How Food Becomes Nutrients: teacher key

Healthy Eating, grade 4 edition, written for 4th grade. Follow food from your mouth to your blood. Learn what protein, calcium and vitamins do along the way.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What does the small intestine take into the blood?
   • Digested nutrients (answer)
   • Saliva
   • Stool
2. What happens after you swallow?
   • Muscles push food down the esophagus into the stomach (answer)
   • Food turns into starch
   • Fibre makes saliva
3. What kind of nutrient is fibre?
   • A carbohydrate the body cannot digest (answer)
   • A protein from fish
   • A vitamin from the sun
4. What does zinc help the body do?
   • Make new cells and heal wounds (answer)
   • See in dim light
   • Make vitamin D
5. Which fruits are rich in vitamin C?
   • Carrots and corn
   • Oranges and grapefruit (answer)
   • Milk and cheese
6. Why is food broken into tiny pieces?
   • So the body can absorb the nutrients it needs (answer)
   • So it can make saliva
   • So it can turn into stool

Words

• protein: body builder
• saliva: mouth juice
• nutrients: food helpers
• intestine: food tube
• fibre: plant part