Theme: Talking about healthy eating and eating habits. The poor dietary habits of children in the UK and recent reports on child obesity.
Lexical area: food and drink, nutritional content of foods
Cross curricular links: Personal and social education, biology and the science of nutrition.
Media Studies

Instructions for assistants in italics

Classroom materials

Introduction

This lesson is a series of activities based on a menu and some recent statistics in the UK media on the poor state of children’s and young people’s eating habits. The main word used in reference to this scandal is “time bomb” since the eating habits being taught now will have a dramatic impact on adult health in the future and obese children will become obese adults. Obesity is linked to shorter life expectancy, as is a diet too high in fat, sugar and salt.

• Higher levels can refer to a recent UK press article to find out more or look at the measures being proposed to tackle obesity/the food industry.
  Look in http://society.guardian.co.uk/public health to find recent stories

• Lower levels may need a lot of visual support so bring pictures of kids food, adverts for kid’s versions of adult food and do some food and drink vocabulary brainstorming before you start to see how much vocabulary they know.

1. Food and health

• With a higher level the first task could involve a discussion on how the size of meals and the content of a ‘proper’ meal vary from country to country. What should you cook for dinner if friends come over?
  Help build an awareness that the social rules of eating vary. Is there the equivalent of the British idea of ‘meat and 3 veg’? What about your own family’s essential foods list? Build a list of suggestions from pairs on the board.

• Visuals will help with lower levels in this exercise and run through an example of each category before they decide in pairs. Elicit if sugar, fibre or fat are good for you? You will begin to see what preconceived notions your host country has about food. Keep neutral.

Task 1 Food and health

Make a list of foods or drinks that are considered essential to eat in your country.
For example, in some cultures a meal is not a meal if there is not any bread on the table. Wine is an important drink.

How much do you know about the nutritional content of the food you eat? Divide your foods into the following categories:

Foods that contain

• Fat
• Sugar
• Fibre
• Protein
• Carbohydrate
• Vitamins

Do any of your foods contain a high quantity of fat? Sugar? Fibre?

Are people in your country interested in what their food contains? Why? Why not? Are you interested in looking at what you eat?



2. Eating habits

• Introduce this topic by describing a recent picnic lunch or the type of packed lunch you have eaten. Elicit examples and participation. 'What do you usually drink if you take a packed lunch?'

• Put students in pairs to discuss the tasks. After the first one hold a very quick class feedback to see if there are key foods everyone eats or main types of drink. Do your students think their own choices of lunch are balanced and healthy?

Task 2 Eating habits

Describe the contents of a typical packed lunch you might take to work, school or on a day out.
' I would take a…and some…..'

Compare to your partner’s tastes and habits.
Have all the class made similar choices?
Are there any main foods? Drinks?

Check the facts on School lunch boxes in the UK.

• Are UK kids making similar choices to you?
• Does anything surprise you?
• What’s the problem with their lunch boxes? (they are nutritionally very poor, too much salt and sugar, no fibre in the form of fruit and vegetables)

Note that crisps are not just a snack food but also used as part of a meal. What types of snack foods do your students eat? They could at this point do a class survey if they need question practice and a basic controlled activity: What is your favourite snack? How often do you eat snacks? (elicit questions from the class)



3. Menu planning

• The first task can be a motivating writing exercise so ask one group member to be secretary to draw up the menu sheet. They can pass their menus around to compare their choices. Circulate and ask them to explain any dishes you do not know. This will be good language practice for meeting foreign visitors. This can lead to a follow up lesson based on restaurant situations and explaining how food is cooked etc. Useful for some students.

Task 3 Menu planning

In the UK it is now common to find a special ‘Kid’s menu’ in a restaurant or pub. This menu is different to the main ‘adult’ menu and usually contains food that young people prefer to eat.

• Make a special ‘Kid’s menu’ for a restaurant in your country. Think of 4-5 dishes that young people might like to eat. Which dishes will help bring young customers to your restaurant? Think of some desserts too.

• Compare your menu to the typical Kid’s menu from a UK restaurant. Do you have similar tastes? Are there any foods which surprise you? Which menu is healthier: your menu or the one from the UK? Why?

4. Changing habits and lifestyles

• The first task can be a quick round the class discussion but with a good group could lead to them asking their partner :Who influenced the way you ate when you were little? Who chose your food? Were you aware of snack foods or “naughty foods”? Who influences your food choices now? Ask each pair to think of 2 reasons why a family meal is good for kids (rather than a snack alone or in front of the TV).

Task 4 Changing habits and lifestyles

Is it usual in your country for children to eat different food or meals to their parents?
Do you share mealtimes? Has it always been this way?

Have any of the following things changed much since your grandparents were children?

• Foods that are on sale in shops and markets
• Methods of cooking (new machines like microwaves)
• Meal times and the places where people eat ( eating out more)
• The size of meals ( bigger portions? Smaller portions?)
• Ideas about what is healthy to eat or drink?

The government and health experts in the UK are now warning that young people will have shorter lives than their parents’ generation: Why is this?

Use the facts and food examples in the texts to explain the possible reasons.

What methods do you think might be used to encourage young people and their parents to make better choices of food? For example: Ban all fizzy drinks from schools and children’s TV advertising.

Who is responsible: schools? Parents? The food industry?

Do you agree that this is important?



5. Life expectancy

• This is a group activity for higher levels. Take the first factor and discuss it with the whole class to prepare the language needed. 'Do you think rich people live longer?' 'Is money very important for your health? How?' Give each student a minute to read through the factors and choose 3 which are key ones for them. Put them in small groups to compare their choices. Ask each group to agree on a top 3 for their group. Then ask group leaders to present their group’s conclusions.

Task 5 Life expectancy

There are many factors which influence how long people live. Do you think diet is so important?
Put these factors in order of importance:

• Wealth( How much money you earn)
• Diet ( the food you eat)
• Education (your level of study)
• Happiness (how happy you feel)
• Geography (the type of place you live in)
• Habits (smoking/drugs/wild parties)
• Family inheritance (how long your parents and grandparents live)
• Personality type (optimistic/pessimistic)
• Marital status (married or single)
• Occupation (stressful or physically difficult work)
• Fitness level (sports played, exercise you do)

6. Messages about health

• Ask students to bring examples of adverts to the next lesson and then share them amongst the groups for discussion. You could bring examples yourself to save time. You don’t need to restrict your examples to English adverts as even adverts in the students language are good stimulus. As long as they discuss the message in English! A visual can convey a powerful psychological message.

Task 6 Messages about health

People in the UK , especially children, get their messages about healthy eating from the Media. Television advertising plays a big part in showing kids unhealthy food and drink. Some of the negative messages in the adverts were summarised by an MP:

This food or drink will make you a fun and happy person.
This food or drink is enjoyed by this famous person and you can enjoy it too and be like them.
This special diet will make you very slim, very quickly.


Find examples from adverts, TV or magazines. Summarise the messages about health and eating that you are receiving.

• Who is giving you these messages – TV? Newspapers? teachers at school? Friends? Adverts? Parents? Other?

• Do you agree with the messages you are receiving? Are they all positive? Are they honest?

Internet links:

Uk in Focus has a range of articles relating to food and eating habits in the UK.
http://www2.britishcouncil.org/ukinfocus-food.htm

Comprehensive site of the British Nutrition Foundation
http://www.nutrition.org.uk

Useful background to food promotion and dietary habits
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/healthiereating

Archive links:

A Generation of couch potatoes complements this theme very well.
No Smoking follows up the theme of bad habits and lifestyle.

By Clare Lavery