NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 3 Mindful Eating a Path to a Healthy Body (PDF) – 2027

— Table 3.1 filled in for one week (write what you actually ate):

My food choices vary from meal to meal, but around a fixed base. A cereal (rice or roti) comes in almost every meal and a dal or pulse almost every day, while the vegetable, the breakfast dish and the fruit keep changing. Fruit, curd and milk come only on some days, and sweets rarely.

— similarities and differences found:

What I found: the kind of food (a grain, a pulse, a vegetable, a drink) is the same in every list. Only the particular dish is different. So all of us eat the same food components, dressed up in different ways.

Yes — and the diversity is far greater between states than inside one classroom. India is an agricultural country with many soil types and climates, so every region grows different crops and has built its dishes on them.

— Table 3.2 with more states added (the first three rows are from the book):

Because the traditional food of a state is based on the crops grown in that state, and different regions of India grow different crops.

The choice of food in a region depends on (i) its soil and climate, which decide the crops that grow there; (ii) the food crops cultivated locally; (iii) taste preferences; and (iv) culture and traditions.

Yes. When the table is compared state by state, some items appear again and again while others belong to only one place.

The traditional food of a state is usually based on the crops grown in that state. Each region grows the crops that suit its soil and climate, and its traditional dishes are made from them:

Yes, both have changed. Earlier, families ate mostly what grew nearby and in season; today dishes from other regions and fruits of every season are eaten all the year. Cooking practices have changed too — the chulha has given way to the gas stove, the sil-batta to the electric grinder, and cooking now takes much less time.

Sample list of questions:

1. What kind of food do you still eat and what is new?
2. What are the changes in cooking practices over time?
3. What has caused these changes?
4. On what did you cook when you were my age, and which fuel was used?
5. How were masalas and grain ground at home?
6. Which dish that you ate daily is rarely cooked now, and why?

Ask these questions to two or three elderly people and write down their answers.

Sample findings from the interviews:

Besides the chulha and the sil-batta shown in Fig. 3.1, many other tools were used — and several are still in use in Indian homes.

Culinary practices have changed mainly because of:

1. Technological development — gas stoves, electric grinders, pressure cookers and refrigerators make cooking quicker and easier.
2. Improved transportation — food from far-off places now reaches every town.
3. Better communication — TV, mobile phones and the internet spread recipes across the country.

Busy families having less time to cook, and the wish for smoke-free kitchens, have also added to the change.

Yes — and one feels tired and less energetic. When we do not eat for some time, the usual signs are:

• Weakness and tiredness, as if the legs and arms are heavy.
• Difficulty in concentrating in class; the mind wanders.
• Sometimes a headache, giddiness or a growling stomach.
• Irritability — small things start annoying us.

Because glucose provides instant energy. A marathon runner uses up a huge amount of energy. Glucose is a carbohydrate that the body can use almost at once, without the long digestion that rice or roti needs, so it quickly restores the runner’s energy. The water also makes up for what is lost in sweat.

Yes. The white sugar (cheeni) in your kitchen, the gud (jaggery) in a laddoo and the glucose given to a patient are all carbohydrates.

Because a winter laddoo is packed with fat and carbohydrate — the two energy-giving components — and the body needs extra energy to keep itself warm in the cold.

What goes into such a laddoo: besan or wheat flour (aata), ghee, gud or sugar, goond (edible gum), and nuts and seeds such as almonds, cashew, til and pumpkin seeds.

More food items rich in carbohydrates and fats:

— the food components in my daily diet:

Because fruits, vegetables and other plant foods bring us the components that cereals and oil cannot supply — the protective nutrients and roughage.

They give us vitamins (Vitamin C from amla, guava and lemon; Vitamin A from carrot and papaya), minerals such as iron from green leafy vegetables, dietary fibre that prevents constipation, and water. These protect the body from deficiency diseases and keep it healthy.

