• Section 1
• Section 2
• Section 3

SOME USEFUL NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
This Appendix contains some useful nutritional information. Again here we have been very selective. Section 1 is a brief discussion of the nutritive value of foods and desiable cooking practices. Section 2 gives a few balanced diets more as an example with a table on selected diets for an adult woman. Section 2 also contains samples of a few diets for a few therapeutic conditions: a bland diet, a low calorie diet and a low sodium diet. Section 3 briefly discusses the advantages of boiled rice over milled rice as also certain advantages of fermented food like idli, dosa, and sprouts in combination with fermental foods. Section 3 also discusses certain other foods and why some varities are more preferred than the other.

Section 1

NUTRITIVE VALUE OF FOODS

What are the foods that we eat made up of ?
Foods are made up of substances called nutrients. The nutrients are proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins. They are present in most foods but in different amounts.

What are proteins ?
Proteins are the chief substances of the body cells. Bone, blood and body tissues are built up from proteins. That is why foods rich in proteins are called "body-building foods".
Infants and children are continuously growing nd thus need protein for their growth and development.
Adults need proteins to maintain their body in godd health, while pregnant women need protein for the growth of the foetus. Similarly, a nursing mother needs more protein to make up the loss in protein through breast Milk, meat and eggs are very good sources of proteins.
Among vegetable foods, pulses and nuts are rich in protein. Cereals also have fair amounts of protein but less than what pulses contain. Among cereals, rice contains less protein than wheat, but the quality of the protein in rice is better.
For steady growth and good health, it is necessary to include some of the following foods in the daily diet--milk, meat, rice or wheat and eggs in the non vegetarian diet and milk, pulse, rice or wheat and nuts in the vegetarian diet.

What are Carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are another class of nutrients. They are sources of energy. Cereals like rice, wheat or bajra contain a lot of carbohydrates. Sugar, glucose, jaggery and honey are pure carbohydrates. Root vegetables like tapioca and sweet potato and fruits like bananas are rich in carbohydrates.

Fats
Fats are concentrated sources of energy. Fats provide twice as much energy as protein and carbohydrates. Butter, ghee, vanaspati and vegetable oils like gingelly oil, ground nut oil, sunflower oil and mustard oil are the commonly used fats.
The energy given out by food is measured in calories. When a person eats more energy-giving foods than necessary, the excess is storedin the form of fat.
The excess weight of these people is mainly due to stores of fat in the body.

Vitamins
Vitamins are substances found in small amounts in several foods. Vitamins are needed for growth and normal health. The body cannot produce them and therefore they must be provided through the diet. They are needed in very small amounts. There are numerous vitamins present in foods. Here are some of the important ones :
Vitamin A: Fish liver oil like cod-liver oil or shark-liver oil is the best source of this vitamin. Papaya, ripe mangoes, carrots, palak, amaranth, drumstick leaves are also good sourses.
Vitamin A is also found in milk, curds, egg and liver. Green leafy vegetables and yellow fruits contain plenty of a substance called carotene, which is converted into vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A is required for good eyesightand smooth skin.
Vitamin B-Complex
There are three important vitamins in the B-complex group-thiamine, riboflavin and nicotinic acid. As a result of deficiency of these B-vitamins, the mouth and tongue are affected. Foods like milk, eggs, pulses, nuts and leafy vegetables (e.g. amaranth) are good sources of the B-vitamins.
Minerals
Many minerals are needed by the body. Bones and teeth are made up mainly of the minerals calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.
Calcium
Calcium is needed for the proper development of bones and teeth. Pregnant and nursing mothers require more calcium.
Iron
Iron gives blood its red colour. It is needed for blood formation. Green leafy vegetables contain good amounts of iron. Pregnant and nursing mothers and growing children need more iron. Therefore, their diet must include green leafy vegetables in liberal amounts.

Balanced diet
A balanced diet is that which contains different foos in the right proportions and amounts so that all the nutrients are provided in required quantities.
To ensure a balanced diet one should include in the diet :

1. a mixture of cereals (rice, wheat, jowar, bajra, etc.)
2. pulses (greengram dal, benalgram etc,)
3. at least one green leafy vegetable and other vegetables.
4. a fruit daily (fruits like sitaphal, guava, papaya and tomato are cheap and wholesome).
5. fats and oils.
6. a glass of milk every day.
7. an egg a day(if possible and acceptable).
8. meat or fish (if not-vegetarian)

Vegetarian should take larger amounts of pulses compared to non-vegetarians.
Energy provided food is used for doing work. This energy is measured in calories. The number of calories required by a person will vary with sex, age and activity. Men require more calories and hence more food than women. Pregnant and nursing women and growing children need much more than others.
People doing hard, strenous work like stone-cutting, coal mining will need more calories than a person doing desk work (e.g. typist).

