Human Body KS2
Year 3 & 4

Human Body KS2 kids learning at Primary School. Learn about the Human Body and the parts of the body for Key Stage 2, Year 3 & 4 children.

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Staying healthy

It is very important to live a healthy lifestyle in order for our bodies to work correctly. This means eating a balanced diet and drinking enough water. We need to eat the right amounts of food from the main food groups:

• fruit & vegetables
• carbohydrates
• proteins
• dairy
• sugar & fats

BBC Bitesize Nutrition
Healthy eating and nutrition videos from BBC Bitesize. See how you can design a new sandwich.

DK Find out!
What you need in a balanced diet, dairy, fats & sugars, fruit & vegetables.

DK Find out!
What's in food? Learn about nutrients in the foods we eat.

Fruit and vegetables

Fruit and vegetables gives us our vitamins and minerals. The vitamins and minerals do all sorts of things for our bodies. They help build strong bones and teeth, keep our body fighting off germs and help heal wounds. 

One third of what we eat a day should be fruit and vegetables. A great way to measure this is to eat 5 handfuls of fruit or vegetables. Try it. How many handfuls of fruit and vegetables are you eating every day?

Five a day song
This catchy song promotes eating five pieces of fruit or vegetables a day in order to keep fit and healthy.

Fruit & Veg colouring in
Fruit & Veg colouring in sheets and guessing game for you to print and play

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are foods that give us energy. The type of foods that give us energy are bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, cereals, cakes and biscuits. 

Starches and sugars

Carbohydrates are split into two groups, starches and sugars. Starches are the ones that really give us our energy. Bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and cereals. One third of what we eat every day should be of starchy foods.

Biscuits and cakes are carbohydrates but they contain sugars. Your body only needs very little of these.

What are carbohydrates?
Bread, cereals, pasta, rice, and sweet foods are mostley carbohydrates.

What are proteins?

Our body needs proteins to grow and repair itself. Proteins help protect you from getting ill and is what your muscles, organs, hair and skin are made of.

Some of the types of foods that give us protein are chicken, ham, beef and fish. If you do not eat meat then you can find protein in beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, lentils and beans.

What is protein?
Foods such as meat, fish, eggs, beans and nuts all contain protein.

Food facts
What foods are high in proteins? How do proteins work in our bodies?

What is dairy?

Foods in this group give us calcium which gives us strong, healthy bones. Dairy foods also contain protein. Milk, cheese and yogurt are foods in this group. 

Sugar and fats

Sugar can be found in a lot of foods that we like the taste of but they are not necessarily good for us. Sweets, chocolate, honey, cakes and biscuits all contain too much sugar and we shouldn't eat too much of this everyday. Having too much sugar can be harmful to your teeth and cause tooth decay. Eating too much sugar can also cause you to put on weight which is bad for your health and can cause things like diabetes and heart disease.

Fats give our body energy that is stored as a fat layer under the skin to keep us warm. Too much fat will cause a bigger layer under the skin and will cause us to look bigger than we should be. Fats can also build up in your arteries, the tubes that carry your blood around your body. When this happens your brain and heart doesn't always get the amount a blood flowing that it needs and this can cause problems with your health.

Foods that have fats are butter, oil, cream, mayonnaise, ice cream, crisps, cakes and biscuits. In fact most food have some kind of fat.  The here is a food label from a cereal box. Even though we know that cereal is a carbohydrate is still contains fat. 

Saturated and unsaturated fats

It's good to have a little bit of fat in what you eat and unsaturated fat is the better to have. Saturated fat is not good for our bodies and you can find saturated fat in many foods such as butter, cheese, ice cream, biscuits and cakes. Check out the food label again. It has 6.0g of fat in this cereal. 1.3g of that is saturated fat. Check your food labels at home, how much saturated fat does your food have? 

What is fat?
Nuts and dairy foods, such as butter and cheese contain fat.

Making a balanced meal

A balanced meal should contain the right amount of these 5 food groups. Try swapping sugary foods with more healthy foods like fruit and vegetables.

Change 4 Life
Fresh, crunchy, satisfying bagels – just what you want for a lunchtime treat.

Kids cooking recipes
Get those budding Jamies and Nigellas into the kitchen.

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