Interpretation: the sailors’ bleeding and swollen gums were caused by the lack of something in their food — on long voyages they had no fresh fruit. The sailors who ate lemons and oranges recovered, so the missing thing was present in these fruits.

What cures scurvy: Vitamin C, present in citrus fruits like lemons and oranges (and also in amla and guava). Scurvy is caused by a deficiency of Vitamin C.

Inference: the swelling at the front of the neck (goitre) seen in the Himalayan region and the Northern plains was caused by a lack of iodine — the soil there, and so the local food and water, had too little iodine. When common salt was supplemented with iodine (iodised salt), the symptoms visibly reduced. So iodine in the diet prevents goitre.

By studying the chart of vitamins and minerals (Fig. 3.5), reading the nutrient information on food packets, surveying people in the neighbourhood under the teacher’s guidance, asking a doctor, nurse or ASHA worker, and reading library books or reliable websites — and then checking one source against another.

First read Fig. 3.5 row by row. Here is the whole chart in short, with extra Indian sources added in the last column as the activity asks.

How to do it: with your teacher’s guidance, talk politely to 8–10 people of different ages. Without writing their names, note the age, any symptom from the chart (bleeding gums, poor vision in dim light, breathlessness, swelling in the neck, bent bones) and what they usually eat.

Sample entry: Person 4, aged 62 — gums bleed while brushing; a small cut took three weeks to heal; eats rice, dal and cooked vegetables daily but no fruit or raw salad.

— symptoms linked with diet, using Fig. 3.5:

For each person, write the likely cause, the food to be added, and then advise a doctor’s visit.

Then say clearly: “These are only suggestions from a school project. Please visit a doctor or the health centre for proper advice and tests.” A doctor may find another cause altogether, and only a doctor should prescribe supplements.

By eating a balanced diet that regularly includes foods rich in the missing vitamin or mineral — milk, green leafy vegetables, fruits and wholegrains. We should also use fortified foods such as iodised salt, get some sunlight for Vitamin D, eat some raw fruits and salad because cooking destroys some vitamins, and take supplements only when a doctor advises.

Yes. Put a raw piece and a cooked piece of the same vegetable side by side and the differences are easy to list.

Yes, it would be wise. Some nutrients like Vitamin C are lost during cooking due to high heat. Fresh fruits such as guava, orange and amla, and a salad of uncooked vegetables like cucumber, tomato and carrot, give us these vitamins along with roughage and water. All fruits and vegetables must be washed thoroughly before eating.

No. Most of our nutrients come from plants and animals, but not all of them.

Besides the water we drink, a large part of our daily water comes hidden inside food.

The test in one line: reagent — dilute iodine solution (a light brown or yellowish-brown liquid); result — a blue-black colour where starch is present.

Yes — some of them turn blue-black, and those are the starchy foods. A blue-black colour indicates the presence of starch.

Yes, some foods leave an oily patch — and the reason is the fat present in them.

If a food contains oil or butter (fat), a little of it is squeezed out when the food is pressed and soaks into the paper. Fat does not dry away like water, so the oily patch stays even after the paper dries. A watery food only wets the paper, and that mark disappears on drying.

Yes. Where the fat has soaked in, the paper becomes translucent — the light from the window shines faintly through that spot, while the rest of the paper stays opaque.

Peanuts, butter, coconut and oil contain fats — they leave an oily patch that lets light through. Potato, cucumber, boiled rice, boiled gram and plain bread or chapati leave no oily patch. Sample observations for Table 3.3:

Yes — in some test tubes the contents slowly turn violet, and those foods contain protein.

The test in one line: reagents — copper sulfate solution (2 drops) and caustic soda solution (10 drops); result — a violet (purple) colour where protein is present.

Here is the complete Table 3.3 with all three tests together.

Conclusions: many foods contain more than one nutrient — boiled gram shows starch and protein, peanuts show fat and protein, and bread or chapati shows starch and some protein. No single food contains all the nutrients.

