But, how can we overcome vitamin and mineral deficiency diseases or disorders?
Answer
Mainly by correcting the food, not by taking medicine. Vitamins and minerals are needed in small amounts, but they must arrive regularly.
Eat the food that contains the missing nutrient — the last column of Fig. 3.5 is a shopping list. Milk, green vegetables, fruits and wholegrains together cover most vitamins and minerals.
Eat a variety. No single food has everything. Changing the vegetable and the fruit every day is the simplest protection.
Cook carefully. Some nutrients like Vitamin C are lost during cooking due to high heat, so include some raw fruit and salad, and do not throw away the water in which vegetables were boiled.
Use fortified foods where they help — iodised salt for iodine, fortified milk and baby foods.
Get sunlight. Vitamin D can be naturally produced by our body upon exposure to sunlight.
Take supplements only if a doctor prescribes them, as Reshma's doctor did in question 6 of the exercises.
Why food works better than a tablet: a fruit brings the vitamin along with fibre, water, minerals and sugar — a whole package. A tablet brings only one thing, and too much of it can even be harmful.
Q2.
What differences do you observe in raw and cooked vegetables? Have you ever noticed that vegetables sometimes lose their bright colour, or become softer and less crisp when cooked?
Answer
Yes. Put a raw piece and a cooked piece of the same vegetable side by side and the differences are easy to list.
Raw vegetable
Cooked vegetable
Colour
Bright green, red or orange
Duller; palak turns dark olive green
Texture
Firm and crisp; it snaps
Soft; it bends and can be mashed
Volume
A big bowlful
Shrinks a lot as water comes out
Taste and smell
Sharp, sometimes bitter or pungent
Milder, sweeter
Nutrients
Vitamin C and some others fully present
Some nutrients like Vitamin C are lost due to high heat
Digestion
Harder to chew and digest
Easier to digest; germs are also killed
Why it happens: heat softens the vegetable and drives out water, and some vitamins — Vitamin C in particular — are destroyed by high heat or dissolve into the cooking water and are thrown away. Washing cut or peeled vegetables and fruits also washes some vitamins away, which is why we should wash first and cut afterwards.
Q3.
Would it not be wise to include fruits and uncooked vegetables into our diet?
Answer
Yes, it would be wise — because raw fruits and vegetables deliver the vitamins that cooking would have destroyed.
A slice of guava, an orange or an amla gives full Vitamin C, since none of it has been heated.
A salad of cucumber, tomato, carrot and onion adds roughage and water along with the vitamins.
Sprouted moong or chana eaten raw gives protein, Vitamin C and fibre together.
But three cautions:
It is highly recommended that all fruits and vegetables be thoroughly washed before consumption — wash them whole, before cutting or peeling.
Some vegetables — potato, arbi, rajma — must be cooked; raw they are hard to digest.
Cooking is not the enemy. It kills germs, softens food and makes many foods safe. The sensible plan is a cooked meal plus something raw.
Tip: Squeeze the lemon on the dal after taking it off the flame. The Vitamin C then survives, and the sourness is fresher too.
Q4.
Do we obtain all nutrients from plants and animals?
Answer
No. Most of our nutrients come from plants and animals, but not all of them.
Nutrient
Where it comes from
Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, most vitamins
Plants and animals
Common salt and other mineral salts
Obtained from seawater or from rocks — not from a plant or an animal
Vitamin D
Can be naturally produced by our own body on exposure to sunlight
Water
Mostly drunk as such, from rivers, wells and rain
Why salt is special: salt is a mineral, and minerals were never made by living things. Sea water is evaporated in shallow pans along the coasts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, and the salt is left behind — that is how the Agariyas of the Little Rann of Kutch make it. Rock salt (sendha namak) is dug out of the ground.
Q5.
What are the food sources that provide water to our body? List a few of them.
Answer
Besides the water we drink, a large part of our daily water comes hidden inside food.
Why water is essential: water helps the body absorb nutrients from food, and it removes waste from the body through sweat and urine. We should drink sufficient water regularly to keep ourselves healthy — more in summer and after playing, because a lot is lost as sweat.
Did you know? A cucumber is more than nine-tenths water — which is exactly why a plate of kachumber cools you on a June afternoon in India.