
Stretch: Students decide when in the school day a brain-boosting snack would be most useful and justify the timing.
Device-Free: Show of hands for which of the listed snacks students already eat.
Too Much is Bad!
Some foods may taste good, but eating too much of them can hurt your health.
Foods high in salt, sugar, or fat can lead to problems.
Bad Food = Bad Effects!
Too much salt can raise blood pressure.
Too much sugar can cause energy crashes.
Too much fat can lead to heart problems.
Excess salt, sugar and fat are introduced as the main dietary risks, each linked to a specific health effect.
Stretch: Students explain why the slide warns against 'too much' rather than cutting these nutrients out entirely.
Device-Free: Read each effect aloud; students give a thumbs up if they had heard of it before.
What is a common effect of junk food?
Weight gain
Increased risk of diabetes
Improved concentration
Enhanced athletic performance
Two correct answers check that students see junk food's effects as long-term risks, while the distractors catch the belief that it aids concentration or performance.
Stretch: Students explain why 'increased risk' is more accurate wording than saying junk food causes diabetes.
Device-Free: Letter cards raised together, with a reminder that two answers are correct.
How can unhealthy foods affect mood?
Lead to mood swings
Cause irritability
Promote relaxation
Increase happiness
The question challenges the misconception that comfort food reliably improves mood or helps relaxation.
Stretch: Students connect mood swings to the sugar-related energy crashes described earlier in the lesson.
Device-Free: Assign A to D to the four corners of the room for students to move to.
What health issue can result from fast food?
Better digestion
High cholesterol
Stronger immune system
Heart disease
Distractors such as better digestion test whether students confuse fast food with balanced options, while the two correct answers reinforce the heart-health link.
Stretch: Students explain how high cholesterol and heart disease may be connected.
Device-Free: Mini-whiteboards with chosen letters revealed at the same moment.
Smart Swaps...
You don’t have to give up all your favourite treats, but sometimes swap them for healthier options.
Choosing healthy snacks over junk food helps your body stay energised and stay ready.
The goal isn’t to eat less, but to eat smarter!
Smart swaps present healthier eating as substitution rather than restriction.
Stretch: Students suggest one realistic swap for a favourite treat and justify why it is healthier.
Device-Free: Pairs share one swap each and agree which is most realistic.
Portion Control!
It’s not just what you eat, it’s how much.
Portion control helps make sure you’re getting the right amount of energy without overeating.
Top Tips!
Half your plate = fruits and vegetables
One quarter = grains (like rice or bread)
One quarter = protein (like fish, eggs, beans)
Portion control is introduced through a simple plate model dividing fruit and vegetables, grains and protein.
Stretch: Students compare their last meal with the plate model and identify one adjustment.
Device-Free: Students sketch the plate on paper and label each section.
The hand rule gives a practical, equipment-free way to estimate portion sizes.
Stretch: Students apply the hand rule to a typical school lunch and judge whether the portions match.
Device-Free: Students physically model each hand shape as it is read out.
Smart Shopping
Check the nutrition label – Look for calories, sugar, salt, and fat content...
Watch for tricky terms – “Low-fat” doesn’t always mean healthy!
Compare similar products –
Choose the one with more nutrients
Three shopping tips build label literacy, including the warning that 'low-fat' does not always mean healthy.
Stretch: Students explain why a low-fat product might still be a poor choice, referring to its sugar or salt content.
Device-Free: If available, pass round real food packaging for students to check the labels.
Do you think that is an acceptable score for 150g of this mystery food?
Why or why not?
Rather than recalling facts, students evaluate a real traffic-light label and decide whether the score is acceptable.
Stretch: After the hotspot reveal, students judge whether knowing the food is cereal changes their verdict, and why.
Device-Free: Display or print the label, take a standing vote, then ask pairs to justify their position.
The closing statement checks what students have taken away by linking everyday food choices to self-respect.
Stretch: Students explain whether they agree with the statement, using one idea from the lesson as evidence.
Device-Free: Exit ticket: one food choice each student will change in the new year.