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Description

What makes a balanced diet? Find out more, then plan your own menu.

Source https://www.scouts.org.uk/activities/deliciously-nutritious/

Resources

Empty food packets and labels (or pretend food)
Hoops or rope
Food type labels PDF
Healthy eating info PDF

Take it further
You could put your newfound understanding of balanced eating to the test by planning and making snacks and refreshments. Why not think about any events that need your skills?

Instructions

Before you begin
- Ask everyone to help collect clean, empty food packaging at home. You could also use pretend or play food, or even some real food items (for example, vegetables like carrots or tins of peaches).
- Mix all the packets up, and put them together on a table.
- Put hoops on the floor, or make circles out of rope. Label each food group hoop with one of the ‘Food group labels’.


Sort the food
1. Everyone should talk about different foods, and what a balanced diet is. The person leading the activity can use the ‘Healthy eating’ sheet to help; the sheet has lots of information to help guide the conversation.
2. Everyone should take a piece of packaging, and put it in the food group hoop it fits best in. The person leading the game should decide whether everyone does this at once, or whether people take it in turns in pairs or on their own.


Plan a meal
1. Everyone should help to bring all of the packaging back to the middle of the room, and remove the labels from the hoops.
2. Everyone should split into five groups. Each group should stand by a hoop.
3. The hoops are now big plates. Each group should work together to create a delicious nutritious meal on their plate with the food items.
4. Groups should think about which foods go well together – they should talk about taste, as well as how to make a healthy meal. They can also be creative with the packaging; for example, if they have a packet (or picture) that represents chicken, they could say they’ll make a chicken curry.
5. All of the groups should visit each other’s plates. Everyone could vote on which meal they think is most nutritious and tasty.


Reflection
- This activity was a chance for everyone to think about balanced and healthy food. With their huge plates in front of them, groups should explain to everyone else what their meal includes, why they chose those items, and how their meal is balanced and healthy. Can each group tell everyone which food group each of their items of food belongs to? Everyone needs a balanced diet to keep their body healthy, including specific vitamins and minerals for things like teeth, hair, and bones. Everyone should think about the foods they used in this activity. Are there any they haven’t tried in real life? Why not challenge each other to be brave, and try one new healthy food before they next meet?
- This activity also needed people to problem solve. How did people decide which food group hoop each item belonged in? How did people make their meals – did they change their minds at any point? Did they have a plan, or a leader?


Change the level of challenge
- You could also add in a selection of drink choices. Water and milk are the healthiest drinks for young people – they shouldn’t drink lots and lots of fruit juice because the acid can harm teeth.
- As a group, plan a whole day of meals including breakfast and snacks.

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Badge Links

• Cook - Balanced diet
• Skills - Good & Bad Food