| Just like a car needs petrol to make it go, your body needs food and drink to live, learn, run and have fun. Your body is like a very clever, complicated machine that is able to turn food into energy.
You might have heard adults talking about the number of 'calories' in some food. This is because we measure the amount of energy in food and drink in kilocalories (kcal) or kiloJoules (kJ). Calories give our bodies the energy to move and think, but we have to balance this with doing activities to use up this energy.

Looking after your body is like balancing a see-saw or weighing-scales: On one side is your "energy in" - the food and liquids that you eat and drink.
On the other side is "energy out" - the activities that you do. For the scales to be balanced, "energy in" must equal "energy out"!
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