Health and Nutrients

Health and Nutrients

Look at the pictures Given below

Mark ✔ for healthy persons and mark × for unhealthy persons.

1. Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely absence of diseases. Eating a healthy diet keeps you physically and mentally fit. When you are physically healthy, you feel confident you are more outgoing and have a greater capacity for enjoying life.

Unhealthy food choices lead to obesity and illness, preventing you from socializing with friends and family. So choose your diet carefully.

2. Balanced Diet

A diet should contain adequate amount of all the necessary nutrients required for healthy growth and activity.

* An increased capacity to work

* Good physical and mental health

* Increased capacity to resist diseases.

* Help in proper growth of the body.

A balanced diet contains sufficient amount of various nutrients to ensure good health. Food should also provide the appropriate amount of energy and adequate amount of water.

Activity 7

WHY DO WE NEED A BALANCED DIET ?

Prepare a diet chart to provide balanced diet to a 12 year old child. The diet chart should include food item which are not expensive and are commonly available in your area.

3. Malnutrition

When your diet is not a balanced, what would be the consequences?

Observe the below picture carefully

Do these children look normal?

Guess what would be the reason?

The children are in this condition due to malnutrition.

Malnutrition: Malnutrition occurs when all the nutrients that the body needs are not obtained in the proper proportions from the diet. The word malnutrition refers to the condition that results when a person does not take a balanced diet. Malnutrition leads to deficiency disease. The diseases that are caused due to lack of Nutrients in the diet are called Deficiency Diseases.

India has the second highest number of obese children in the world after China, according to a study that has found that 14.4 million children in the country have excess weight.

Activity 8

Visit a nearby Anganwadi centre and find the steps taken by the government to overcome malnutrition and ensure health in the age group 0-5 years

Table 5 Protein And Mineral Deficiency Diseases

4. Physical Exercise and Rest

Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, including

* increase in growth and development,

* strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system,

* developing  athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance, and enjoyment.

Physical exercise may help to decrease some of the effects of childhood and adult obesity.

Deep sleep seems to be one of the most critical time for body repair.

REST

Proper amount of rest is essential for physical and mental health. Rest is as important as nutrition and physical activity for growth and development and good health.

Discuss with Friends

“ Early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy and wise”

                                                                                              Benjamin Franklin

5. Personal Cleanliness

Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases.”

Personal hygiene involves those practices performed by an individual to care for one’s bodily health and well being, through cleanliness. It includes such personal habit choices as how frequently to bathe, wash hands, trim fingernails, and change clothing. It also includes attention to keep surfaces in the home and workplace, including bathroom facilities, clean and pathogen-free.

Activity 9

One day Rahim, a class six boy vomited three times. He was looking tired and dehydrated. His mother who was a nurse prepared a solution and gave it to him drink. He felt better after sometime and asked his mother what the solution was. His mother said it was Oral Rehydration Solution - ORS. Shall we see what an ORS is? Vomiting or loose motions result in loss of water and cause salt imbalance in the body. Loss of water (dehydration) can lead to serious problems. This can be prevented by consuming ORS at short intervals. Follow the steps to make ORS at home:

* Take a litre of boiled water. Cool it.

*Add half a teaspoon of salt and six teaspoons of sugar to it.

You can also add a few drops of lemon juice to it. Stir it and give it to the person suffering from vomiting, loose motions or dehydration.

Discuss in your class room “Is virus a living thing or non living thing?”

• Yes, virus a living thing

Suggested project

• Get a Vaccination schedule from a nearby doctor or a hospital. From the list, identify the bacterial diseases and the viral diseases for which vaccination is given.

Table 6