Planning Balanced Diets

Now that we have studied the concept of  a balanced diet, we can move on to the planning of balanced diets. We have to arrive at simple techniques  whereby we can plan diets  for various individuals depending on physiological factors such as age and sex. This section will introduce you to the basics of planning balanced diets i.e. 

• the selection of the right  kind of foods and 
• the inclusion of suitable amounts of these foods so as to meet nutrient needs. 

Let us first  look at the usefulness of classifying food in helping us to include the right  types of foods in our diet. 

A. Classification based on source: The simplest and most  obvious classification is based on the inter relatedness of certain food items in terms ofsimilar  sources. 

The following categories are commonly identified  even by a lay  person: 

• Cereals and millets 
• Pulses 
• Nuts and oil seeds 
• Green leafy vegetables 
• Root vegetables 
• Other vegetables 
• Fruits 
• Milk and milk products 
• Sugar and jaggery 
• Fats and oils 
• Flesh foods (fish, meat,  poultry) 
• Eggs 
• Condiments and spices 

B. Classification of food based on function: The first classification you have studied is  based on source. This classification is difficult to use  in day-to-day life for  planning diets because there are so many groups. Just imagine juggling  with thirteen food groups! We need a much  simpler classification. If you  look at Table you  would  notice that several groups are important for their content of the same  nutrient and would,  therefore,  perform the same  major  function in the body. For example, eggs, milk and  flesh foods all supply  protein and therefore perform body-building functions. To overcome this  problem of overlap and to make the groups easier to use, other ways of classification have been devised. Let us  now study  one of these-the three group classification  based  on function.

Food has  three  basic  physiological functions energy-giving, body-building and protective/regulatory functions. You are also  familiar with the fact that food performs these functions because of the specific nutrients it contains. Foods rich in carbohydrates or fats or both provide energy for instance. Similarly, foods rich in protein aid in body-building or in other words, addition of new tissues and repair of worn out tissues. Vitamins and minerals present in food contribute to preventing  disease. This is called the protective function. Water,  fibre and of course, the  vitamins and minerals  play a role in  regulating  body functions as you  have learnt. Food can, therefore, be classified into  the following three  categories based on function: 

Group 1.  Energy-giving foods 

Group 2.  Body-building foods 

Group 3.  Protective/ regulatory  foods 

The energy-giving category includes three types of foods: 

1)  Carbohydrate-rich foods A 

•  Cereals 
•  Roots and  tubers 

2)  Carbohydrate-rich foods B   

•  Sugar 
•  Jaggery 

3)  Fat-rich foods  

•  Fats  and oils

The  primary  nutrients provided by these foods, as you  see, are carbohydrate/fat. In addition to carbohydrate, cereals also provide some protein, vitamins and minerals as you learnt. Similarly, fats and oils  provide  fat-soluble vitamins in  addition to fat. 

The body-building group includes those foods which are rich in  protein. The group includes:

• Milk and milk products 
• Meat and meat products 
• Fish 
• Eggs 
• Pulses 
• Nuts and oilseeds. 

The primary nutrient provided by all these foods is  protein.  These  foods provide several other nutrients  as well, some of them in significant amounts. Nuts and oil seeds. for  example, are excellent sources of fat in addition to protein. 

The third food group is called the protective/regulatory group.  The primary nutrients provided by foods in this group are vitamins and minerals.

Foods in the protective/regulatory category include:

Fruits

• Yellow and  orange  fruits (e.g. mango, papaya) 
• Citrus fruits (e.g. lemon, lime, orange) 
• Others (e.g. plum, banana) 

  

  The three group classification of food

Vegetables 

• Green leafy vegetables (e.g. spinach, fenugreek, mustard) 
• Yellow and orange vegetables (e.g. carrot, pumpkin) 
• Others (e.g. ladies finger, brinjal. cauliflower, cabbage) 

Green leafy vegetables. yellow and orange fruits  and vegetables and citrus fruits are emphasized because they are particularly rich  in carotene vitamin  C as well as minerals.

This is a simple classification.  However, it  is useful  in planning meals/diets and is the most commonly used classification. One has to ensure that  each and every meal includes foods from the energy-giving, body-building and protective/regulatory groups. In this manner the diet would supply  all essential nutrients and would become balanced. 

Now that we have studied this simple way of classifying food, let us try to understand how food groups can be used to plan meals. Let us take lunch as an example. 

Meal: Lunch 

Food groups - The three group classification 

Two alternative lists of food items selected from each food group are mentioned. Now we must translate this into a list of dishes to be served. Such a list is called a menu The following chart gives you an idea of how to convert these lists of food items into the magic of menus.

Let us now take an example typical of the south for tiffin (a meal consumed in the afternoon after a heavy breakfast consumed  mid-morning).

You  can use the three group classification to pian for any meal. Remember to include a cereal and a source of fat it could be ghee. vanaspati or a vegetable oil from the energy-giving group in each meal. If you are including a sweet item, sugar would also be part of the energy-giving group. You would also have noticed that it is not necessary to include three items in a menu because there are three food groups. In fact, a single dish can also be a balanced meal. The following example will make this point clear.