Amaranth to Zai Holes, Ideas for Growing Food under Difficult Conditions (ECHO, 1996, 397 p.) Good nutrition on the small farm (introduction...) Why Nutrition? What is a balanced diet? Why the small farm? Nutrients in foods Recommended daily allowances Five natural food groups Balancing the diet with the five food groups When milk is missing Potential Sources for Information on Nutrition

Amaranth to Zai Holes, Ideas for Growing Food under Difficult Conditions (ECHO, 1996, 397 p.)

Good nutrition on the small farm

A beginners guide

ECHO Basic Document # 5

GOOD NUTRITION ON THE SMALL FARM A BEGINNERS GUIDE
by Franklin W. Martin and Scott D. Sherman

Why Nutrition?

Human beings are so much alike! Yet, probably in no one characteristic are we as alike as in our nutritional needs. It is easy to forget that eating is more than just a pleasure. It is the act of replenishing ourselves with what we need to build and repair our bodies, to keep us vigorous and healthy, and to fuel us for the activities of life.

Good nutrition is perhaps the most basic factor associated with health, a prerequisite to happiness, basic for a sane spirit. Furthermore, the facts of good nutrition are already well known and very little has been done in the last 25 years to enhance our knowledge. Simple rules can be learned by anyone and followed without attention to counting calories. It is not necessary to know the details of the nutritional content of foods in order to create a balanced diet.

What is a balanced diet?

It is a diet that gives one all of what one needs in more or less the quantity that is needed. This bulletin permits you to balance the diet with only a few simple rules. You need only learn the 5 common food groups (all foods will fit into them) and about the amount you will need of each food group each day. Yet this bulletin attempts to educate you further, to give you sufficient knowledge to be able to resist food fads and irrational diets, and to interpret the "nutritional" advertisements one is surrounded by today.

Furthermore, you may be interested in the spiritual well being of others. How can you help them spiritually if they suffer from hunger or malnutrition? You may owe your people the knowledge given here. Finally, although all people need the same foods, they may need them in different amounts due to special conditions of the moment. This bulletin will help you interpret individual differences and special needs.

Why the small farm?

The truth is that nutritional needs are the same everywhere. But on the small farm one may have the opportunity to produce food not only to sell, but to fill his own needs. To raise the right crops and animals requires an understanding of nutritional needs, as shown here. Furthermore it may require the special knowledge of how to preserve foods during times of plenty, to be used later in times of scarcity. However, this knowledge is not covered in this bulletin.

Nutrients in foods

The nutrients in food can be divided into major and minor classes. Major, as used here, only signifies that a nutrient is needed in large quantities. The major nutrients are water, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Water makes up to 80% of the body's weight. Lack of water will kill in 4-5 days.

Carbohydrates are of three types: Sugars (easily digested), starches (more slowly digested) and fiber (not digested, but necessary). The first two sources are a source of energy. The third is important in elimination of body waste.

Fats are a very concentrated source of energy common in plant and animal foods. As a general rule, plant fats (except palm fats) are more healthy to the body than animal fats.

Proteins are necessary for the building of the body (growth) and for repair of the normal and injured body.

Minor nutrients are the vitamins and minerals, very essential to health. There are 13 essential vitamins, the fat soluble (A,D,E, and K) and the water soluble (C and the various B's). Minerals are needed in small amounts (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chlorine) and those needed in minute amounts (iron, iodine, zinc, and several others). To balance the diet (make the diet adequate) it is not necessary to know the uses of the individual vitamins or minerals. However it does require a wide variety of foods that contain them.

Recommended daily allowances

While each person needs a different amount of nutrients according to size, age, sex, state, and lifestyle, nevertheless an average can be calculated as follows:

NUTRIENT	AVERAGE AMOUNT NEEDED DAILY
Protein	45- 65 grams
Carbohydrates	200-260 grams
Fats	27- 60 grams
Water	According to thirst

FAT SOLUBLE VITAMINS:

A	5000 International units
D	400 International units
E	30 International units
K	0.4 milligrams

WATER SOLUBLE VITAMINS:

B-1 Thiamin	1.5 milligrams
B-2 Riboflavin	1.7 milligrams
B-3 Niacin	20 milligrams
B-6	2 milligrams
B-12	6 micrograms
Biotin	0.3 milligram
Pantothenic acid	10 milligrams
C	45 milligrams

MAJOR MINERALS*

Calcium	1 gram
Phosphorus	1 gram
Magnesium	400 milligrams
Potassium	1 gram

MINOR MINERALS:

Iron	18 milligrams
Zinc	15 milligrams
Copper	2 milligrams
Iodine	150 micrograms

* It is generally assumed that sodium and chlorine requirements are easily met during eating normal foods. The more frequent problem is too much.

