How to plan your meals effectively for remaining health round the clock?

Meal planning is both an art and a science: an art in the skillful blending of colour, texture and flavor and a science in the wise choice of food for optimum nutrition and digestion. A well planned meal is always appealing to the eye and it is rightly said that “we eat with our eye”. Therefore, we should obtain adequate nutrition by including foods from all the food groups in sufficient quantity and proportion. Meal planning means planning for adequate nutrition.

Nutritionists tell us to eat well every day. It is well known that poor food habits are easily acquired. It is not always easy to remember what to eat in abundance today or what to compensate for tomorrow. A man’s aim should be to eat to live and not live to eat. Meal planning is an art which develops through inspiration and thought. It may seem difficult at first but it is a skill which grows with practice. While planning family meals, the homemaker plays an important role. Along with money available, time, energy, knowledge, skills and abilities, human and material resources, all influence the type of food prepared and the way in which it is served.

Nutritional Requirements

The Importance of Meal Planning

It is very important to plan family meals in order to fulfill the nutritional requirements of the family members. This is essential to keep them strong, healthy, free from disease and deficiency of any kind.

The food planned has to be palatable and appealing to the eye before it can become nutritious. A majority of people will not eat things which they do not like, even if they have excellent nutritive value.

Meal planning is of utmost importance because it economizes on time, labour and fuel. While planning meals the methods of cooking involved can be carefully thought out so that there is maximum retention of nutrients and minimum loss.

Meals can be planned according to the budget of the family. There can then be maximum utilisation of the money if it is spent in the best possible way. One can have a diet rich in quality and nutritive value without buying expensive foods like milk, eggs, butter, meat and a recognition of this will remove misconceptions that only expensive foods are nutritious. Meal planning, therefore, encourages one to plan within the family’s means.

There are such a large variety of foodstuffs that it becomes difficult to decide what to cook. A knowledge of the nutritive value of foods is very important because it enables one to make a better choice and avoid monotony in the diet.

It is always better to plan meals before starting to cook or even to plan in advance. This will be economical as the left overs from the previous meal can be made use of instead of being wasted. Boiled rice can be used in khichri or some rice pudding. The nutritive value of some foods can also be enchanced by sprouting or fermenting the foods required in advance.

Meal planning determines the adequacy of the diet, the kind of food purchased, its quality and cost, the way it is stored, prepared and served. It is a good exercise for the housewife to record and find out how the meals she serves can be improved, their cost reduced and their nutritive value enhanced.

Factors Affecting Meal Planning

No two individuals or families have exactly the same nutritional needs. Hence their diets differ in order to meet their physical, social and psychological needs. There are a number of factors which play an important role in meal planning.

1) Adequacy of Food

A good menu is one which will not only provide adequate amounts of fats, calories and proteins but also minerals and vitamins essential for the physical well-being of each member of the family. Therefore, the age, sex, occupation, physiological condition and number of family members must be kept in mind.

Patterns for meals may vary widely but an attempt must be made to provide a diet that will not lead to protein deficiency accompanied by a deficiency of iron. Sometimes deficiency of milk leads to a diet which is low in calcium. The inclusion of one or more foods from each of the different groups discussed in the Chapter 3 will prevent most imbalances in diets.

Most of the calorie requirements are met by the carbohydrates and fats. A small percentage of calories needed daily is also furnished by proteins. A desirable distribution of calories obtained from the various nutrients is as follows: –

Proteins 10%

Fats 30%

Carbohydrates 60%

2) Meal Patterns must fulfill the family needs

While planning meals, one should consider the needs and requirements of each individual member of the family. In a family there may be a child, a hard-working man, an adolescent boy and a hardworking housewife. The housewife who plans the meals has to see to their different nutri­tional requirements. The texture and method of cooking food for a young person will be different from that of an old person because an old person is unable to digest hard foods and requires soft cooked foods. Young girls have to be given more iron in their diets as compared to boys because to blood lost during menstruation. A heavy worker requires more calories than a moderate worker and so on.

3) Meal planning should save time and energy and result in easy-to-cook meals

This point is particularly important for the families of low income groups or where the housewife is also working. If the meal consists of too many dishes and each takes a lot of time to prepare, then the housewife will spend far too much time in the kitchen and become frustrated as other household chores remain incomplete. The meal or diet plan should be such that it involves the minimum amount of time, energy and expenditure.

4) Individual likes and dislikes

Although the recommended daily allowances for each of the classes of food must be followed, there is room for individual preferences amongst the foods in each class. Some people make personal likes and dislikes the only basis for the inclusion or exclusion of certain foods in their meals-the failure to include milk is a common practice. It is always better to change the form of the food rather than to completely omit it. For example, milk can be given in the form of curd, cheese, custard or another sweet dish; soya beans in the form of soya flour chapattis mixed with wheat flour.

5) Suitable Combinations

By combining the food in suitable ways, variety in meals can be obtained and variety in meals means acceptability, thus ensuring better nutrition. This can be introduced by changes in colour, shape, texture, flavour and methods of preparation. Attractive colour combinations are always appealing to the eye. Texture variation is also essential. All soft or all hard foods will not be liked by an individual. Flavour plays an important role and different flavours introduce variety and meal appeal. Also all foods should not have too sharp a flavour. Various methods of cooking can also introduce variety-a meal consisting of tandoori roti, dal (urad) and a seasonal green vegetable along with a crisp salad.

Cereals and pulses cooked in combination also enhance the nutritive value of food-kichri, roti, dosa, idli are examples. If they are cooked in combination with green leafy vegetables, nuts and milk, the nutritive value is further enhanced. Likewise maize (corn) taken with lime is of superior nutritive value to plain maize.

6) Foods should provide satiety value

Foods rich in proteins and fats have a higher satiety value compared to carbohydrates. While planning, consider the interval between the two meals and accord­ingly include foods. If the interval is longer, give foods rich in proteins and fats. If the interval is short, then give carbohydrate foods.

7) Availability of foods

In earlier times, the dietary habits de­pended mainly upon the foods produced in a particular area or community, but today with improved methods of food preservation and distribution, even the most perishable foods are available over large areas. The wide variation in dietary patterns throughout the world depends largely upon the available food supply.

8) Economic Considerations

The budget of a family of moder­ate means cannot provide luxury foods but it can definitely offer variety and choice. Food budgets of low income groups restrict the choices still further and it may become necessary to depend largely on cereal foods. The problem faced then is the supplementation of these cereals with foods necessary for a balanced diet. Although it becomes difficult to plan, it is nevertheless possible. When the cost per day is low, it is very important to have a good knowledge of less expensive foods which have high nutritive value. Such recipes and foods should be included in meal preparation e.g. paushtik roti (mixture of cereals and pulses), seasonal vegetables, butter-milk, pickle or chutney.

9) Seasonal foods

Today the seasons play a less important role in meal planning than in former times because fresh frozen foods are available throughout the year. Still foods included in the diet plans should be seasonal because they are cheap and available in good quality and are within the reach of all people.

10) Religion, Traditions and Customs.

This is an important factor and food habits must be kept in mind while planning meals because they differ from religion to religion. Muslims cannot eat pork, whereas Hindus cannot eat beef. Rice is considered an auspicious dish at festivals and marriages. Widows are generally not served fish in Bengal. Customs and traditions differ from community to community and hence should be kept in view while planning meals for a family.