Balanced Diets, Energy Needs and Diet-Related Health
A balanced diet gives your body the right nutrients in the right amounts. Learn what a balanced diet is, how your energy needs are worked out, and the health problems a poor diet can cause.
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Eating the right balance
A balanced diet gives your body the nutrients it needs, in the right amounts. The UK guide to this is the Eatwell Guide. Get the balance or the amount of energy wrong, over time, and your health can suffer. This module covers what a balanced diet is, how energy needs are worked out, and the health problems a poor diet can cause.
Energy balance words
Four ideas run through healthy eating.
Match the health risk
- Obesity
- Iron deficiency anaemia
- Coronary heart disease
- Dental decay
- Eating far more energy than you use
- Too little iron in the diet
- Too much saturated fat and salt
- Too much sugar
Energy balance
What happens if you regularly eat more energy than your body uses?
- The extra energy is stored as fat and you gain weight
- You lose weight quickly
- Nothing changes at all
- You need less sleep
Too much or too little?
Energy balance works both ways, and both extremes cause problems.
Match the energy share
- Protein
- Fat
- Carbohydrate
- Free sugars
- About 15% of energy
- 35% of energy or less
- About 50% of energy
- No more than 5% of energy
Learn the percentages
A balanced diet gets about 50% of its energy from carbohydrates, 35% or less from fat, and about 15% from protein, with no more than 5% from free sugars. These figures are worth learning exactly, as they are often tested.
Turning percentages into kcal
A _____ diet follows the Eatwell Guide. Your energy needs depend on your _____, the energy used at rest, plus how active you are. A teenager taking in 2000 kcal a day should be getting roughly 1000 of those from _____, and staying under 100 kcal from free _____. Any energy eaten beyond what the body uses is stored as _____.
Diet-related risks
Which of these are diet-related health risks? Choose all that apply.
- Obesity
- Type 2 diabetes
- Iron deficiency anaemia
- A broken arm from falling
- Catching a common cold
Spot the balanced diet
Tap the two habits that are part of a balanced diet.
- Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables.
- Having only small amounts of food high in fat and sugar.
- Skipping meals to save time.
- Eating only one type of food.
Plan a healthy diet
Put the steps of planning a healthy diet into a sensible order.
- Work out your energy needs from rest and activity
- Plan meals using the Eatwell Guide
- Include plenty of fruit and vegetables
- Limit foods high in fat, salt and sugar
- Match the energy you eat to the energy you use
Why more energy?
Two people are the same age. One runs every day, the other sits down all day. Why does the runner need more energy?
- A higher physical activity level raises energy needs
- A lower rate of energy use at rest
- The runner eats less protein
- Activity has no effect on energy needs
Give the right advice
Each person has a diet problem. Choose the healthiest advice at each stage.
- Someone eats many sugary snacks and has tooth decay. What advice helps most?
- Someone is often tired and pale and eats little iron-rich food. What might help?
- Someone eats far more energy than they use and is gaining weight. What is the healthiest change?
A balanced diet, and what goes wrong
Explain what a balanced diet is and describe one diet-related health problem that can happen if the diet is wrong.
- Explain what a balanced diet includes
- Explain what energy balance means
- Name one diet-related health risk and its cause