The grouping is based on food categories discussed in the chapter: millets/cereals and pulses.
(i) Chana is the odd one out because jowar, bajra and ragi are millets, while chana is a pulse. (ii) Rice is the odd one out because kidney beans, green gram and soya bean are pulses, while rice is a cereal.
The chapter compares traditional and modern cooking tools and discusses how food practices change over time.
Traditional culinary practices often use local, seasonal ingredients, hand tools such as sil-batta, chulhas or earthen cookware, and recipes passed through families. Modern culinary practices use gas stoves, pressure cookers, mixers, refrigerators, packaged foods and faster cooking methods. Traditional methods may preserve local food diversity and flavours, while modern methods save time and effort. A healthy approach can combine useful modern tools with nutritious, locally grown and less processed foods.
The questions connect food with health, nutrients, deficiency diseases and body functions, as discussed in the chapter.
Ravi can ask: Which foods help prevent deficiency diseases? How does a balanced diet protect us from illness? Can eating too much junk food make us unhealthy? Which nutrients help the body repair and grow?
The chapter explains that junk food is unhealthy when it has high sugar and fat but little protein, vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre.
Many delicious foods such as chips, sugary drinks, cakes and instant noodles may contain too much sugar, salt or fat and too little fibre, vitamins and minerals. Nutritious foods such as green leafy vegetables, sprouts, dal, millets and fruits may not always seem as attractive, but they help the body grow, repair itself and stay healthy. We should try to make nutritious food tasty instead of depending mainly on junk food.
The symptoms point to lack of roughage and an unbalanced diet. Adding fibre-rich foods and water helps relieve constipation.
Medu should eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, pulses and millets, and drink enough water. He should reduce biscuits, noodles and white bread. Vegetables, fruits and whole grains provide dietary fibre, which helps food move through the digestive system and reduces constipation. A balanced diet also gives vitamins, minerals and other nutrients needed for good health.
Difficulty seeing in dim light is a symptom of vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A-rich foods help prevent night blindness.
(i) She is suffering from night blindness. (ii) Vitamin A may be lacking in her diet. (iii) She should include foods such as carrot, papaya, mango, spinach, other green leafy vegetables, milk or eggs.
The chapter encourages healthy, less processed food choices and explains the importance of dietary fibre.
Fresh fruit is the best choice. It provides vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, and usually has no added sugar or preservatives. Fresh fruit juice is better than canned juice but has less fibre than whole fruit. Canned fruit juice may contain added sugar and preservatives.
The chapter links calcium and Vitamin D with healthy bones. A fracture needs bone repair, so both nutrients are relevant.
(i) Calcium helps in building and strengthening bones, so it supports healing of the fracture. (ii) Vitamin D helps the body use calcium properly for bones; therefore it was given along with calcium. (iii) One question is: Why is Vitamin D needed for calcium to help bones heal?
The iodine test is specifically a test for starch. This shows that all starches are carbohydrates, but not all carbohydrates are starches.
Iodine solution gives a blue-black colour with starch, not with all carbohydrates. Sugar is a carbohydrate but it is not starch, so it does not turn blue-black with iodine.
The activity uses iodine as a starch indicator and compares starch with another carbohydrate.
Raman’s statement is correct. To test it, take small samples of starch-rich food such as rice or potato and sugar solution. Add a few drops of iodine solution to each. Rice or potato turns blue-black, showing the presence of starch. Sugar solution does not turn blue-black, even though sugar is a carbohydrate. This shows that starch is one kind of carbohydrate, but carbohydrates are not all starch.
Iodine turns blue-black in the presence of starch. The difference in colour change shows that starch was present in one fabric but not the other.
The teacher’s saree probably had starch in it, so iodine turned blue-black. Mishti’s socks probably did not contain starch, so the iodine colour did not change.
The chapter states that millets provide many nutrients, but also explains that a balanced diet requires all essential nutrients in the right quantities.
Millets are considered healthy because they are nutri-cereals and provide many nutrients needed by the body. They can also grow in different climatic conditions. However, eating only millets is not enough because the body needs a balanced diet with proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and water in proper amounts. Millets should be part of a varied balanced diet.
Iodine solution is identified by its reaction with starch, producing a blue-black colour.
Put a few drops of the solution on a starch-containing food such as boiled rice, potato or a starch paste. If the food turns blue-black, the solution may be iodine solution.