Food is the fuel that runs our bodies. We say that we are what we eat, but that doesn’t mean that we turn into the food. It means we take the nutrients out of the food, just like we take wood out of trees. We use wood to build houses, and we use food to build ourselves. So choosing food well is important. It affects how healthy we are.
Why don’t we just automatically choose the food that’s best for us? The answer is that the world has changed a lot from what people used to know.
Food 
used to come from nature. People grew their own food in fields, or hunted for it. They had to get their food the hard way. They didn’t have to try to get exercise back then because everything was based on muscle power. They had no machines, so just living took a lot of physical work.
So during most of human history, food came from nature, and physical activity was part of every day life. People didn’t have fast food restaurants or supermarkets back then. They didn’t even need Nutrition Detectives skills because there were no bags, boxes, bottles, jars or cans.
We need them today to stay healthy, to eat right, living in a world so different from the one our bodies are used to. We’ve changed where food comes from, and we have cars and machines that do what our muscles used to do.
The trouble is, now we have too much food – including lots of sugar, salt, and fat – and not enough exercise to burn off the calories from these foods. But with the skills of Nutrition Detectives, we can make CLUED-IN food choices that are so good for our bodies.
We all want to be healthy and have energy to do the things we enjoy. So make good food choices, and help your family to make good choices. As Nutrition Detectives, you have the power to do that!