Balanced Diet

5.1 Balanced Diet

No single food supplies everything the body needs, so a healthy diet has to be built by combining foods that complement one another. To make this easier, foods are grouped according to the nutrients they mainly provide. Based on the presence of nutrients in different food stuffs, foods can be divided into the following eleven food groups:

1. Cereals and Millets — wheat, rice, jowar, bajra, ragi and the like. They mainly provide carbohydrates, and also supply protein (whose quality improves when eaten with pulses), B-vitamins, iron (bajra) and calcium (ragi).
2. Pulses — whole and washed dhals such as red gram (lobia), Bengal gram (chana), lentils and green gram (moong). They provide protein (quality improved by combining with cereals), and are a fair source of carbohydrates and B-vitamins, especially thiamine and niacin. Whole pulses also give iron and fibre, and sprouts provide vitamin C.
3. Milk and Milk Products — milk, curd, cheese, paneer, khoa and so on. Their major nutrient is good-quality protein, along with carbohydrates, fat (in whole milk), calcium and riboflavin. This group supplies almost all nutrients except iron and vitamin C.
4. Meat and Meat Products — meat, fish, chicken, egg and products made from them. A major source of good-quality protein, and also of B-vitamins, retinol (liver) and calcium (fish). Eggs in particular are a good source of most nutrients.
5. Nuts and Oil Seeds — groundnuts, almonds, cashew nuts, til seeds, pistachio and the like. A good source of fat, and also of protein, B-vitamins, calcium and other minerals.
6. Green Leafy Vegetables (GLVs) — mustard (sarson), bathua, fenugreek (methi) and spinach (palak). A good source of carotene (vitamin A), B-vitamins (especially riboflavin and folic acid), iron (especially sarson and bathua) and fibre. They also contain calcium, but the oxalates present in GLVs bind calcium and make most of it unavailable for absorption. Fresh GLVs provide vitamin C.
7. Root Vegetables — potato, colocasia, sweet potato, yam and so on. Their major nutrient is carbohydrate; carotene is supplied only by yellow yam.
8. Other Vegetables — brinjal, ladyfinger (okra), beans, cauliflower and the like, which provide fibre, vitamins and some minerals.
9. Fruits — a wide variety is available, and different fruits carry different nutrients, so a combination of fruits should be included in the diet. Mango, apricot, orange and papaya are rich in carotene; citrus fruits like orange, mausambi, amla and guava are good sources of vitamin C; dried fruits like dates and raisins are rich in iron; and most fruits provide fibre.
10. Sugar and Jaggery — essentially carbohydrates; jaggery also contains iron.
11. Fats and Oils — ghee, oil, butter and the like, a rich source of fat; butter and fortified oils also provide vitamin D.

Food groups classified by function

The same foods can also be grouped according to the function they perform in the body:

• Group 1 — Energy-giving foods (rich in carbohydrate and fat): cereals and roots and tubers; sugar and jaggery; fats and oils.
• Group 2 — Body-building foods (rich in protein): milk and milk products; meat, meat products, fish, egg or poultry; pulses; nuts and oilseeds.
• Group 3 — Protective or regulatory foods (rich in vitamins and minerals):
  • Fruits — yellow and orange fruits (mango, papaya); citrus fruits (lemon, orange, mausambi); and others (apple, banana, etc.).
  • Vegetables — green leafy vegetables (spinach, mustard, fenugreek); yellow and orange vegetables (carrot, pumpkin); others (beans, okra, cauliflower); and root vegetables such as potato and yam (arvi), which are rich in carbohydrates.

What makes a diet balanced

To obtain all nutrients in the right amounts and proportions, a meal should draw from all the food groups. In practice, each meal should include something from the energy-giving, body-building and protective/regulatory groups. For example, breakfast might combine one energy-giving food (two slices of bread with jam), one body-building food (egg for non-vegetarians, or paneer or sprouts with milk for vegetarians) and one or two protective foods (a fruit or fruit juice). Lunch and dinner can be built the same way from different combinations, so that the day's diet supplies every essential nutrient. …