User:Chauhan shalu/Sandbox

=NUTRITION FOR SELF AND FAMILY=

MEAL PLANNING
"Meal planning involves planning nutritious meals for all individuals in a family keeping in mind their age, activity, likes, dislikes and food availability."

NUTRITIOUS
Methods that retain, enhance nutrients and minimize nutrient loss, should be adopted. The meals should be prepared and served at fixed meal times without too much holding or reheating. This also helps to retain the nutrients. Nutrients can be enhanced by including sprouted, combination, puffed, parboiled or fermented foods.

FLEXIBILITY
The age, activity, health status, and preferences of each family member are different. The meals planned should not be rigid but one should be able to adapt them according to the nutritional needs of individual family. For example, a common meal for the family is moong dal, rice, curd, cucumber and carrot salad.

ECONOMY OF RESOURCES
Meals planned should be easy and fast to cook. Emphasis should be to include seasonal, low cost foods. For this plan low cost nutritious meals, reuse the left-over in an appetizing and novel way. Plan low cost nutritious meals: Expensive foods need not be bought, instead, one can buy seasonal foods or cheaper substitutes for providing the same amount of nutrition.

SATIETY
The meals should give a feeling of fullness and satisfaction. An appetizing meal fulfills both these requirements. Protein and fat rich foods have a high satiety value hence a person does not feel hungry for quite some time, after consuming such foods.

ATTRACTIVE AND APPEALING
Meals presented in an appealing manner leads to more pleasurable experience. Meals can be made attractive and appetizing by using: 1.Contrasting colored foods: Foods chosen should be of contrasting colours such as bhindi with kadi chawal. Garnishes used should be in contrasting colours to the dish. 2.Food combination: Each food has its distinct flavor. The flavors of food included in meals should blend with each other. 3.Mouth feel: The food should be acceptable as soon as it is put in mouth. In case the food is too hot, salty, spicy, or hard, it may immediately be rejected by an individual. 4.Shape: Food should be cut evenly. Different shapes can be introduced by slicing, dicing, grating, shredding to produce, varied shapes such as round, long, oblong and oval.

VARIETY
Variety in textures, colours, cooking methods, spices, consistency should be observed in each meal. Menu planned should be repeated after long periods in order to prevent menu fatigue. Variety can be introduced by using different ingredients, textures, forms, flavor, consistency.

NUTRITIONAL NEEDS
These in turn depend on physiological factors: 1.Age: Nutritional requirements of infants, school going children, adolescents and adult differ from each other. Children and adolescents need more energy. 2.Physiological state: A pregnant woman requires 300 kilocalories whereas lactating woman needs initially 550 kilocalories and after 6 months, 400 calories more than a normal woman of the same age. 3.Activity: These adults occupied in varied activities such as sedentary, moderate and heavy would have different nutritional needs. A sedentary worker needs lesser calories as compared to persons doing moderate and heavy work. 4.Sex: Dietary requirements of adolescents and adult males are more as compared to females of same age.

CULTURAL FACTORS
There are individuals differences in food habits. These are influenced by cultural factors such as regional preferences, religious beliefs, traditions and customs of people. 1.Religious preference: Because of abundant availability, wheat is preferred in Punjab, whereas rice is an integral part of the diet in the south. 2.Religious beliefs: Some communities avoid consumption of certain foods in their meals. 3.Traditions and customs: Special dishes are prepared on certain festivals such as gujiya on Holi, cakes on Christmas, and sweet meals on Diwali. 4.Myths and traditions: Food habits are also influenced by certain myths, e.g., milk and fish are generally not consumed at the same time for fear of developing white patches on the skin.

AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES
1.Physical facilities: Meals have to be planned according to the available physical facilities and equipment, e.g., baked items can be planned only if one has an oven. 2.Skills: Skill in preparing certain dishes influences the choice of the menu, e.g., a person skilled in Chinese cooking would naturally prefer to include these dishes in a menu. 3.Time and energy: Either an elaborate or a simple dish can be planned depending on the time available and the energy level of the person preparing the meal. 4.Money available: To economize, one can plan less expensive but nutritious meals. Meats or nuts can be substituted with soya bean or peanuts for proteins. 5.Seasonal availability: Seasonal vegetables should be included in the meals as they have right flavor and taste and are generally inexpensive because of abundant supplies.

CLIMATE
In warm weather or tropical climate, light, cool refreshing, meals should be planned whereas in a cold climate, hot and spicy foods can be included in the meals.

INDIVIDUAL LIKES AND DISLIKES
Food should be planned keeping the likes and dislikes of individual family members so that the food is not omitted from the diet, e.g., if a person dislike spinach, it can be served in the form of pakoras, koftas, puris or mixed soup, where it's flavor would be camouflaged.