---
title: "Diet Imbalance & Deficiency"
description: "Explain the health consequences of an imbalanced diet including obesity (excess energy), starvation (severe energy deficit), and deficiency diseases (lack of specific nutrients, e.g. scurvy, rickets)"
canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/diet-imbalance-and-deficiency-mt_NZHFcEtTyI
source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/diet-imbalance-and-deficiency-mt_NZHFcEtTyI.md
retrieved: 2026-10-19
---

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# Diet Imbalance & Deficiency

Explain the health consequences of an imbalanced diet including obesity (excess energy), starvation (severe energy deficit), and deficiency diseases (lack of specific nutrients, e.g. scurvy, rickets)

Subject: Science · Area: Organisms & Life Processes · Ages 11 to 13
Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/diet-imbalance-and-deficiency-mt_NZHFcEtTyI

## Ready when they can

- Defines obesity, starvation, and deficiency disease and links each to dietary imbalance
- Identifies at least two specific deficiency diseases and the missing nutrient causing each
- Explains why the impact of poor diet can be long-term

## Lesson: When Diet Goes Wrong

Your body needs the right amount of food energy and the right mix of nutrients every day. When the amount is wrong, or a specific nutrient is missing, your health can suffer in different ways.

*(drawing: Each day this person eats more energy than they use. If this pattern continues for years, the extra energy is stored as fat, causing obesity.)*

**Example.** Tomas has had almost no food for many weeks after a drought ruined the crops in his village. His body has used up its stored energy, so it starts breaking down his own muscle just to keep his heart working. This is starvation, a severe, long-term lack of energy.

Sometimes a person eats enough energy but still misses one specific nutrient. Without enough vitamin C, the body cannot repair blood vessels and gums, which causes scurvy. Without enough vitamin D, growing bones do not harden properly, which causes rickets.

**Tip.** Diet problems often build up slowly. A missing nutrient can take weeks or months to cause symptoms, so damage from a poor diet can last a long time too.

**Recap.** Too much energy stored over time causes obesity, too little energy causes starvation, and missing a specific nutrient causes a deficiency disease like scurvy or rickets.

## Practice

8 questions on this page, each with its working shown.

## Needs first

- [Nutrients in a Healthy Diet](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/nutrients-in-a-healthy-diet-mt_sDmrVCfzqt)

## Opens up

- [Non-Communicable Disease and What Counts as a Risk Factor](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/non-communicable-disease-and-what-counts-as-a-risk-factor-mt_IciZ1CJn6h)
- [Planning Meals for a Whole Week](https://lightmysky.com/learn/design-and-technology/planning-meals-for-a-whole-week-mt_T_GY879Oa7)