4.1
What is in food?
Food contains seven kinds of nutrient. Find out what each one does, which foods are rich in it, and how to test a food for it.
4.2
Energy and a balanced diet
Food energy is measured in kilojoules. Work out the energy in a day's food, see who needs more, and find out what happens when a diet is unbalanced.
4.3
The digestive system
Follow food from your mouth to the end of your gut, and see how teeth, muscles, acid and enzymes break it down.
4.4
Absorption, gut bacteria and plants
See how digested food gets into your blood, why the bacteria in your gut matter, and how plants get their food without eating.
Daily 5
Five quick diagram questions a day from this unit. The ones you get wrong come back sooner. Progress saves in this browser.
What this unit covers
Mapped to the KS3 national curriculum (Biology: nutrition and digestion).
| Programme of study | Lesson |
|---|---|
| content of a healthy human diet: carbohydrates, lipids (fats and oils), proteins, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and water, and why each is needed | 4.1 |
| calculations of energy requirements in a healthy daily diet | 4.2 |
| the consequences of imbalances in the diet, including obesity, starvation and deficiency diseases | 4.2 |
| the tissues and organs of the human digestive system, including adaptations to function and how the digestive system digests food (enzymes simply as biological catalysts) | 4.3, 4.4 |
| the importance of bacteria in the human digestive system | 4.4 |
| plants making carbohydrates in their leaves by photosynthesis and gaining mineral nutrients and water from the soil via their roots | 4.4 |