Balanced Diet

Question 1 Define the term diet?

Question 2 How does the balanced diet of a man doing hard work differ from another man doing normal work?

Question 3 Why does a labourer need more carbohydrate in his diet than normal?

Question 4 State pre-cooking practices which lead to the loss of nutrients in food materials?

Question 5 Who needs more proteins in his daily diet in relation to body weight: a growing child or a grown up man?Why?

Question 6 Define the term balanced diet? 

Also Read NCERT Solutions for Chapter 3 Fibre to Fabric

Diet

The food which we eat during the whole day is called our diet. For growth and maintenance of good health, our diet should have all the nutrients that our body needs, in right quantities. Not too much of one and not too little of the other.

Balanced Diet

The diet which contains adequate amount of all nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins ,vitamins, minerals is called a balanced diet.

A balanced diet also contains sufficient amount of water and roughage.

No single food item can provide us all the essential nutrients in adequate amount.

In order to make a balanced diet ,we should include a number of different food items in our daily meals which taken together ,provide us all nutrients in adequate amount.

A balanced diet depends on the age of the person and also on the occupation of the person.

Dependence of Diet on Age

A balanced diet of a child is different from that of a grown up man.

A growing child needs more protein in his diet than a grown up man.A growing child also needs more minerals like calcium and phosphorus for the formation of bones.

Dependence of Diet on Occupation

The balanced diet of a man doing hard physical work is different from another man doing normal work.

A man doing hard physical work needs more carbohydrates in his diet than another man doing normal work. This is because he needs more energy for doing hard physical work ,and this extra energy is supplied by including more of carbohydrate rich foods in his diet.

A balanced diet should contain contain enough food items such as:

1 Cereals, potatoes, sugar (to provide carbohydrates )

2 Butter, ghee, oil (to provide fats)

3 Pulses ,peas, milk, cheese, fish ,meat ,eggs( to provide proteins )

4 Vegetables and fruits (vitamins, minerals and roughage)

5 Water

Avoid wasteful Pre-cooking and cooking practices

The raw food material are washed, peeled, cut and cooked to make them fit for eating. The various wasteful pre-cooking practices lead the loss of nutrients are:

1 Repeated washing of rice and pulses removes the water soluble vitamins and some minerals from them and hence lowers the nutritive value.

2 Washing of fruits and vegetables after they have been peeled and cut, remove the water soluble vitamins and some minerals.

3 Taking off thick peels from fruits and vegetables lead to loss of vitamins and minerals.

The various wasteful cooking practices leads to loss of nutrients are

1 Cooking the food at high temperature.

2 Throwing away water in which food is boiled.

Cooking improves the taste of food and makes it easier to digest. At the same time, cooking also results in the loss of certain nutrients. Many useful proteins and considerable amounts of minerals are lost if excess water is used during cooking and is then thrown away.

 

Notes for Chapter 2 Components of Food Components of Food Balanced Diet Deficiency Diseases