Your Food and You

We eat food every day, but what the food contains and what happens to it is known only to a few. Some very fascinating aspects like what a balanced diet means, how food is digested in the digestive system, some common food fads and taboos, food for babies, pregnant women and nursing mothers, special diets, food spoilage, cleanliness and infection, have been covered to acquaint the reader with this very important part of our health. Dr. Achaya (b.1923) has extensive experience in the field of foods (oil and fats, dairy products, proteins). Having worked in the UK, the USA, the Canada, he established a research centre at the Regional Research Laboratory, Hyderabad. Later he was appointed executive director of the Pritein Foods and Nutrition Development Association of India, Mumbai. He then became a consultant to the United Nations University Programme at the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore. He is now based in Bangalore as an emeritus scientist. He has also written another book, Everyday Indian Processed Foods, which too has been published by the National Book Trust, India. Preface Little in this book is new. All that has been done is to put down things known to most Indian nutritionists in a way which, it is hoped, will be of interest and value to the common reader in this country. Three source books have been particularly drawn upon. One is The Nutritive Value of Indian Foods by C. Gopalan, B.V. Rama Sastri and S.C. Balasubramanian (National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Hyderabad, 1971); another is Human Nutrition: Principles and Applications in India by Maxine E. McDivitt and Sumati R. Mudambi (Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, 1973); the third is Applied Nutrition by R, Rajalakshmi (Biochemistry Department, M.S. University of Baroda, 1969). Also of value have been