In this task I will be investigating the possibilities of providing a healthy, nutritious meal that fits the eatwell plate and dietary guidelines for a group of young children that visit a nursery everyday and have a meal in the middle of the day. I

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GCSE Food and Nutrition

Resource Task 2

Rheanna Burgess

Centre Number: 17349

Task Title:

Young children visit a nursery each day and enjoy a meal towards the middle of the day. As so many pre school aged children can acquire bad eating habits from an early age, you have been asked to investigate the possibilities of proving a healthy, nutritious meal that is in a line with the ‘eatwell plate’ and dietary guidelines.

  1. Plan an investigation to show how a two course meal and drink can be modified to meet the ‘eatwell plate’ and dietary guidelines.
  2. Carry out the investigation and record your results
  3. Evaluate the task.

In this task I will be investigating the possibilities of providing a healthy, nutritious meal that fits the ‘eatwell plate’ and dietary guidelines for a group of young children that visit a nursery everyday and have a meal in the middle of the day. I will be investigating on how a two course meal and a drink can be modified to meet the ‘eatwell plate’ and dietary guidelines. I will record my results and evaluate my work.

Interesting e.g. shapes, colour.

Having a snack that is a variety of shapes (e.g. animal shapes) and colours will be more attractive to toddlers. This can be useful when dealing with a ‘fussy’ eater, who may be reluctant to try new foods, e.g. having the food in shapes of the child’s favourite animal. Also bright (colour) and attractive looking foods will draw the toddler’s attention to them and makes eating more fun.

A meal that meets the ‘eatwell plate’

It is important, especially in young children to install the necessity of a balanced diet consisting of fruit and vegetable (five a-day), meat, fish, eggs, beans (protein), bread, rice, pasta (starch), milk, dairy product and vitamins/minerals. An ‘eatwell plate’ should cover all food groups in the correct ratio. The key message of ‘the balance of good health’ is that there should be a balanced of foods which should be consumed to achieve a good healthy diet. This balance should be achieved over several days or weeks and is not essential for every meal.

Meets children’s likes and dislikes.

When picking out a snack for the toddlers their ‘likes and dislikes’ should be taken into consideration along with trying to introduce new taste’s and flavour’s and food that is healthy for them.

High calcium

It is important to include ‘high calcium’ snacks for toddlers as they require calcium to build strong healthy teeth and bones.

Meets children’s likes and dislikes

When picking out a snack for the toddlers their ‘likes and dislikes’ should be taken into consideration, along with trying to introduce new taste’s and flavour’s, and food that is healthy for them.

High calcium

It is important to include ‘high calcium’ snacks for toddlers as they require calcium to build strong healthy teeth and bones.

Allergies intolerances

If a toddler has an allergy to certain foods i.e. dairy intolerance, alternative food groups will be need to be used in place of dairy produces.

Easy to eat and prepare

When supplying food for a large number of toddlers it is important to make the snacks as easy to prepare as possible because the caterers will have limited time to produce the quantity required. The snack also needs to be easy for toddlers to eat, taking in to account that they won’t sit at a table for too long, they may also eat quite slowly and have a limited lunch time/snack time.

Portion size

You would need to consider the size plates used and the portion sizes should be appropriate for toddlers. Not only would a large portion be off putting for a toddler but it could also encourage them to over eat and this could lead to obesity in later life.

A meal that meets the ‘eatwell plate’

The eatwell plate shows how much of what you eat should come from each food group. This includes everything you eat during the day, including snacks. It is important, especially in young children to install the necessity of a balanced diet consisting of fruit and vegetable (five a-day), meat, fish, eggs, beans (protein), bread, rice, pasta (starch), milk, dairy product and vitamins/minerals. An ‘eatwell plate’ should cover all food groups in the correct ratio. The key message of ‘the balance of good health’ is that there should be a balanced of foods which should be consumed to achieve a good healthy diet. This balance should be achieved over several days or weeks and is not essential for every meal.

How well do my meals meet the eatwell plate?

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Practical Ideas

Practical decisions and reason for choice

After investigating and evaluation a range of possible outcomes that I could make, I have decided to make the following for my two course meal and drink.

Main meal: Chicken stir-fry.

I have chosen to make this dish as it is very simple and easy to make, and also doesn’t take that long to make which would be good at a nursery as they don’t ...

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