COOKING
Good nutrition includes correct cooking methods, so as to get the maximum benefit out of the food. cooking gives the food pleasant flavour and taste and makes it pleasing to the eye and easily digestable. But overcooking is harmful as it leads to a loss of nutrients.
There are various methods of cooking.
Boiling
Care must be taken to see that boiling is not continued for long periods. The water left over after cooking should never be thrown away. It can be used in soups or other liquid preparations.
Steaming
This method does not cause much loss of nutrients.
Frying
This is cooked in a small amount of oil. The precaution to be taken is to see that the oil is at the right temperaturebefore the food is put in. It is not advisable to use the same oil for many fryings.

How to cook vegetables?

1. Use the vegetables as soon as they are brought, unless they are stored in a refrigerator.
2. Vegetables should be washed well before cooking.
3. The must not be soaked in water for long assome minerals and vitamins may get dissolved in the water and thus get lost.
4. While peeling vegetables, care must be taken to remove as little as possible. This is because a large part of the vitamins and minerals in the vegtables lie just under the skin. That is why vegetables cooked with their skin or retain more food value.
5. Vegetables shouldbe cut into large pieces or if possible cooked whole.
6. Do not throw away the green leafy tops of vegetables like carrots, radish, knol-khol, cauliflower and beatroot for they are good sources of many nutrients.
7. Green leafy vegetables must be cooked in a covered vessel and they must be added to water brought to boil.
8. Vegetables should be cooked in little amounts of water and in as short a time as possible.
9. Cooked vegetables (or any other foodstuff) shouldcision to redo their answers as the matter became more clear and interesting when in print.

Use of raw vegtables.
Vegetables can be served raw as slads. Raw vegetables are very nutritious but they must be washed well in clean water to remove all dirt and harmful bacteria
Tomatoes, cucumber, spinach, cabbage etc., can all be eaten raw and a salad can be included in the daily diet.

Cooking of Rice
While cooking rice, see that rice is washed in little water and nost soaked in water. To one part of rice add 2 to 2-1/2 parts of water so that all water is absorbed at the end of cooking. If too much water is used, the excess water will have to be removed later on as ‘conjee’ and this will carry away some of the nutrients.*

Storage
Most foods except fresh foods need to be stored. Improper storage can lead to spoilage.
Cereals, dired pulses, condiments, spices etc., must be stored in clean, tightly covered tins. No moisture must be allowed to enter the containers.
The spoiled or damaged part of the vegetable has to be removed before storing. Vegetables must to stored in a cool, dry place, covered with a damp cloth.
Vegetables such as onions or potatoes can be stored in dry open tins or baskets.

Section 2

1. Balanced Diets for an Adult Woman

2. Bland Diet
A bland diet is a diet which is non irritating chemically and medhanically and which inhibits gastric secretion. It can be used for gastric and duodental ulcer patients after acute symptoms have subsided. With slight chages and reduction in fibre and fat content it can also be used for diarrhoea and ulcerative colitis.

Principles
The following foods should be avoided while formulating the diet :

1. All bran, coarse cereals
2. Skin and seeds of fruits
3. Raw vegetables
4. Vegetables like cabbage, beans, ladies-fingers and bitter-ground etc.
5. Spices and condiments
6. Fried food
7. Strong beverages
8. Pickles, chutneys, etc.
9. Tender coconuts water
10. Chocolate, puddings and similar preparations
11. Meat extracts and soups.

Sample Diet

This diet provides :

Distribution

3. Low-Calorie Diet
The diet provides less calories than the total energy requirements for the day : thus it provides for depletion of body fat. It is cases of abesity, cardiac disturbances and hypertension in over-weight individuals.

Principle
The following foods should be avoided while formulating the diet :

1. Sweets, chocolates, jaggery, jam, honey, preserves, puddings, cakes etc.
2. Roots and tubers
3. Fried foods
4. Dried fruits and nuts
5. Alcoholic drinks unless they contain artifical sweetening agents instead of sugar
6. Cream anf free fats
7. Fruits like banana, custard-apple, sapota, dates, etc.

Sample diet

This diet provides :

4. Low Sodium Diet
This is a normal diet but with a low sodium content. The food preparation for this diet are cooked without extra salt and high sodium foods are avoided. This is designed for use in conditions where there is sodium retention like oedema, nephritis, cardiac diseases, toxaemia of pregnancy and hypertension.

