Food and nutrition
Biology · Key Stage 2 · The School
What food is for
Food does three jobs: it gives ENERGY to move and stay warm, it supplies material to GROW and repair, and it carries the small amounts of vitamins and minerals the body cannot make. Different foods do these jobs in different proportions, which is why what you eat across a week matters more than any single meal.
The main groups
CARBOHYDRATES — bread, rice, potatoes, pasta — are the body's main fuel. PROTEIN — meat, fish, eggs, beans, lentils, dairy — builds and repairs. FATS store energy and help absorb some vitamins. FRUIT AND VEGETABLES carry vitamins, minerals and fibre. Water is not a nutrient but nothing works without it.
Why variety, not perfection
No food contains everything. Milk is rich in calcium and has almost no iron; oranges carry vitamin C and no protein. So a healthy diet is a MIXTURE, in roughly the proportions of the Eatwell Guide: mostly starchy foods and vegetables, some protein and dairy, and only a little of the fatty and sugary things. Nothing is banned; the proportions are what count.
A cereal box says per 100 g: carbohydrate 68 g, of which sugars 22 g; protein 8 g; fat 2 g; fibre 7 g; salt 0.5 g. Now check the portion size at the top: 30 g, which is under half of what is listed. So a real bowl gives about 6.6 g of sugar, not 22. And 22 g per 100 g is high — over a fifth of the box is sugar. Both facts matter, and reading only one of them misleads.