🥗 Nutrition basics

No single food contains everything your body needs, so eating a mix of different foods, like grains, vegetables, fruits, protein and dairy, gives your body a fuller set of the building blocks it relies on. Some foods mainly give you quick energy, others help build and repair muscles, and others carry vitamins and minerals your body cannot make on its own. Eating a wide variety over the week matters more than getting everything perfect in a single meal, since your body balances things out over time.

Water makes up a huge part of your body, and it is constantly being used up, through sweat, breathing and simply running your body's daily processes, so it needs regular topping up. It helps carry nutrients to your cells, flushes waste out, and even helps keep your body at the right temperature, especially on a hot day or during exercise. You lose water faster than you might think, which is why feeling thirsty is your body's way of reminding you before you even notice you are running low.

Fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre, tiny but important ingredients your body uses to grow, heal and keep everything running smoothly. Fibre in particular helps keep your digestion moving steadily, which is something not found in nearly the same amount in many other foods. Eating fruits and vegetables in lots of different colours, red, orange, green and purple, actually means getting a wider mix of these helpful ingredients, since different colours often come from different nutrients.

After a whole night of sleep without eating, your body has used up a lot of its stored energy, so breakfast helps refill that tank right before a busy day of school, play and thinking. Kids who eat a good breakfast often find it easier to focus and feel less grumpy by mid morning, compared to starting the day on an empty stomach. A good breakfast usually mixes something filling, like grains or eggs, with something like fruit, giving both steady and quick energy to start the day.