kind and amount of food to be included in each meal. To understand this better consider the three income groups - low, middle and high. People with limited income or those belonging to the lower income group may not be able to include much of milk, meat,and fruits in their daily diet as these are expensive foods. So the crucial decision is what food items to select that would enable them to plan nutritious meals at low cost.
Well, there are many ways in which one can ensure nutritious meals without increasing the cost. To begin with, one could use: more of the cheaper foods like cereals. It would further lower cost if high price cereals such as rice or wheat are partially replaced by millets i.e. ragi, jowar, bajra and partially by roots and tubers i.e.
potato, colocasia, tapioca jaggery instead of sugar seasonal and locally available fruits and vegetables only food combinations (cereal and pulse) and processes like germination, fermentation improve the nutritive value (as they add extra nutrients without extra cost) cheaper variety of pulses and cheap nuts such as groundnuts vegetable oils to increase energy and essential fatty acid intake inexpensive yellow fruits like papaya or mango and greens to increase vitamin A and C intake green leafy vegetables to improve the intake of vitamin A, iron and calcium at least ml of milk to improve the intake of riboflavin, calcium besides improving the protein quality of the diet. Chapati = bread slice = potato = / cup rice = / cup dhal = salted biscuits = / cup noodles = idly = plain dosa = / cup Upma/poha = = = = = = = = = Cereals