Vitaminosis

Vitaminosis

Any disease caused by the presence of excess of vitamin is called as Vitaminosis. Hyper vitaminosis is a condition of abnormally high storage of vitamins which can lead to toxic symptoms. For Example: An excess of Vitamin A is called Hyper Vitaminosis A.

How to overcome these deficiency diseases?

A diet containing essential nutrients in right proportion (balanced diet ) is required for normal growth and development and to prevent malnutrition.

Food Pyramid

The food pyramid acts as a nutrition guide to select the types and proportion of food for good health. The food items at the top of the pyramid such as fat, and oil should be consumed in less quantity when compared to the food items at the bottom of the pyramid.

Visit your kitchen. With the help of your mother note down the food items that are kept in dry condition and food items that are stored in fresh condition.

Observe and discuss

Keep a tomato and a potato at room temperature for a week.

1. What do you observe?

Tomato showing signs of spoilage while potato remains unchanged

2. Can you guess why?

The moisture content in tomato promotes the growth of microorgan-isms which start decaying it.

3. What do you infer from this?

Every food has a different shelf life. The shelf life of potato is longer than that of tomato at room temperature.

Food spoilage

Food spoilage is an undesirable change in the food’s normal state and is not suitable for human consumption. Signs of food spoilage may include a change in appearance, colour, texture, odour and taste.

Factors responsible for Food Spoilage:

Food gets spoiled due to two reasons

1. Internal factors (spoilage from within)

2. External factors (spoilage from outside)

Internal factors which include enzymatic activities and moisture content of the food.

External factors like adulterants in food, contaminated utensils and equipment, unhygienic cooking area, lack of storage facilities and poor personal hygiene may allow pathogenic microorganisms to cause food spoilage.

How to avoid food from being spoiled?

Food Preservation is the process of prevention from decay or spoilage of food, by storing in a condition fit for future use.

Food is preserved to

·        increase the shelf life of food

·        retain the colour, texture, flavour and nutritive value

·        increase food supply

·        decrease wastage of food

·        add variety to the food