Food is more than just fuel

Olia | Jun 28, 2024Apr 07, 2025

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

• practise vocabulary on nutrition;
• discuss the impact of food on health;
• watch an informative video about the effects of foods on sleep.

With this lesson plan, students discuss nutrition and health. They explore vocabulary (e.g. protein, intolerant, digest, etc.), talk about their personal experiences and watch a short video on foods that help you sleep. Students also discuss buying foods with specific labels (e.g. organic, gluten-free, zero-fat, etc.) and choose a food philosophy.

WARM-UP AND VOCABULARY

This lesson starts with a warm-up where students look at the title of the lesson and say what they think it means and whether they agree with it. Following that, they practise vocabulary on nutrition. Students look at words (e.g. carbohydrate, magnesium, melatonin, etc.) and put them into the correct categories (vitamins and minerals, other nutrients and hormones). Next, they read descriptions of different foods and guess what they are. Then, students look at the texts again and find the words and phrases for meanings (e.g. eat or drink – consume). After that, they do a task in which they name specific foods, vitamins, meals, and their effects on health. Then, they look at different aspects (e.g. creativity and thinking, mood, sleep, etc.) and say how much food influences them in their experience. 

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

In this part of the lesson, students continue practising vocabulary on nutrition. First, they watch a video about foods that help you sleep and say which two foods that are mentioned improve sleep and which two worsen it. After that, they watch the video again and correct the words in sentences about the effects of different foods on health. Next, students are given two options to complete statements about opinions on diet and its impact on sleep and health. They choose one of them and give reasons for their choice. Afterwards, students consider food labels (e.g. gluten-free, zero-fat, lactose-free, etc.) and discuss questions about reading and noticing them on food packages. Finally, they read different food philosophies (e.g. You are what you eat.) and choose the one they agree with most or create their own statement. 

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students find and correct mistakes in sentences about food situations. Then, they say what their reaction or next step in each case would be. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

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