Nutritionhealthy eating Essential Nutrients NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Nutrition/healthy eating Essential Nutrients NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Essential nutrients There are seven essential nutrients that we must include in our diet, in order to remain healthy. These are listed below. In this series of lessons, we will learn about each essential nutrient. Carbohydrates Proteins Fats Fibre Water Minerals Vitamins NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Fats are found in the following foods. Oils and spreads Meat Fish Eggs Nuts/seeds Avocado Olives Full fat dairy foods (e. g. butter, cheese) Cakes, biscuits and chocolate NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Fats Fat provides us with approximately 9 calories of energy per gram, and contains the highest amount of calories of all the macronutrients. Fats have lots of essential functions in the human body - some are listed below. • • • To provide energy To provide insulation and warmth For structure (body cells) To provide lubrication in the body To make hormones To provide and transport the fat soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Fats You can see the foods that are high in fats on the Eatwell Guide – meat, fish, eggs and dairy are in the purple and blue sections, and foods that are high in fat and sugar, or high in processed fats, are not included on the Eatwell Guide. Instead, these foods are shown in the bottom left corner, as they should be limited in our diet for health reasons. NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Fats are made up of units called triglycerides. These molecules are made of a glycerol backbone and fatty acid chains, which can be saturated (full up of hydrogen atoms) or unsaturated (with gaps and double bonds). Although unsaturated fats have more healthy functions in the human body, the type of fats to avoid are processed (man made) fats. Watch the animation below to find out more. https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Qh. Urc 4 Bn. Pgg NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Fats So, although we used to think that saturated fats were bad for our health, we now know that they aren’t as bad as processed fats. However, the unsaturated fats are even better for us, so we should still try to eat more of those. Foods high in saturated fat Foods high in unsaturated fat Meat Eggs Butter Cheese Cream Coconut/coconut oil NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING Fish Nuts Seeds Avocado Olives and olive oil Vegetable oils

Do you think you can find foods containing the different type of fats in your diet? Using the Essential Nutrients worksheet, write down a typical breakfast, lunch and tea that you often eat – it could be what you ate today, or yesterday, or a favorite meal. Once you’ve done that, see if you can find examples of the following types of fat in your diet, and make a note of them. • Foods rich in saturated fat • Foods rich in unsaturated fat NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Fats It is recommended that no more than 35% of our diet is made up of fat, and that no more than 11% of that is saturated fat. As 35% is a maximum, this pie chart shows a recommended intake of 30%. NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING

Now see if you can remember the answers to these questions on fat in this quick fire classroom quiz! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Name 3 examples of high fat foods. What are the 2 main types of fats? How many calories are in 1 gram of fat? Name 2 functions of fats. What percentage of fat should we have in our diet? NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING