Nutrients in a Balanced Diet

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Nutrients in a Balanced Diet

The 6 main nutrients are carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins, fats, protein and iron.

Foods like cereals, bread, rice, pasta are good sources of carbohydrates and they give us the energy we need to do daily activities. If your daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories this amounts to at least 250 grams of carbohydrate per day. 1,500 calories a day equates to 188 grams of carbohydrate per day.

Dried peas and beans like lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans are the best sources of fibre and is important for keeping the digestive tract working smoothly. Since we do not digest it, the fibre in food passes into the intestine and absorbs water. In the UK we eat on average 12g fibre per day, but new guidelines suggest this should rise to 18g, of both kinds of fibre.

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You get vitamins by eating foods from different food groups like pork, poultry, eggs and fish are the best sources of vitamin The vitamins work together to help your body use the energy you get from food. Some vitamins are also important in helping the body use protein from the diet to build new cells and tissues. The suggested daily requirements for men, women are shown in the Table below.

Some of the fat that we eat comes from what is added in cooking or spread on breads, vegetables or other foods. A lot of fat ...

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There are some repetitions in the text and minor grammatical errors. Otherwise, spelling, punctuation and grammar are fine. The layout of the text is okay, but I think this should be split up into the different nutrients and their properties as for now this is all mashed together in one text.

The candidate outlines well why each nutrient is required and the guideline amounts of each, but the chemical knowledge required is only that of basic GCSE level. The candidate tries to analyse the dietary requirements in two practical situations and whilst their advice is correct to some degree, it is also wrong and shows the candidate needs further understanding of the role of the different nutrients

Overall a good piece for GCSE level. The candidate shows a base understanding that is required for GCSE but to gain higher marks the candidate should grow into greater chemical detail and research the different nutrients better to gain a good understanding.