Home Science: Family Health, Nutrition and Meal Planning
Home Science: Family Health, Nutrition and Meal Planning tests how a family's health is protected through immunisation, growth monitoring, antenatal care and balanced meals suited to age, sex, activity and budget.
Family health
Families should follow the immunisation schedule, attend regular health check-ups, monitor a child's weight and height on a growth chart, and seek antenatal care during pregnancy. Clean water, safe food handling and first-aid supplies at home support family health. Health education helps families recognise danger signs and reach a health centre early.
Principles of meal planning
Plan meals around cereals, pulses, milk, vegetables and fruits, with a little fat and sugar. Consider age, sex, physical activity, pregnancy or lactation, budget, season and food likes. Include iron-rich foods such as green leafy vegetables and jaggery, calcium-rich milk and ragi, and vitamin A-rich carrot or papaya. Vitamin C from citrus or amla improves iron absorption.
Worked example
Question: Plan a day's meals for an adolescent girl. Reasoning: she needs energy, protein, iron and calcium for growth and menstrual losses. Breakfast: poha with peanuts and lemon plus milk. Lunch: dal, rice, spinach sabzi and curd. Snack: seasonal fruit. Dinner: roti, mixed vegetable and dal. This combines cereals, pulses, milk, vegetables and fruit; lemon and amla improve iron absorption.
Traps
Expensive food is not automatically balanced; do not overcook vegetables or discard cooking water; repeated deep frying adds unnecessary fat; seasonal and local foods are useful for budget planning.