January 2024
Namaskar, everyone! I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you to my 8th blogpost. As part of our routine, we always begin our meetings or training sessions by reviewing our previous discussions or training sessions. This helps us to stay updated and builds a strong foundation for the new topics that we cover. Sima is an excellent facilitator, and I am always eager to learn something new from her. I am excited to see what new things she has in store for us today. Sima began by asking us what we had eaten today. After receiving our responses, she inquired about the reasons why we eat food. Some of us replied that we need food to work, while others stated that we eat food for survival. Sima appreciated our responses and went on to explain the different varieties of food.
She explained that individuals who are weak during childhood often grow up to be weak and sickly, both physically and mentally. Therefore, it is important to consume a balanced and nutritious diet from an early age. A balanced and nutritious diet is crucial for maintaining a person’s physical and mental well-being. To maintain good health, the three food groups should be consumed in balanced quantities.
- Foods that give us energy: Carbohydrates such rice, wheat, maize, barley, potatoes, sweet-potatoes, sugarcane, and sugars, ghee (clarified butter), oil, etc. provide us energy. These foods act as a fuel for our body and provide us energy so that we can do our work.
- Body building foods: Pulse, peas, beans, nuts, milk, curd, fish, meat, eggs, etc. help in the building process of our body. It is responsible for the fast recovery from tissue damage and the normal growth of the body.
- Foods that help our body fight against diseases: Different types of vitamins and minerals fall under this category. Some of the examples are spinach, carrot, radish, pumpkin, gourd, tomatoes, papaya, orange, guava, lime, lemon, cauliflower, cabbage, mustard, mango, etc. Such type of foods strengthens our immunity and protects us from diseases.
After our discussion, we played a game where we divided into three groups. The groups were named “Food that gives energy”, “Food that builds the body”, and “Food that protects the body”. Sima was the leader of the game, and when she said “run”, we had to run. If she said “body build and energy group”, then the members of those two groups had to switch places. Similarly, if Sima said, “body protect and body build group”, then two group members had to change their seats. And if she said, “balance diet”, then all three groups had to change their seats. We enjoyed the game and laughed a lot.
Our trainer, Sima, divided us into three groups and assigned us the task of creating a seasonal food calendar that included foods from all three groups. We needed not to miss out on any of the three food groups, which we had previously discussed in class. We had to consider which foods were available in our area during each season and as a team, we worked together to create the calendar. We all agreed to commit to a balanced diet and start a vegetable garden to ensure that we always had food available and could save money.