New trends in physics teaching, v.4; The ... - unesdoc - Unesco

India
age group 6 to 11, classes I to V, through the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) assisted
Nutrition Health and Environmental Sanitation Programme. Under the supervision of NCERT,
five regional centres for the development of this programme for the primary stage were established
at Baroda (Vadodra), Calcutta, Coimbatore, Jabalpore and Ludhiana. The materials developed
at Ludhiana Centre deal with topics such as energy requirements during pregnancy and lactation
of mother and infants, energy value of food etc. In the materials, produced by the Coimbatore
Centre, foods are classified into three categories, one being energy (giving) foods. Some of the
descriptions are as follows:
‘The body needs energy for its activities as a railway engine needs coal to make it go, or a car
needs petrol to move. The human body is never at rest, it is always engaged in work. Even when
we sleep, the heart beats, the chest walls move. . . food is the fuel supplying energy.’
‘All foods give you some energy, but the most important energy foods are those having a large
amount of starches, sugar and fats in them.’
‘Energy foods which contain starch are bread, cereals and starchy vegetables, such as potatoes,
tapioca and sweet potatoes. Other energy foods taste sweet such as sugar, syrup,jaggery and
honey.’
In short, in India a considerable amount of energy consciousness has been generated through
non-formal media, but the formalization of these efforts will take some time to develop.
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