NFT/5 MEAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

A diet, which provides all the essential nutrients in sufficient quantities to meet your needs, is an adequate or balanced diet. You need a plan to select an adequate diet so simple and attractive that everyone including you, a young student as also the elderly family members can understand and follow it. The experts have devised such a plan. This practical plan, known as a food guide, helps to ensure good nutrition through proper food selection.

Development of a Food Guide
Several factors have to be considered in developing a food guide some of the relevant factors are:
• Foods plentifully available and normally used in the dietary.
• Normal meal pattern.
• Recommended dietary intakes of nutrients for Ugandans.
• Need to emphasise some foods because of prevailing nutritional deficiencies in the country.

These food are divided in five groups

Group 1

Cereals and their products -Rice, wheat,  maize, other millet and their products.

Group 2

Protein foods -, legumes, milk, eggs, fish, poultry, meat and their products

Group 3

vegetables and fruits – (a) All green leafy vegetables, orange yellow fruits and vegetables
(b) Vit. C-rich fruits and vegetables

Group 4

Oils, Fats, Sugars Oils, ghee, butter,

While you select foods from each food group, pay attention to the practical aspects of each so that you get the most nutrients for each.
In Group 1, the cereals and breads group, the amount of iron and in the food preparations varies with how refined the grain or flour is.

Food cost: One of the questions that worries us is: will nutritious food be more costly than our present dietary? The answer to this question is an emphatic NO. We can afford nutritious food.
Vegetables and fruits are the foods, which have the greatest variation in price. Those, which are in season, cost the least. The price of a particular variety is lowest at the peak of its season. What is less
well known is that at the peak of the season, each vegetable and fruit has the highest nutrient content, flavour and taste.

Use of the Food Guide in Meal Planning and Evaluation
The food guide is a practical tool to use in meal planning and evaluation. Please note the following
important points when using the food guide in meal planning:
1. Select foods from each of the five broad food groups.
2. Choose at least the minimum number of servings from each of the food groups.
3. Make choices within each group. Please remember that foods in each group are similar but
not identical in food values.
4. Try to include at least one food from Group 2 in each meal.
5. Use seasonal vegetables and fruits to ensure good nutrition at low cost.

“Natural Foods”, “Health Foods” and “Organic Foods”
Most of the food items we buy are natural foods, as these are grown in our garden, or on a tree or produced on a farm. Almost all foods are organic as they contain compounds having carbon,
hydrogen and oxygen. Most of the foods we eat provide the nutrients needed, so these can be called health foods. But when these terms are used to describe some foods, the intended meaning is different.
Thus when food is called “natural food”, it contains no added chemical, such as preservative, emulsifier or antioxidant.
Food grown on soils fertilised with manure, compost or vermiculture, without addition of any chemical as fertiliser, pesticide or herbicide are called “organic foods”. These are generally more expensive
than those produced otherwise. But scientific study to evaluate the difference in major nutrient content
has shown none. A few minor variations occur indicating that the use of chemical fertilisers can help introduce trace elements as needed but organic fertilisers cannot. Thus there is no advantage due to the
use of organic fertilisers.
A food labelled as “Health food” implies that it must have some health-giving attributes, which other foods do not have. This is not the case. Hence the use of the term “Health Foods” is inaccurate.

Watch this Video to learn more about Meal Planning and Management