A balanced diet contains the different nutrients in the correct amounts to keep us healthy. Imbalanced diets can cause obesity, starvation and deficiency diseases.
A balanced diet is one that contains the correct amounts of all the necessary nutrients needed for healthy growth and activity. An imbalanced or poor diet can contain too much or too little of a particular nutrient. If you have too little of a particular nutrient, we say that you have a deficiency in that nutrient. For example, fibre is needed to keep food moving through the intestines easily, and people who have a fibre deficiency in their diet may get constipation.
You only need small amounts of the different minerals in your diet to stay healthy, but mineral deficiencies can make you ill. For example:
Like minerals, you only need small amounts of the different vitamins in your diet to stay healthy, but you become ill if you do not get enough. For example: