Page 260 - New Medley 4 Semester 1

Nutrients Food sources Functions

Carbohydrates As starch in wheat, rice, Provide energy. We should eat more of
potatoes and bread carbohydrates in the form of starch, not

As sugars in sweet as sugars.
foods and soft drinks People doing hard physical work need more
amount of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates
get digested easily and quickly.

Proteins Milk, pulses, beans, Help in growth and repairing of wear and
cheese, mushrooms, tear of body cells. They also help in building
meat, fish, eggs body muscles.
Young children should eat more of proteins,
as they need to grow. Children getting too
little protein show stunted growth or suffer
from many kinds of diseases.

Fats Nuts, cooking oil, Provide energy and keep the body
cheese, butter, cream, warm. They give us more energy than
ghee carbohydrates. We should use fats in small
amounts because too much fat in our diet
makes us obese and leads to severe health
problems like heart attacks.

Vitamins and minerals Fruits and green Keep us fit and disease-free. Lack of vitamins
vegetables may lead to different types of diseases. For
example, lack of vitamin C causes scurvy in
which gums swell up and start bleeding. Not
having enough iron in the diet causes lack
of blood in our body. Calcium is important
for the formation of bones and teeth.

Besides these nutrients, our body also needs fibre or roughage.

The roughage does not get digested itself, but keeps our digestive
system healthy. Fibre can be obtained from green vegetables

like spinach, lady’s fingers, cucumber and from whole grains
like wheat, oats, etc.

Eating proper food is not enough to keep good health. We

also need a lot of water. About 75% of our body is made of
water. We should drink about 6–8 glasses of water every day.

Water helps in the digestion of food. It also helps in the removal Water helps in

of wastes from our body. digesting food

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