Before watching the videos
This series of videos taken from Operation Ouch! link to the statutory relationships and health education guidance, and the non-statutory PSHE programme of study.
As with all PSHE-related content,a safe teaching and learning environment should be established before class viewing. It is important to watch the video before viewing, to ensure it is suitable for your pupils and works within your curriculum planning.
Please ensure you have read the teacher guidance before using in the classroom
These videos can be used together to demonstrate how healthier eating habits impact our bodies. The first video (food) shows how different types of food affect energy levels and digestion and the second video (healthy heart) can help students understand the impact of diet on cardiovascular health.
Watch the video – food
Food
XAND: Ooh! Spaghetti bolognaise! My absolute favourite!
CHRIS: Xand?!
XAND: Yes, Chris? This is delicious, by the way.
CHRIS: It's not for you. It's for our experiment.
XAND: But it's tasty. And I'm hungry.
CHRIS: Look, you can have some later – perhaps. But I want to talk about food now, 'cause every year you eat about 500 kilograms of food. And that's enough to fill two bathtubs to the brim.
XAND: Why are you keeping food in the bath?! Food goes in the fridge! If you keep the food in the bathtub, where do I have a bath? In the fridge?
CHRIS: Look, Xand, no one's interested in your kitchen-bathroom confusions. Now, you don't just eat food because it tastes good. Your body is actually an amazing energy-conversion machine. So it's constant-ly turning what you eat into energy, even when you're asleep. And you use the energy from this food for all sorts of things, which is why I need this spag bol, Xand. Now, watch.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: You use up to 75% of every meal for things like breathing, circulat-ing blood and growing.
XAND: Are you trying to make a pie chart out of spaghetti bolognaise? Why don't you use a pie?
CHRIS: Well, I-, I had a pie for this very job but it just vanished from the fridge.
XAND: I hate it when that happens.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: Then 10% of what you eat is used up simply to digest what you've just eaten.
XAND: I think that's a little bit more than 10%, Chris. I'll just adjust it for you.
CHRIS: The remaining 15% is used up doing things you choose to do, whether it's watching Opera-tion Ouch, walking your dog or playing with your mate. But how does your body turn your food into energy? Well, we're gonna show you.In order to release chemical energy from food, you body has to combine it with oxygen from the air. That's why you breathe.
CHRIS: Now, we've got pure oxygen here.
XAND: Now, we also have one digestive biscuit here and then the same weight of pasta. Now, they might be the same weight but they give your body different types of energy.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: We're going to release the energy from both the pasta and the biscuit so you can see the different levels of energy you get from each.
CHRIS: First up, pasta. And I'm gonna soak it in this liquid oxygen.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: Inside your body when oxygen and food are combined, a chemical reaction happens naturally. But outside the body, you need to ignite the chemical reaction using fire.Now, we're using special equipment to do this experiment in our lab so don't even think about trying this at home.
XAND: It's a terrible way of cooking pasta, especially after you did such a nice job with that spa-ghetti.
CHRIS: Xand, it's not a cookery show. This is about energy.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: Pasta releases energy in your body slowly and steadily, just like the small, steady flame burning here.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: But how will the digestive biscuit compare to the pasta? Will it, A, release more energy or, B, less energy? Let's find out.
CHRIS: Ready?
XAND: Whoa! [chuckles]
CHRIS: Now, that burns in quite a different way to the pasta.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: So, yes, the massive flame shows that our biscuit does immediate-ly release more energy. But don't be fooled by our action replay – it's for a shorter amount of time.It's why you might immediately perk up after eating something sweet, then have a slump soon after.
XAND: You've ruined it. I was really looking forward to that. This is a complete disaster.
CHRIS: I think it was a great success.
VOICEOVER [CHRIS]: So, while we get energy from all the food we eat, some foods like pasta release it slowly, while other sweet foods deliver a quick but short-lived energy burst, which isn't much use if you wanna get through the day.
CHRIS: So, digestive biscuits should only be enjoyed as a treat. Isn't that right, Xand?
XAND: [mumbles with mouth full of biscuit]
Video summary – food
In this video, Dr. Chris and Dr. Xand explore how the body converts food into energy. To illustrate the difference between slow-release and fast-release energy sources, they compare two common foods: pasta and a biscuit.
Using a simple experiment, they burn each food item to show how quickly the energy is released. The biscuit burns rapidly, representing fast-release energy, while the pasta burns more slowly, demonstrating how slow-release foods provide longer-lasting energy.
Watch the video – healthy heart
Healthy heart
RONX: Your heart is a pretty amazing organ. It works with a network of blood vessels called arter-ies, capillaries and veins to pump our blood around our bodies. To keep it happily ticking away it's great to have a varied diet of protein, fruits and vegetables. Vegetables, assemble!Ooh! Ow! Thanks.Eating too many fatty foods or foods that are high in sugar or salt can cause a buildup of fat in our arteries called plaque.