Peanuts show the presence of both proteins and fats — this is the example given in the book itself.

Soya bean, nuts and seeds (almonds, cashew, til), milk, paneer and egg also contain both proteins and fats.

Yes — cucumber. It shows no blue-black with iodine, no oily patch and no violet colour, so it contains almost no starch, fat or protein. Other such foods are lauki, tomato, radish, watermelon and green leafy vegetables.

Which of these do I consume daily: rice or chapati (starch), dal or milk (protein), cooking oil (fat), and a vegetable — a typical Indian thali therefore covers all three every day.

No. The kinds of nutrients needed are the same for everybody, but the amounts are not. Requirements vary according to age, gender, physical activity, health status, lifestyle, and so on.

— checking one week’s food from Table 3.1:

Changes I would make: eat one seasonal fruit and a raw salad every day; have dal, milk or curd daily for protein; replace some polished rice or maida with whole grains and millets; use iodised salt; eat junk food only rarely; drink enough water; and not overcook vegetables. A balanced plate looks like this:

I would choose the roasted chana. For the same 100 g, it has much more protein (18.64 g against 7.0 g) and dietary fibre (16.8 g against 4.8 g), and far less fat (6.26 g against 35.0 g) and energy (355 kcal against 536 kcal) than potato wafers. So it helps growth and digestion without making us obese.

The potato wafers are junk food.

They have high calories (536 kcal per 100 g) because of their high fat content (35.0 g), but very little protein (7.0 g) and dietary fibre (4.8 g). Foods with high sugar or fat and very low proteins, minerals, vitamins and dietary fibres are called junk foods.

Yes — millets appear in Indian kitchens far more often than we notice. Jowar, bajra, ragi and sanwa are native crops of India and have been an integral part of the Indian diet for centuries.

Steps (Fig. 3.10): the farmer grows wheat → threshing and winnowing of grains → storage of grains → grinding of grains and packing → transport to the retail shop → food on our plate.

People involved: farmers and farm workers, workers who thresh and winnow, godown staff, flour-mill workers, truck drivers and loaders, shopkeepers, and the person who cooks the food at home.

It takes about 5 to 6 months and the hard work of many people. For wheat: sowing in November, about 4 months of growth with several irrigations and weeding, harvesting in March–April, and then threshing, winnowing, storage, transport, grinding and packing before the flour reaches us.

Food miles are the entire distance a food item travels from the producer to the consumer. Local food is grown near us, so it travels only a short distance and its food miles are low. This cuts the cost and pollution of transport, supports local farmers and keeps the food fresh and healthy.

Sample timeline for wheat (find out the timeline for your own area):

(i) The odd one is Chana.

Jowar, bajra and ragi are millets (cereals rich in carbohydrates); chana is a pulse, rich in protein.

(ii) The odd one is Rice.

Kidney beans, green gram and soya bean are pulses, rich in protein; rice is a cereal, rich in starch (a carbohydrate).

Culinary practices are the ways of preparing and cooking food. They have changed a great deal in India, and both the old and the new ways have their advantages.

Why the change happened: technological development, improved transportation and better communication — and also because families have less time than before.

Two questions Ravi can ask:

1. Which diseases can be prevented or cured by eating the right food?
2. If food can act as medicine, why do doctors still give tablets and syrups?

The statement is true — taste and nutrition are two different things, and our tongue is not a good judge of health.

My thoughts: tasty junk food is fine as an occasional treat, but it cannot form the base of a diet. And a nutritious food that is disliked can usually be made likeable — karela stuffed and shallow-fried, palak in a paneer gravy, ragi as a sweet malt, bajra roti with gud and ghee.

