Food is the basic necessity for all members of the family. Our health depends upon the food we take. Balanced diet is important for good health.

“A balanced diet is one which contains different types of foods in adequate quantities and right proportions to meet the nutritional requirements of our body.” Nutritional requirements of dif­ferent members of the family depend on their physical activity, age and sex.

There can be dissimilarities in their likings for food. So a housewife has to take a number of decisions in order to provide a balanced diet to each member of the family, e.g., what should be cooked, when and how much should be cooked, when and how to be served. Before cooking food, take an appropriate decision after consider all these things and implement that decision is called meal planning.

Meal planning is the planning of meals for all members of the family in order to provide nutrition on time according to their needs and choices.

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Meal Planning is both a science and an art. It is a science of selecting food on the basis of nutritive value to provide optimum nutrition to all members of the family. It is an art of skillful blending of colour, taste, flavour and texture in meals.