In many parts of the world, especially the underdeveloped countries, one of the major concerns of the world organizations has been in the area of creating avenue and providing enough food for the populace. Yet much ground remains uncovered both in quantity and in quality wise to meet the teaming nutrition challenges.
It is therefore necessary to search for alternatives to bridge the gap while maintaining the nutritious standard to some extent.
Many people eat one main low cost food in every meal. This is their main food, which provide some of the body needed nutrients but will be of no benefit for a growing child until other food classes are added. This is because most of the main foods (available and particular to some communities) are predominantly in water and fibre with less energy and other food nutrients.
Feeding children enough and often (3 to 5 times daily) is more important than the food the child eats.
EATING WELL: A BALANCE DIET.
Eat the main food available in your area, with which you are accustomed to and add the helper foods available. This will reduce cost while maintaining the nutritious requirements for the dietary daily intake.
It is important to be well guided into what makes up a balanced diet with proper education on monitoring the quantity and quality of the food. Seasonal foods can as well be looked into to appropriate their adaptation.
Foods are basically classified in accordance to their nutritional value vis-à-vis carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, fat, minerals and water. It is discovered that there are some foods that contain more than the predominant nutrients, making up 3 or 4 nutrients in a single food. Therefore, in this write up food classification is based on the available food to the consumer.
Selections can be made appropriately from the descriptions below. Classifications of food in this case does not follow the conventional system as some of foods contains more than one nutrients and are the basic available main food in a particular community.
MAIN FOODS: These are foods commonly available in the locality and are accustomed to by the populace. Some of these foods are relatively cheaper as are readily available on demand. These are:
Cereals and Grains e.g. Wheat, Maize, Rice, Millets
Starchy Roots & Tubers e.g. Cassava, Potatoes, Yam
Starchy Fruits e.g. Banana, Plantain, Bread-fruits
HELPER FOODS: Theses are the energy giving foods. They are more costly but naturally not needed in much quantity and can be affordable. Some of them can be added to main food for more nutrition. They are
Fats: e.g. Vegetable oil, palm oil, butter, lard
Fatty Foods e.g. Coconut, fatty meat
Sugar e.g. granulated sugar, honey, sugarcane
GROWER FOODS: These set of foods are important for bodybuilding. They are refer to as the proteins.
LEGUMES: e.g. beans, peas etc., all legumes fall in this range. It is important that children of early age consume more of legumes and in combination with their main foods.
NUTS: e.g. Groundnuts, wall nuts, cashew nut (some of these nuts contain bits of energy)
ANIMAL PRODUCTS: e.g. Milk, eggs, fish, yogurt, cheese, chicken meat.
GLOW FOODS: These are the most essentials of diet. They are not required in large quantity but must be present to wade off unnecessary imbalance of the body systems.
VEGETABLES: e.g. dark green vegetable leaf, carrots, pepper, tomatoes, etc.
FRUITS: e.g. Mangoes, oranges, pawpaw, pineapple, banana, etc. The good side of these fruits is that they are seasonal. Thanks be to God, choices can be made from varieties at different seasons.
Read up related blog: Food Nutrients That Can Make You More Healthier. below.
Monday, May 18, 2009
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