The amounts required of some nutrients can be higher under certain circumstances, as follows:

Under nutrition	requires more food or better balance of food
Fatness	requires less sugars, starches, and fats
Pregnancy	requires a richer diet
Lactation	requires a richer diet
Heavy work	requires more foods rich in calories
Growth	requires a higher proportion of proteins
Old age	requires careful watching of diet, especially vitamins and minerals

Heart problems require reduction in total fat, animal fat, and salt

Natural foods and products made from them contain irregular amounts of nutrients. No one food contains all nutrients. Therefore, to obtain a balanced (adequate) diet, one has to eat a variety of foods. This can be done in two ways:

1. Knowing all the nutrient contents of all foods and calculating the nutrients of the foods eaten (a very difficult method).

2. Classifying foods in nutrient categories, and then using the recommended number of servings of each group (a relatively easy method).

Five natural food groups

1. Milk and dairy products: milk in any form including yogurt, ice milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, cheese

2. Meat, eggs, fish, dry beans (cooked)

3. Grains and their products including products made from corn or wheat flour, rice and oats. Includes whole wheat and enriched white bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, muffins, waffles, pancakes, pasta, grits, tortillas.

4. Green and yellow fruits, including tomatoes, leafy vegetables, pumpkin, mango, papaya, citrus.

5. Sweets (including sugar, candies, jams, jellies, syrups, soft drinks, some toppings), fats (butter, margarine, lard, salad dressing, mayonnaise, cooking oil) and roots and tubers (yams, sweet potatoes, cassava, taro, potatoes).

Balancing the diet with the five food groups

To balance the diet, try to obtain daily the number of servings indicated of each food group. Interpret one serving as the amount that might be served at one meal consisting of five equal servings of food.

Milk and dairy products	3 servings
Meat, eggs, legume seeds	3 servings
Grains and cereals	4 servings
Vegetables and fruits	4 servings
Fats and sweets	May be unnecessary in most diets. Use to fill the appetite or give extra calories when needed.

When milk is missing

Milk and dairy products furnish good quantities of calcium, vitamin A, B vitamins, and protein to the diet. Milk is practically a complete food, especially for children. Fortunately, there is some overlapping in the nutrient contents of foods, and therefore, when milk and its products are not available, substitution is possible. The best food to substitute would be dark green leafy vegetables, especially chaya, moringa, cassava leaves, katuk, Pacific spinach (Abelmoschus), celosia and amaranth. Also useful are increased amounts of green pods, especially of legumes, soy milk (can be made at home), shellfish, and fish in general.

Potential Sources for Information on Nutrition

Dr. Clive E. West, Dept. of Human Nutrition, Wageningen Agricultural University, De Dreijen 12, 6703 BC Wageningen, The Netherlands (put out a good Food Composition Table of foods commonly eaten in East Africa).

Janet Glassman, Rodale Press Information Services, 33 East Minor Street, Emmaus, PA 18098, USA (publish "The Vitamin A+ Sieve").

Dr. D.S. McLaren, International Centre for Eye Health, 27©29 Cayton Street, London EC1V 9EJ, U.K., Fax: 903 206770 (Publish "Xerophthalmia Club").

Family Food Production & Nutrition Project, UNICEF Pacific Operations, c/o UNDP, Private Mail Bay, Suva, FIJI

Outreach, c/o UNEP Information Service, United Nations Environment Programme, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, KENYA

S.M. Mohd Idris, Coordinator, People's Health Network, Third World Network, 87 Cantonment Road, 10250 Penang, MALAYSIA

Program in Appropriate Technology in Health, 4 Nickerson St., Seattle, WA 98109©1699, Phone: 206/285-3500

Medical Assistance Program International, 2200 Glynco Parkway, P.O. Box 50, Brunswick, GA 31521-0050, Phone: 912/265-6010.

The Medical Benevolence Foundation, 320 Highway 190 W. Woodville, TX 75979-9717.

Medical Ambassidors International, P.O. Box 6645, Modesto, CA 95357-6645.

Health Development International, P.O. Box 40294, Pasadena, CA 91114, Phone 818/797-1200, FAX 818/398-2491

TEAR Fund, 100 Church Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 8QE, U.K.

World Health Organization, UN Liaison Office, Room DC2-0956/0976, United Nations, New York, NY 10017, Phone: 212/963-6004.