Why do we need food?

Human beings eat a lot of food. A typical human eats over a thousand pounds of food every year.
Why do we eat so much? There are two big reasons: building blocks and fuel.
Your body uses the building blocks in two different ways. When you are growing, you are adding new building blocks to your body. Your body is also repairing itself - taking out old blocks and replacing them with new ones.
The building blocks of your body are protein, and that's why you are supposed to eat plenty of it. If you don't eat enough protein, it is hard to grow.

The other thing your body needs is fuel. Just like a car needs gasoline, your body needs fuel so that your muscles can move and your brain can think. Have you ever roasted marshmallows and had one catch on fire? Marshmallows burn because they contain a lot of energy, in the form of sugar. We measure the fuel coming into your body in terms of calories.
The funny thing is that in today's society, Calories are everywhere. Pick up any snack food and you are looking at lots of calories.
For example, a single peanut M&M contains 12 calories. A big snack-size bag of M&Ms has 500 calories in it. Most kids need less than 1,500 calories per day - one bag of M&Ms is one- third of all the calories you need.
This cornucopia of calories is why obesity has become a problem in America. Unless a person is careful, it is really easy to take in too much fuel. Our bodies store all the excess fuel as fat.
It's something to think about the next time you grab a snack!