Food as Chemistry: Nutrients, Energy, and the Human Body

This lesson introduces nutrition as applied chemistry: food is made of molecules that the body breaks down, rearranges, stores, and uses to maintain life. Students learn the major nutrient categories, how energy is measured, why calories are not the whole story, and how digestion connects food choices to cells and metabolism.

By the end, students should be able to distinguish macronutrients from micronutrients, explain why water and fiber matter despite providing little or no usable energy, interpret basic calorie values, and describe nutrition as a system involving chemistry, physiology, behavior, and context.