Medu’s food lacks roughage (dietary fibre): biscuits, noodles and white bread are made of maida and have very little fibre, and he eats no vegetables. Roughage helps the body get rid of undigested food and ensures smooth passage of stools. Changes: he should eat green leafy and other vegetables and fresh fruits daily, have whole-wheat chapati, millets or dalia instead of maida foods, add pulses and salad, and drink plenty of water.

(i) Night blindness — loss of vision in dim light (the ‘loss of vision’ disorder in Fig. 3.5).

(ii) Vitamin A.

(iii) Carrot, papaya, mango and milk (also green leafy vegetables and pumpkin).

I would prefer (iii) the fresh fruit.

Fresh fruit keeps all its dietary fibre, which is lost in juice; its vitamins such as Vitamin C are not lost in processing or storage; and it has no added sugar or preservatives, which canned juice usually has.

(i) Calcium keeps bones and teeth healthy. The broken bone needs calcium to heal and become strong again.

(ii) Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium for bone and teeth health. Without enough Vitamin D, the calcium from the tablets would not be absorbed well, so the doctor gave both together.

(iii) Why did the doctor not give Vitamin D on the first visit itself? Could Gourav have got Vitamin D naturally by sitting in the morning sunlight?

Because the iodine test detects starch only — not every carbohydrate. Sugar is a carbohydrate, but it is not starch, so no blue-black colour appears.

Raman’s statement is completely correct. Starch is one kind of carbohydrate, so every starch is a carbohydrate; but sugars such as glucose, common sugar and jaggery are also carbohydrates and they are not starches.

Activity: keep boiled rice, a slice of potato, sugar, glucose and jaggery on separate dishes and put 2–3 drops of dilute iodine solution on each. Rice and potato turn blue-black (starch), but sugar, glucose and jaggery do not, although all of them are carbohydrates. This shows that the statement is true.

The saree must have had starch in it, and the socks did not.

Cotton sarees are often starched with rice water (kanji) or arrowroot after washing to make them stiff, so the iodine turned the starch in the saree blue-black. Socks are not starched, so there was no starch for the iodine to act on.

Millets are a healthy choice because they are good sources of vitamins, minerals like iron and calcium, and dietary fibre — that is why they are called nutri-cereals. They can also be grown easily in different climatic conditions.

No, millets alone are not enough. No single food has all the nutrients, so along with millets we need pulses, milk, vegetables, fruits, some fat and water for a balanced diet.

Put 2–3 drops of the given solution on a food that surely contains starch, such as a slice of potato or some boiled rice. If the food turns blue-black, the solution is likely to be iodine solution. If there is no colour change, it is not iodine solution. (Never taste or smell the solution.)

Sample answer. Fortified foods have extra nutrients added during processing to improve their nutritional quality. Three fortified foods and what their labels show:

Analysis: foods we eat every day have been made to carry nutrients that many people lack — iodine, iron, folic acid and Vitamins A and D. This is a cheap and easy way of preventing deficiency diseases such as goitre and anaemia.

Sample paragraph: The Apatani tribe lives in the Ziro valley of Arunachal Pradesh, far from the sea, where sea salt was hard to get. So they made their own salt, called tapyo. Certain plants from the forest are dried and burnt, and water is slowly passed through the ash to dissolve the salts in it. This salty water is boiled until only solid salt is left. Tapyo was used in cooking in place of common salt and supplied the body with minerals.

Ranbhajis are wild vegetables of Maharashtra (such as kurdu, takla and kartoli) that grow on their own in the rainy season. Edible mushrooms such as guchhi (morel) grow wild in the forests of Himachal Pradesh. Sample answer for the class discussion — wild foods of some regions:

— junk foods eaten most often in our class: potato wafers, cold drinks, candy, instant noodles.

Sample observations:

Analysis: everyone needs the same kinds of nutrients, but in different amounts. Growing children, people doing heavy physical work, pregnant mothers and people recovering from illness need more; elderly people and those who sit at work need less energy food.

Sample diet chart for a twelve-year-old (cheap, locally available foods):