Food cooking is one of the arts.

Cooking makes the tasty food. Coked food digests easily. Cooking also makes food safe eat. Heat kills the harmful germs.

Have you ever seen your mother cooking food in the kitchen? She cooks different foods in different ways. Some are boiled, some are friend in oil, and some are backed. Some foods are cooked by roasting and some foods are cooked by steaming.

Fruits and many other vegetables are eaten row. Raw vegetables have more vitamins than the cooked ones. Vitamin contents of pulses can be increased by sprouting. Sprouting is a process by which seeds swell up and germinate by water or milk. We can sprout black gram, wheat, maize and gram. Sprouted grains are rich in vitamins. They should be eaten without salt.

Raw fruits and vegetables should be washed in clean water before eating them.

The vegetables should be washed before cutting them. If they are washed after cutting, there is loss of vitamins. The fruits and vegetables which require peeling should be washed before peeling.

Dust, dirt, flies and mosquitoes spoil our food. Flies and mosquitoes deposit harmful germs on our food. Uncovered and exposed food should not be eaten. It causes many diseases like cholera, jaundice, dysentery, vomiting, diarrhea and food poisoning. Do not cut and keep the fruits. They lose vitamins.

Al food items should be properly covered to protect them from dust, flies, mosquitoes and other harmful bacteria and germs.

We should make it a habit to clean our hands before handling any food item. The hands come in contact with many dirty things, and harmful germs stick to them. These germs, if taken with food, can do harm to our health.

Milk

Milk is a complete food. It gives us energy. It helps us to grow. It also protects us from diseases. Besides this, we must drink a large quantity of water. Our body needs water. We perspire and lose water. We urinate and lose water. Water keeps our kidneys clean and helps purity the blood. Water is also essential for the body.

A complete diet should contain all types of food. It should contain fibrous food like the carrot, radish and cucumber. It should contain leafy vegetables like the cabbage and spinach. It should also have meat items like the fish and meat.

• Prepare a list of food items for your breakfast, lunch and dinner keeping in view the three properties of the food, namely giving energy, helping growth, and protecting against diseases.

Do you know?

* Long ago men did not know about cooking. They ate foods without cooking. They learned cooking when they invented fire. They found out cooked food was tastier.