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Home Family and Home Science – Balanced Diet, Meal Planning & Modification of Family Meals for Various Age Groups

Balanced Diet

A balanced diet is one which contains different types of food in such quantities that the individual՚s need for the various nutrients us adequately met, and some amounts of nutrients are stored in the body to withstand short periods of low dietary intake.

Characteristics of a Balanced Diet

A balanced diet contains both plant and animal foods and fulfils following requirements:

  • Meets the nutritional of an individual
  • Includes foods from all the food groups
  • Contains a variety of foods
  • Contains of seasonal foods
  • Is economical
  • Suits the tastes and meets the desires of the individual eating it

What is Meal Planning

  • Meal planning is making a plan of meals with adequate nutrition for every member of the family within the available resources.
  • The term ‘available resources’ means whatever the family has in terms of time, energy and money.

Importance of Meal Planning

  • Meal planning is important for meeting the nutritional requirements of the family members.
  • It helps us to decide what to eat each day and in each meal.
  • We can call it our ‘daily food guide’ .

Meal planning helps us to

  • Fulfil the nutritional requirements of the family members
  • Make the food economical
  • cater to the food preferences of individual members
  • save energy, time and money
  • use left-over food

Factors Affecting Meal Planning

  • Nutritional Adequacy
  • Age
  • Sex
  • Physical Activity
  • Economic Considerations
  • Time, energy and skill considerations
  • Seasonal availability
  • Religion, region, cultural patterns, traditions and customs
  • Variety in colour and texture
  • Likes and dislikes of individuals
  • Satiety Value

Modification of Family Meals for Various Age Groups

  • Meal planning is an art and science in itself. It is affected by various factors like nutritional requirements, budget, season etc. Meal provides all the essential nutrients such as- energy, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals.
  • The nutritional requirements of all the family members can be met by varying the quantity of food items and by combination of foods. Include food items from different food groups to get variety and maximum nutrients.

Through Modification in the Diet

Diet modification means serving the meal cooked for the family to any member after varying it in quantity, quality and frequency of eating.

  • Quantitative modification of diet: This refers to the increase or decrease in the number of times a meal is taken and/or the portion size.
  • Qualitative modification of diet: It refers to the change in nutrients, consistency, flavour, amount of spices and fibre content of the diet.
  • Modification in terms of frequency: What would you suggest to a person whose requirements are increased but they are not able to increase the quantity of food in the original meals? Yes, you will suggest an increase in the number of meals instead. This means they should take something in between the main meals. This is diet modification in terms of frequency.

Through Food Exchange Method

  • If You are modifying the same meal for different family members, then how will you decide on how much of one item is equivalent to another one? If you are not sure about how to go exchanging one food item with another in the correct proportion, then you may not be able to fulfil everyone՚s requirements correctly.
  • Food exchanges help you to modify the diet for an individual according to needs, likes, dislikes and food habits and help you to make the diet more flexible and interesting.

A Sample Menu of a Common Meal

Easy way is to start with a sample menu for a healthy adult man engaged in normal activity. Plan for one person, decide how much to provide at different meals, according to the requirements. This becomes the reference menu for different family members according to their specific requirements.