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What is healthy eating?

Part of Design and TechnologyCooking and nutritionYear 1Year 2

Article created in partnership with the .

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Why is healthy eating important?

Healthy eating means eating a variety of different types of foods in the right amounts.

Healthy eating is important because it helps to keep your body working properly so you can:

  • grow
  • be active
  • stay well
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What is the Eatwell Guide?

The Eatwell Guide is a picture that shows us the types and amounts of foods we need to eat to stay healthy.

Your body can’t get everything it needs from one food.

That’s why you need to eat a variety of foods from the different food groups.

The Eatwell Guide, which is a circle split into five separate segments of different sizes. There is a large green segment called 'Fruit and vegetables' which shows a selection of fruit and vegetables. There is a large yellow segment called 'Potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates' with pictures of the food types mentioned, There is a small purple segment called 'Oils and spreads' with images of the named foods. There is a medium-sized blue segment called 'Dairy and alternatives' with images of milk, cheese, yoghurt and soy milk. There is a medium-sized pink segment called 'Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins' with images of the named food types. There is also a glass of water with the label '6-8 glasses a day'.
Source: This resource has been adapted from the UK government’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide, under the terms of the Open Government Licence.
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Food groups

The Eatwell Guide has five different food groups.

You can find out more about each food group in this slideshow.

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  1. A green segment of a circle containing a bag of frozen peas, a green and red apple, two strawberries, a tin of tomatoes, a floret of broccoli, two carrots, two bananas, a red onion, a small pile of sweetcorn, a packet of raisins and two oranges

    Fruit and vegetables

    This group includes fruit, such as apples and bananas, and vegetables, such as carrots and broccoli. We need to eat at least five different foods from this group every day.

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Why are the food groups different sizes?

The size of each food group shows us how much we need to eat from that group.

The two biggest food groups are the:

  • Fruit and vegetables group

  • Potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates group

We need to have plenty of foods from these two groups to help us stay healthy.

A circle with green segment containing a selection of fruit and vegetables and a yellow segments containing bread, pasta, potatoes, rice and cereal

The two medium-sized food groups are the:

  • Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins group
  • Dairy and alternatives group

We need to have some foods from these groups to help us stay healthy.

A circle with two large segements greyed out, with a smaller pink segment containing eggs, chicken leg,bag of lentils, piece of salmon and tin of beans, The blue segment containing yoghurt pot, milk, soya drink and a block of cheese

The smallest food group is the:

  • Oils and spreads group

We only need a small amount of food from this group to help us stay healthy.

A circle mainly greyed out apart from a thin purple segment with an arrow pointing to a purple square containing a tub of spread and a bottle of vegetable oil
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Crisps, ice cream, a bottle of ketchup, a bottle of brown sauce, a blueberry muffin, three biscuits, a bar of chocolate and a boiled sweet in a wrapper

What about other foods?

Your body does not need foods like biscuits, sweets, crisps and chocolate, or sugary drinks, to stay healthy.

They are not good for your health if you eat too much of them and have them too often.

If you eat foods like these, you should only have a small amount and just have them every so often.

Crisps, ice cream, a bottle of ketchup, a bottle of brown sauce, a blueberry muffin, three biscuits, a bar of chocolate and a boiled sweet in a wrapper
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How much should we drink?

Everyone needs to have about six to eight drinks every day to keep their body healthy.

Water and milk are healthier drink choices than sugary and fizzy drinks.

Two children each drinking a glass of water
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Key words

Food groupsFood groups are groups that different foods can be sorted into.
CarbohydrateCarbohydrate foods give our bodies energy, such as potatoes, bread, rice and pasta.
Dairy foodsDairy foods are made from milk, such as cheese and yoghurt.
AlternativeAn alternative food is similar to another food. For example, an ‘alternative’ to cow's milk would be a soya drink with added calcium.
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Quiz: Food groups

Can you match the food to the correct food group?

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