Eating right

RUTH N. DAVIDAR

What happens to children between ages five and 12 could be crucial to the development of our entire nation. If a child survives beyond the age of five years, it does not mean that he can get by with minimal care. It is important that we remember that he is still a child whose needs are to be met. Indispensable to his development is adequate nutrition. Sufficient food to satisfy hunger is not enough. The child has to receive the many nutrients - proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals - essential for growth and development, both physical and intellectual.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) makes various recommendations concerning health for the people of this country. Recently, they reviewed the heights and weights of Indian children. According to their findings, for optimum health, the heights of Indian boys aged five and 12 years should be in the range 107 cm and 145 cm, and the corresponding weights 17.4 kg and 35.4 kg. Indian girls of the same age should weigh between 17 kg and 39 kg, and should be between 106 cm and 147 cm tall .

The ICMR once again advocates what foods may provide this nutrition. To facilitate the selection process, they have divided all foods into five groups, popularly known as the basic five. The foods within a group provide the same number of calories for a given weight. Additionally, they also provide the same nutrients, making substitution easier if, for instances, a particular food is not available. For a balanced diet, all you have to do is choose foods from every group, every day, though not necessarily for every meal.

The first group comprises cereal grains. In India, rice and wheat, and to a lesser extent, ragi, bajra, jowar, and maize make up the bulk of the diet. These foods provide about 80 per cent of our calorie requirements, and some proteins and vitamins, especially if parboiled rice and unsieved wholemeal wheat flour (atta) are chosen over highly refined cereals like white flour (maida). Fermenting cereals is even more beneficial, so iddlis are a better option than uppuma.

Pulses, dried peas and beans make up the second group. Whole pulses (grams) or split (dhals) like Bengal gram, black gram, red and green gram, besides soya beans, dried French beans (rajmah) and lentils (masoor) give us proteins which are best utilised when combined with cereals. Therefore, rice-roti-dal combinations are an excellent means to get the right sort of proteins, especially in vegetarian diets. Children of school-going age should have at least one meal that has a cereal-pulse combination. Some vitamins and minerals are also provided by this group, though sprouting whole pulses significantly increases their availability.

Vegetables are further sub-divided into three categories based on their water content. While all these groups provide valuable vitamins and minerals like carotene (the precursor of vitamin A), vitamin C, calcium, iron, and magnesium, the sub-division highlights their calorie content, with the vegetables with the least water providing the most calories.

Fruits are also divided into two sub-groups. The very sweet ones - like mangoes, bananas and sapotas - fall into one category and the rest into another. Fruits are an important source of vitamins and minerals.

The fourth group includes meat, chicken, eggs, fish, and pork, besides milk and its products like cheese. The most wholesome proteins come from this group, as do the best quality iron and calcium, though milk is a poor source of iron. Other minerals and vitamins are equally abundant.

Finally, we have the group that includes fats and sugars. Oils derived from groundnut, gingelly (sesame), mustard, sunflower and safflower, are far more healthy than solid fats like butter, ghee, coconut oil and vanaspati, even though there is little difference in their food values and they all provide the same amount of fat and calories for the same weight. The nuts and oilseeds from which vegetable oils are extracted have, in addition, beneficial minerals and vitamins.The liberal use of spices and condiments further enhances the nutrition we receive from the Basic five food groups. With fewer deep-fried foods and highly salty and oily pickles, we can hope to keep our children adequately nourished, especially when we keep in mind that by the time a child is 12 years old, he or she should receive nutrients almost equal to that of an adult's intake.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Next     : Looking for the needle ...