Diet, health and special needs: balanced eating with My Healthy Plate, energy balance, life stages, diet-related diseases and special diets

What this module demands

This module takes the nutrients you have learned and applies them to real people. SEAB (6073) wants you to explain what a balanced diet is, use My Healthy Plate to plan one, work out and judge energy balance, match nutrients to each life stage, explain how poor diet leads to disease, and adapt meals for people with special needs. The written Paper 1 tests this with data-response questions on a person's diet and longer questions that ask you to plan and justify meals; the same skill is the heart of the coursework food study, where you plan and evaluate dishes for a chosen group. This overview links every dot point in the module.

You can see the full set of dot points at /sg-n-level/nutrition-and-food-science/syllabus/diet-health-and-special-needs.

Building a balanced diet

Start with a balanced diet and My Healthy Plate. A balanced diet gives all the nutrients in the right amounts. My Healthy Plate turns this into a simple picture: a quarter wholegrains, a quarter good protein, and half fruit and vegetables, with water as the drink and a little healthy oil. Use the plate to check any meal at a glance and to suggest improvements.

Energy needs and energy balance explains where the body gets energy and what changes how much it needs. Energy balance compares energy in (from food) with energy out (basal metabolism plus activity). If they match, weight is steady; a surplus is stored as fat; a shortfall uses up stores. Energy needs rise with age up to adulthood, with body size, with activity level, and during pregnancy, and are higher in males than females on average.

Health, life stages and disease

Nutritional needs across life stages is about matching nutrients to the person. Children and teenagers need protein, calcium and iron for growth; pregnant women need extra protein, calcium, iron and folate; older adults need calcium and vitamin D, fibre, and fewer kilojoules. Always justify the nutrient by the life stage.

Diet-related diseases links poor diet to illness: obesity from long-term energy surplus, coronary heart disease from too much saturated fat and salt, type 2 diabetes from obesity and too much free sugar, high blood pressure from too much salt, and tooth decay from sugary foods. For each, know the cause and a prevention.

Planning for special dietary needs adapts a balanced meal for vegetarians, people with diabetes or high blood pressure, and people with food allergies or intolerances, while keeping the meal balanced and appealing.

How this module is examined

• Judge a diet against My Healthy Plate. Data-response questions show a day's meals and ask what is missing or excessive. Compare it to the plate proportions and name specific fixes.
• Calculate and interpret energy. Use about 17, 17 and 37 kJ per gram to find a meal's energy, then say whether it suits the person's energy needs.
• Plan and justify for a person. Longer questions name a life stage or special need and ask for a suitable meal with reasons. Match nutrients to the need every time.

Check your knowledge

Attempt these, then check against the solutions.

1. Describe the proportions of My Healthy Plate. (3 marks)
2. Explain what happens to body weight when energy in is greater than energy out. (2 marks)
3. State two nutrients a pregnant woman needs in extra amounts and why. (2 marks)
4. Name one diet-related disease and explain how it can be prevented through diet. (2 marks)
5. Suggest two changes to a meal to make it suitable for a person with high blood pressure. (2 marks)