Gifts of Nature
The food we eat
Work out which part of a plant a vegetable is, tell plant foods from animal foods, and say why a plate with many things on it beats a plate with two.
Shirin could run faster than anyone else at school, but she kept falling sick. A champion runner asked her what she ate. Rice and potatoes, she said, and not much else. The champion's advice was not to eat more — it was to eat a wider range: vegetables and fruits, things made from different grains, pulses and nuts, cooked at home.
Which part am I eating?
Nearly everything on a plate of vegetables was once part of a plant, and the chapter sorts them by which part. Spinach and coriander are leaves. Carrot, radish and beetroot are roots. Potato and ginger are stems. Guava and mango are fruits. Grains, pulses and dry fruits are seeds.
Have a play
A carrot plant growing in the soil, and its two parts.
Tap any part of the picture.
Worked example
Ginger and a potato both grow underground. Does that make them both roots?
Notice what the question is really about: where a thing grows, or what part of the plant it is.
They are two different questions, and it is easy to let the first answer the second.
Try it together
Now think about drinking on a hot day, together.
The chapter spends a page on why summer changes what we want.
1.You run about in the sun and your skin turns damp. What is your body doing?
Have a go
Your turn. Chhappan bhog is prepared for festivals and for guests. How many varieties of food item does the chapter say it holds?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.