2022-2023

B.ed
1st Semester

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Guided By Submitted By

Miss Mamta Pandey Archana Tirkey

Food (Balance Diet)

Diagram – Different types of food

Balanced Diet Definition
A balanced diet contains an adequate amount of all the nutrients required by the body to grow, remain
healthy and be disease-free. In addition,a healthy, balanced diet provides the necessary energy
requirement, protects against vitamin, mineral, and other nutritional deficiencies, and builds up
immunity.

What are The Benefits of Eating a Balanced Diet?

A balanced meal helps provide the body with all the nutrients it needs to maintain normal growth and
repair functions.

Benefits of Healthy Eating for Adults

A healthy diet helps boost immunity, reduces the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular
diseases, and some cancers, maintains a healthy weight, and helps recover quickly from diseases and
trauma.

Benefits of Healthy Eating for Children

A healthy diet helps strengthen bones, supports brain development, boosts immunity, and regulates
growth functions.

Essential Components of a Balanced Diet

Proteins, carbohydrates, fats or lipids, micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, and water are the
essential components of a well-balanced diet.

1. Carbohydrates - Carbohydrates provide you with energy, which should constitute 50- 60% of
your diet. Though it forms a significant diet component, you should not treat all carbs equally.
Sources of healthy carbs are –

 Whole grains like Oats, Quinoa

 Whole wheat, Dahlia
 Legumes
 Millets like ragi, bajra, barley
 Vegetables

2. Protein – Protein helps you build muscles and develops skin and hair. It should constitute 10-12
% of your diet.
Sources of protein are –

 Legumes and beans, soyabean

 Poultry-Chicken
 Seafood- Fish, Crab, Prawn, Lobster
 Eggs
 Lean meat- Lamb, Beef, Pork
 Nuts and Seeds
 Greek yoghurt
3. Fat - It is a misconception that fats are bad for your health. It would be best if you chose
healthy fats as fats help you maintain your body temperature and help absorb fat-soluble
vitamins ADE&K.

Sources of healthy fat are -

 Avocados
 Nuts
 Seeds
 Extra virgin Olive oil
 Fatty fish- Salmon, Sardines, Mackerel, Herring

4. Vitamins - Though there are 13 essential vitamins, you should take vitamins A, C, B, and
D measures.

Sources of vitamins are -

 Fruits
 Vegetables
 Poultry
 Seeds
 Nuts

Foods to Avoid For a Healthy Balanced Diet

Avoid the below foods for a healthy life –
 Red meat
 Refined grains(cereals) like maida, white bread, sewain, noodles, pasta
 Trans fat, butter, cheese
 Added sugar
 Pastry
 Processed foods

Importance of A Balanced Diet

A balanced diet –

 Meet the nutritional demands of the body and prevent malnutrition

 Keep up energy levels and maintain normal body functions
 Boost the immune system and optimise cell repair
 Prevent lifestyle diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular diseases etc
 Strengthen bones, muscles, skin, teeth, and eyes
 Food Chain

Food Chain - Concept

 A food chain is the sequence of events in an ecosystem in which one living organism eats another
organism, which is then eaten by a larger organism.
 A food chain is the movement of nutrients and energy from one creature to another at different
trophic levels.
 The feeding pattern or relationship between living species is also explained by the food chain.
 A trophic level refers to the order in which producers, primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers
appear in a food chain, starting at the bottom with producers and ending with primary, secondary,
and tertiary consumers.
  A trophic level is the lowest level in a food chain.

Food Chain - Example

 Grass, for example, uses sunlight to make its own food.
 The grass is eaten by a grasshopper. The grasshopper in turn serves as prey to a frog.
 The snake is fond of consuming frogs. The hawk eats the snake.
 When a hawk dies, microbes decompose its body and return it to the soil, where it feeds nutrients
to grass-growing plants.

Major Components of Food Chain

The Sun

 The sun is the planet's primary source of energy, providing energy to all living things.
 Thus it is the primary component in a food chain.

Producers

 The first level of a food chain is made up of producers.

 The sun's energy is used by the producers to produce food.
 Producers, also known as autotrophs, are organisms that produce their own nourishment.
 Any plant or other organism that produces its own nutrients through photosynthesis is referred to as
a producer.
 Green plants, phytoplankton, and algae, for example, are all examples of producers in a food chain.

Consumers

 All species that rely on plants or other organisms for nourishment are considered consumers.
 As it encompasses practically all living species, this is the greatest part of a food chain.
 It contains herbivores (animals that eat plants), carnivores (animals that eat other
animals), parasites (animals that live on other organisms by hurting them),
and scavengers (animals that devour the carcasses of deceased animals).
 Primary consumers are herbivores, while secondary consumers are carnivores.
 Organisms that eat producers make up the second trophic level.
 As a result, species in the second trophic level are the main consumers or herbivores.

Decomposers

 Decomposers are organisms that obtain energy from dead or discarded organic matter. This is
the final step in the food chain.
 Decomposers transform organic waste materials into inorganic materials like nutrient-rich soil or
land, making them an important part of the food chain.
 A life cycle is completed by decomposers.
 They assist in nutrient recycling by supplying nutrients to soil or oceans that can be used by
autotrophs or producers.
 As a result, a new food chain is developed.
Types of Food Chains
Grazing Food Chain

 The grazing food chain begins with green plants, moves via herbivores, and finally to carnivores.
 Photosynthesis provides energy to the lowest trophic level in a grazing food chain.

Detritus Food Chain

 The detritus food chain starts with dead (decomposing) organic matter.
 Algae, bacteria, fungus, protozoa, mites, insects, worms, and other creatures and plants are all part
of the detritus food chain.

Significance of Food Chain

 Food chains are important because they illustrate the complex relationships that exist in an
ecosystem.
 A food chain demonstrates how every living organism relies on the survival of other organisms.
 The food chain can also be depicted as an illustration that depicts the path of energy movement
within an ecosystem.