Deficiency Disease
Contents
Key Stage 3
Meaning
A deficiency disease is an illness caused by missing some nutrients from your diet.
About Deficiency Diseases
- Not having a balanced diet can cause a deficiency disease.
Some Deficiency diseases you should know:
- Starvation - Not enough food, especially carbohydrates and fats. This can be cured by eating more food.
- Kwashiorkor - Not enough protein. This can be cured by eating more meat, beans or lentils.
- Anemia - Not enough Iron. This can be cured by eating more red meat or spinach.
- Scurvy - Not enough VitaminC. This can be cured by eating Citrus fruits.
- Rickets - Not enough Vitamin D. - This can be cured by eating more fish, drinking more milk or spending more time in The Sun as the skin can make Vitamin D with the help of sunlight.
| Starvation | Obesity | Scurvy | Kwashiorkor | Rickets |
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| Not enough food, especially foods with a lot of energy, causes you to become too thin. | Too much food, especially foods with a lot of energy, causes you to gain weight and increases the risk of heart attack. | Not enough Vitamin C causes your wounds to stop healing, sores to appear on the tongue and skin and teeth to fall out. | Not enough protein causes your organs to swell. | Not enough Vitamin D causes bones to become bendy. |
References
AQA
- Deficiency diseases (in plants), page 151, GCSE Biology, CGP, AQA
- Deficiency diseases, page 105, GCSE Biology, Hodder, AQA