Year 3 - Science: How much sugar is in each lunchbox? 18.5.22

Date: 18th May 2022 @ 3:58pm

In Science, we have continued our learning on healthy lifestyles and nutrition by analysing example lunchboxes and estimating sugar content. We started by measuring different amounts of sugar to see what this would look like, and we discussed the difference between natural sugars and processed or 'added' sugar. Next, we annotated each lunchbox image and decided whether the meal was 'balanced', what was positive about the contents and one area for improvement with swap suggestions. After estimating how much sugar there was in each lunchbox, we found out the actual amounts... and we were extremely surprised!

The World Health Organisation recommends that children between 7-10 years old should be consuming a maximum of 24g ( teaspoons) of sugar per day. Almost every lunchbox that we looked at contained more sugar than this, and this was only in one meal of the day! We finally reflected on our findings and how we could make changes towards a healthier lifestyle ourselves:

I am surprised because the lunchboxes have more sugar than I thought! - Hunter

I didn't know that sugar can lead to tooth decay, and I never knew that you should only have a certain amount of sugar depending on age until now! - James

I think I eat more sugar than is recommended, so I'll lower it down. - Lilly-May

I'm going to start eating more fruits and vegetables. - Izabella

I eat some unhealthy things, but I have been eating healthier recently with things like bananas, apples and oranges. - Logan

I'm going to tell my parents to not get sweets but buy me fruit instead. - Archie