Food and Nutrition ESSAYS

As we have read earlier, eggs and flesh foods like meat, fish, etc. are very good sources of protein and belong to basic food group. Therefore they form an important part of the diet. These foods are required for body-building and are particularly important during periods of growth like childhood, adolescence and pregnancy. These foods are very expensive and it may not be possible for you to consume them in large amounts. However, we must try and include some of these foods in our daily diet unless one is a strict vegetarian. As presented earlier, eggs are a very important part of our diet, since they are a good source of protein, iron, vitamin A and other B-complex vitamins. While purchasing eggs a few simple tests may help us determine their freshness. Eggs are easy to use in our daily meals and a number of preparations like omelettes, custards, etc. can be made at home. Flesh foods are the meat of various animals, birds and fish. These are rich in protein, iron and B-complex vitamin...

Pulses are an essential constituent of the Indian diet. All of us include some form of pulse in our diet. Rajmah, chana, besan, moong, arhar are all examples of frequently eaten pulses. Besides being good sources of proteins they are also rich in minerals and vitamins. Nuts and oilseeds are also very nutritious. We may not be eating them in very large amounts due to the high cost of these food items. However, groundnuts are commonly consumed and provide certain nutrients to our body. Pulses are a very important part of our diet. They provide protein, iron and certain vitamins. Since a number of pulses are available and they can be cooked in several different ways, it is easy to consume sufficient amounts of these foods in our diet. Nuts and oilseeds are also important because of their rich nutrient content. They are relatively expensive and therefore difficult to include in the diet. However, a variety of ways are suggested to include these in our diet.

 You would have enjoyed eating sweet preparations like burfi, gulabjamuns, rasgullas, ice-creams. These sweets and desserts form an important part of any feast or social functions like birthdays or marriages. All these preparations have sugar as an ingredient. Your tea, coffee, soft drinks and other beverages, also contain sugar. The main sweetening agent all over the world is sugar. This is made from sugarcane or sugarbeets. In our country sugarcane is used for making sugar, while in European countries, especially West Germany, sugar beets are used. Which ever source is used for the production of sugar, the product obtained is the same. Our country is one of the largest producers of sugar. Sugar is produced from sugarcane in the factories. In brief the process of making sugar is: the sugarcane is crushed. The juice so obtained has some impurities. It is then refined and concentrated to form sugar crystals. In our villages even now a large quantity of sugarcane is used to produce j...