A balanced diet — questions

1. identify

Which statement describes a balanced diet?

Circle one answer.

• A diet with an equal amount of each nutrient
• A diet with as much protein and vitamins as possible
• A diet that contains all the nutrients the body needs, in the right amounts
• A diet made only of fresh foods

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Think about "all" and "the right amounts".

2. identify

Match each deficiency disease to its cause.

Write the number of the matching option.

1. An infection passed between people
2. Too little iron
3. Too little vitamin C
4. Too little vitamin D or calcium

• Scurvy: ______
• Rickets: ______

Nudge (only if you are stuck): One disease is of the gums and skin; the other is of the bones.

3. identify

Choose all the signs of scurvy.

Tick every correct statement.

• Tired and weak from too little iron
• Soft bones that bend
• Wounds that heal slowly or open again
• Constipation
• Skin that bruises easily
• Bleeding gums

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Vitamin C keeps the skin and gums healthy and helps wounds heal.

4. complete

Complete the sentences about rickets.

Rickets is a disease of children in which the … are soft and weak.

It is caused by too little …,

or by too little …

The skin makes vitamin D in …

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Look at the section on rickets in the reading.

5. identify

A station crate would last the 16-week winter for every nutrient except fibre, which runs out after 7 weeks. Which box would fill the gap?

Circle one answer.

• A jar of salted meat
• A tin of sunflower oil
• A tin of sardines
• A box of wholegrain crispbread

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Fibre is the cellulose from the walls of plant cells. Which box still contains plant cell walls?

6. interpret

The table shows, in a model like the one in this module's experiment, how many weeks a station's food store would supply each nutrient for. The winter lasts 16 weeks. Choose all the nutrients that would run short before the winter ends.

Tick every correct statement.

• Fat
• Vitamin D
• Iron
• Calcium
• Carbohydrate
• Vitamin C

Nudge (only if you are stuck): A nutrient runs short if its number of weeks is less than 16.

7. identify

A station store would last the 16-week winter for every nutrient except two: vitamin D (6 weeks) and calcium (10 weeks). Which change would fill both gaps?

Circle one answer.

• Add more tins of biscuits
• Add tins of sardines, eaten with their soft bones
• Add more sacks of rice
• Add more boxes of frozen berries

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Look for a food that contains both vitamin D and calcium.

8. explain

In 1747, the ship's doctor James Lind gave twelve sailors with scurvy the same food, and gave pairs of them a different extra each day: cider, vinegar, sea water, oranges and lemons, or one of two other mixtures. Only the pair given oranges and lemons got better quickly. Their usual food at sea was ship's biscuit and salted meat. (a) What causes scurvy? (b) Explain why the oranges and lemons cured it. (c) Explain why the sailors' usual food caused it.

(a) The cause of scurvy

(b) Why oranges and lemons cured it

(c) Why the usual food caused it

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Which vitamin is in citrus fruit? Is there any in biscuit or salted meat?

9. explain

A station's store has plenty of every nutrient except vitamin C. A team member says: "Let's pack twice as much rice and meat. Then the diet will be balanced." Explain why this would not work.

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Does rice or meat contain vitamin C?

10. calculate

In a model store, one box of frozen blackcurrants supplies the team with vitamin C for 13 weeks, and one bag of frozen vegetables for 11 weeks. A crate holds one box of blackcurrants and one bag of frozen vegetables, and no other food with vitamin C. How many weeks of vitamin C does the crate supply, and is that enough for a 16-week winter?

Weeks of vitamin C: ______________ unit ________

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Add the weeks from each food, then compare with 16.

11. interpret / explain

Another store is shown in the table. (a) Identify the nutrients that would run short in the 16-week winter. (b) Explain whether this store gives a balanced diet. (c) Identify one nutrient there is more of than the team needs.

(a) Nutrients that run short

(b) Balanced or not, and why

(c) More than needed

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Look for numbers under 16, and for a number far above 16.

12. explain / suggest

A young child lives in a city far north, where winter days are short and dark. The child spends most of the day indoors and does not drink milk or eat cheese. (a) Which deficiency disease is the child at risk of? (b) Explain the two reasons for the risk. (c) Suggest two changes that would lower it.

(a) The disease

(b) Two reasons

(c) Two changes

Nudge (only if you are stuck): One reason is about sunlight, the other about the food.

13. suggest / explain

A station team wants a winter crate with no animal foods at all. (a) Which nutrients are most likely to run short if they simply leave out the meat, fish, eggs and dairy foods? (b) Suggest plant foods that would fill each gap, and explain your choice.

(a) Nutrients likely to run short

(b) Plant foods to fill each gap, and why

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Which nutrients did the fish, eggs and dairy foods bring? Which plant foods have them, or have had them added?

14. evaluate

A supply company offers a "balanced winter box" made only of frozen fruit, frozen vegetables and dried fruit. Evaluate the name "balanced".

Nudge (only if you are stuck): Which nutrients do fruit and vegetables supply well, and which hardly at all?