Balanced diet

A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health.
It is important for lowering many chronic health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer.^[1]

•  A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all essential nutrients and an adequate amount of water. Nutrients can be obtained from many different foods, so there are numerous diets that may be considered healthy.
• A healthy diet needs to have a balance of macronutrients (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates), calories to support energy needs, and micronutrients to meet the needs for human nutrition without inducing toxicity or excessive weight gain from consuming excessive amounts

The World Health Organization (WHO) makes the following 5 recommendations with respect to both populations and individuals:^[2]

• Try to burn as much energy as you eat, and try to eat as much energy as you burn, as a healthy weight is a balance between those two.
• Increase consumption of food producing plants, particularly fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts
• Limit intake of fat and oil, and avoid saturated fats, which are those that become solid at room temperature such as coconut oil and all animal products including basically meat, dairy and egg. Prefer unsaturated fats, which remain liquid at room temperature instead, and which are found in almost all the plant based oils and foods. Eliminate trans-fatty acids
• Limit the intake of granulated sugar -- A 2003 report recommends less than 10% simple sugars^[3]
• Limit salt / sodium consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized

Cholesterol, from the Greek chole- (bile) and stereos (solid) followed by the chemical suffix -ol for an alcohol, is an organic chemical substance classified as a waxy steroid of fat. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes and is required to establish proper membrane permeability and fluidity.

• In addition to its importance within cells, cholesterol is an important component in the hormonal systems of the body for the manufacture of bile acids, steroid hormones, and vitamin D.
• Cholesterol is the principal sterol synthesized by animals; in vertebrates it is formed predominantly in the liver.
• Small quantities are synthesized in other cellular organisms (eukaryotes) such as plants and fungi. It is almost completely absent among prokaryotes, i.e. bacteria.

Although cholesterol is important and necessary for human health, high levels of cholesterol in the blood have been linked to damage to arteries and cardiovascular disease.^[2]

Nutrients	Deficiency	Excess
Energy	starvation, marasmus	obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease
Simple carbohydrates	none	diabetes mellitus, obesity
Complex carbohydrates	none	obesity
Saturated fat	low sex hormone levels [37]	cardiovascular disease[citation needed][dubious – discuss]
Trans fat	none	cardiovascular disease
Unsaturated fat	none	obesity
Fat	malabsorption of fat-soluble vitamins, rabbit starvation (if protein intake is high), during development: stunted brain development and reduced brain weight.[38]	cardiovascular disease[citation needed]
Omega-3 fats	cardiovascular disease	bleeding, hemorrhages
Omega-6 fats ( linoleic acid )	none	cardiovascular disease, cancer
Cholesterol	during development: deficiencies in myelinization of the brain.[39]	cardiovascular disease[citation needed][dubious – discuss]
Protein	kwashiorkor	rabbit starvation
Sodium	hyponatremia	hypernatremia, hypertension
Iron	anemia	cirrhosis, cardiovascular disease
Iodine	goiter, hypothyroidism	Iodine toxicity (goiter, hypothyroidism)
Vitamin A	xerophthalmia and night blindness, low testosterone levels	hypervitaminosis A (cirrhosis, hair loss)
Vitamin B1	beriberi
Vitamin B2	cracking of skin and corneal unclearation
Niacin	pellagra	dyspepsia, cardiac arrhythmias, birth defects
Vitamin B12	pernicious anemia
Vitamin C	scurvy	diarrhea causing dehydration
Vitamin D	rickets	hypervitaminosis D (dehydration, vomiting, constipation)
Vitamin E	nervous disorders	hypervitaminosis E (anticoagulant: excessive bleeding)
Vitamin K	hemorrhage
Calcium	osteoporosis, tetany, carpopedal spasm, laryngospasm, cardiac arrhythmias	fatigue, depression, confusion, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, constipation, pancreatitis, increased urination
Magnesium	hypertension	weakness, nausea, vomiting, impaired breathing, and hypotension
Potassium	hypokalemia, cardiac arrhythmias	hyperkalemia, palpitations