Grainne McMacken Senior Community Dietician, North West Belfast Health & Social Services
A Balanced Diet
A balanced diet means getting the right variety of foods in the right amounts. We would normally describe a balanced diet in terms of the different food groups that there are.
Foods like bread, cereal and potatoes they would be very important providing energy, and that would give us the energy for growth, the energy to run round to do your normal activities, or the energy to go out and play. Fruit and vegetables would give us lots of important vitamins and minerals which we need and some of these can help protect us against heart disease and cancer. As for milk and diary foods go they would be very important from the point of view of providing enough calcium. Calcium is needed for bone development and growth. Meat and foods like chicken and fish and eggs, they are important for protein and also for some minerals and especially iron. Protein would be very important again for growth and the development of muscles and tissue which makes our body grow and iron is also important for healthy blood.
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