Principle
The following foods should be avoided while formulating the diet.

1. Salt in cooking or on table
2. Sea fish, salted meat and salted dry fish, lier etc.
3. Salted butter and cheese
4. All foods to which salt or baking soda has been added in cooking.
5. Pickles and chutneys.

Section 3

WHY SOME FOODS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

Rice Parboiled and Milled
Parboiled rice is prepared by soaking paddy in water for 2/3 days, boiled or steamed, dried and then dehusked. The grain is slightly coloured and is harder than the orginal grain. When rice is dehusked in mills, as against hand pounding it, the grain has a white polished appearance and therefore milled rice is also know as polished rice.
The nutrient content of the three varities of rice are shown in the table below :

Chemical Composition of Products Derived from Paddy *

The thiamine deficiency that is caused by intake of polished rice has often been associated with beriberi and even pellagra. Beriberi is prevalent in AP and practically absent in Tamil Nadu and Kerala where parboiled is consumed mostly. The upper classes who consume polished rice make up for their thiamine intake by eating pulses, milk and other foods. Fortification of polished rice with deficient nutrients has not found acceptability because of the yellow colour of such fortified rice. The only solution seems to be popularisation of parboiled rice and discouragement, if not banning of miled rice.

Sprouting and Fermentation

Loss During Cooking
We discuss here sprouting and fermentation as they are simple methods to enhance nutritive value of foods. This is especially important as a lot of minerals are lost during cooking unless the water used for cooking is retained. This is prevented by cooking foods in just sufficient water. Similarly rinsing and washing before cooking results in mineral losses. Foodgrains should be rinsed lightly and vegetables washed before cutting. However, with the onset of fertilizers and pesticides, it may be safer to lose minerals than ingest harmful chemicals in oneself.
Considerable amounts of carotene and Vitamin A are lost during cooking specially in a shallow and deep frying. Thiamine and riboflavin are lost during both wet and dry methods of cooking. Vitamin C is readily destroyed by heat, the losses being less with deep frying.
Starchy foods are digested better after cooking. The biological value of proteins is generally increased by wet methods of cooking. Protein value of pulses increases when subjected to heat because of the destruction of trypsin inhibitors. In cereals, on the other hand, dry methods of cooking (roasting, baking, parching) result in decreased protein because of the loss of lysine (an essential aminoacid that goes into building of protein), in which they are already deficient.
Fats deteriorate in nutritive value when subjected to prolonged heat combined with exposure to air. Changes in fat quality are less with baking, in bread, puddings, etc.

Increase in Vitamin Content
Fermentation and sprouting can compensate for the above losses by bringing about increase in vitamin content of foods. Fermentation makes cereals and pulses more suitable for children in the post-weaning period. It improves digestibility of the food. The micro organisms during fermentation secrete enzymes that facilitate the partial

Increase in Vitamin Content during Sprouting and Fermentation¹

degradation of starch, protein, etc. and thereby help synthesise vitamins. Usually some combination of cereals, millets and/or legumes is soaked in water for five to six hours, ground into a batter and allowed to ferment overnight at room temerature. This principle is used in making popular fermented foods like idli and dosa in South India and khaman dhokla in Gujarat.
When fermentation is followed by sprouting, there are further increases in vitamin content. The table adjoining clearly shows the increase in vitamin content during sprouting (S) and fermentation (F).
The gas that comes from eating beans is caused primarily by two unusual starches, stachyose and raffinose. These starchy villains can fortunately be removed from the beans by soaking and cooking. Probably the best method of eliminating these gas producing starches is by sprouting. Thus this not only increases the protien content, but also decreases the starch content, and shortens the cooking time of legumes. Sprouting has been explained in Basic Holistic Workbook, see Chapter 3, pp.55 to 59. During the process of sprouting, some of the stored starch in the legume is used up in forming the tiny leaves and rootlets and in manufacturing vitamin C, and other nutrients. Even an overnight soaking initiates this process of ‘bringing the beans to life’ and is an important way of improving digestibility. Increasing in digestibility and decrease in cooking time are very useful especially for legumes, because dry whole legumes are less easily cooked and digested than whole cereals. Sprouted legumes can be used instead of the dals normally used in fermentation, thus increasing the nutritive content of fermented foods even more.

Sugar and Wheat
We show briefly below why gur (jaggery) is to be preferred over refined sugar as also whole wheat bread over white bread.

Composition of Palm Gur as Compared to that of Cane Gur