How to Play
Each food in Minecraft will have one or more nutrients. Hover over a food item to see which nutrients it provides along with the total number of Nutritional Units (NUs).
When you eat food, you will gain the nutritional units provided by the food divided among the nutrients it provides. You will want to eat foods that provide a variety of nutrients and avoid eating too much of a single nutrient.
To see how you are doing, press the 'n' key (configurable) or click
the nutrient button (
) in your inventory.
This will bring up the Nutrients GUI.
The blue shaded areas show your current level of each nutrient. The horizontal green lines show the boundaries of the "target" area. The horizontal red lines at the bottom show the "malnourishment" boundaries, and the red lines at the top show the "engorgement" boundaries.
Get all of your nutrients in the target areas to achieve a balanced diet and get a few buffs. Avoid letting your nutrient levels cross the red boundaries or you will get some minor debuffs.
Notice that some nutrients have different targets. Sugar is a "non-essential" nutrient, which means it does not count against your target as long as it stays below top target boundary, and it never causes malnourishment.
Veggies are always good. As long the level is above the lower target boundary, it will count toward your target. You can eat as many veggies as you want, and it will not cause engorgement.
Nutritional Balance doesn't make it super difficult to keep your nutrients balanced as long as you don't ignore them completely.