Nutrients: Games and Notes

Click here for a Halloween nutrient game!

When we eat, our digestive system breaks food down into nutrients. Nutrients are the chemicals inside food that help us live and grow.

Nutrients react (mix) with chemicals inside our saliva and stomach. When too many of the stomach chemicals (acid) react, we get sick to our stomach and throw up -- and acid burns our throat!

Our small intestine cleans the nutrients with small hairs (villi), like in the picture here. The clean food goes through the intestine tube walls to the blood.

Blood circulates good nutrients. It takes them around the body for energy. Our large intestine gets rid of the garbage left over. We flush out when we go to the bathroom.

The chemical energy from food adds up to make our metabolism. We know our metabolism by how fast we burn calories, a way to measure energy. That's what you'll do in the game.