RONX: This makes it difficult for blood to pass through the arteries and means that our heart has to work much harder to pump the same amount of blood around the body.Wait, I think it's time for an experiment.
CHILDREN: Yay!
RONX: This is an artery with fat buildup – and definitely not a pop-up tunnel with cushions and blankets in it. This is a healthy artery with no fat buildup. And here we have our red blood cells – which are definitely not children wearing red tops.We are going to see how many red blood cells can get through each artery in 30 seconds. Ready, set, go!
RONX: [laughs]Ooh, wow!
Ooh, wow! Ooh. Ooh. Oh, oh, wow. Well done, well done. Come on, come on, let's do this. Excel-lent, well done. [laughs]
Ooh, this is a tough race. Keep going.
And five, four, three, two, one, stop!
Great job, team. Let's see the results.
RONX: Our red blood cells breezed through the clear artery nine times in 30 seconds!
CHILDREN: Yay!
RONX: Amazing work!
RONX: But the other team of red blood cells struggled to get through the clogged artery and only four cells made it through in 30 seconds. How did that go for you, Evelyn?
EVELYN: It was quite hard to get through because of all the blockages in the way.
RONX: The heart feels exactly the same. When it has to pump blood around clogged arteries, clear and healthy arteries make it easier for our heart to pump blood around our body. And that equals a happy heart. So go eat those veggies!Now it's my turn!
Video summary – healthy heart
In this video, Dr. Ronx explains how the heart pumps blood throughout the body via arteries, capillaries, and veins. They highlight the importance of a balanced diet – including protein, fruits, and vegetables – for maintaining a healthy heart.
Dr. Ronx also discusses how consuming too many fatty, sugary, or salty foods can lead to a buildup of plaque in the arteries. This buildup restricts blood flow, forcing the heart to work harder to circulate blood.
To bring this concept to life, Dr. Ronx leads a group of schoolchildren in a hands-on experiment that demonstrates how plaque affects blood flow, helping students understand the impact of diet on cardiovascular health.
Suggested activities
Food
- Before watching the food video, ask pupils what they know already about which foods are healthier for our body. Recap on food types: fats, carbohydrates, proteins and sugars, and use some examples of foods or food packaging to test any existing knowledge.
- Ask pupils why we eat, and what it is that food gives us. They may have many responses, but elicit that food provides us with energy – the video demonstrates the difference in energy that different types of food provide. Before viewing, ask pupils which food they think has more energy: a bowl of pasta or a biscuit, and record responses.
- Watch the video – does anything surprise them about the amount of energy generated in the experiments? Establish an understanding that foods such as pasta which are high in carbohydrate but low in fat and sugars provide energy for longer, but foods like biscuits which are high in sugars and fats provide a burst of energy, but for a much shorter length of time. Which do they think would be better to get them through the day?
- Without being able to do the experiment on the video, provide some different food examples (for example, via images or food packaging) and ask pupils to predict which would provide energy for longer, and which would provide a briefer burst of energy. If appropriate, provide empty packaging and ask pupils to use the labelling to find out which has the highest amount of carbohydrates, protein, sugar, fat etc.
Some examples:- Rice
- Bread
- Chocolate bar
- High sugar cereal (such as chocolate flavoured toasted rice)
- Porridge
- Sweets
- Potatoes
- Baked beans
- Cake
- Packet of crisps
Healthy heart
- Before viewing, ask pupils to make a list of foods which are healthy for our bodies (they could include some of those identified above), and those which are less healthy. Can they give reasons why these are not helpful for our bodies? Recap on any science learning they have had about the heart pumping blood around the body.
- Follow up discussion about the Food video by showing the Healthy heart video, which explains the build-up of plaque in the arteries, and demonstrates what happens when someone eats a lot of foods that are high in sugar and fat.
- Using the lists they made above, ask pupils to put a different coloured mark by the foods which would cause build-up of plaque in the arteries, and those that wouldn’t. This discussion can lead to further activities, such as designing a week’s worth of meals for a healthy body.
You can watch more Operation Ouch! on iPlayer.
More videos from this series
Grief. video
Dr. Chris and Dr. Xand discuss the topic of grief with a group of schoolchildren.
Anxiety. video
Dr. Xand and Dr. Chris discuss anxiety with a group of schoolchildren.
Stress. video
Dr. Ronx tries out some stress-busting techniques with schoolchildren.
Immune system video
Dr. Xand and Dr. Chris investigate how our immune systems work.
Vomit. video
Dr. Xand and Dr. Chris look at the biological process of vomiting.
Diarrhoea. video
Dr. Xand and Dr. Chris look at the causes and symptoms of diarrhoea.
Spots. video
Dr. Xand and Dr. Chris explain why we all get spots.
Sleep. video
Dr. Chris looks at why we need sleep and why children need more than adults.
