Tournament Day Nutritionist Answer Key Day1 and Day2
NUTRITIONIST ANSWER KEY - DAYS 1 & 2
Anubhav Group (Grade 6-8)
FOR ACHARYAS ONLY
DAY 1 ANSWER KEY: The Past
Part 1: Think About This
Question 1: Ask your grandparents or parents: What did they eat when they were your age?
Expected answers (examples):
Dal, bhat, bhakri, bhaji
Poha, upma, sabudana khichdi
Seasonal fruits (amba in summer, santra in winter)
Homemade snacks (chivda, chakli, shankarpali)
Simple sweets (gud-til laddoo, aamras)
Accept any traditional, home-cooked food answers
Question 2: How was their food different from what you eat now?
Expected answers:
More home-cooked food vs packaged food now
Fresher ingredients vs preserved/processed now
Simpler food vs complicated/fancy now
Seasonal eating vs year-round availability now
Less variety vs more variety now
Less waste vs more plastic packaging now
Key point: Students should notice the shift from fresh/simple/home-cooked to packaged/processed/bought
Question 3: Did they eat more home-cooked food or packaged food?
Answer: Home-cooked food
Why: Packaged food didn't exist or was very rare 30-50 years ago. Everything was made at home.
Part 3: Questions to Think About
Question 1: Why do you think people stopped cooking at home?
Answer: d) All of the above
Explanation for students:
Parents work long hours in cities
Both parents work, no time to cook
Don't know traditional recipes
Packaged food is quicker and easier
Lifestyle changed from village to city
Question 2: If your grandmother's recipes are forgotten, what happens to that knowledge?
Expected answers:
Knowledge is lost forever
Future generations won't know traditional food
Connection to culture is broken
Health wisdom is forgotten
Family traditions disappear
Key teaching point: Knowledge that isn't passed down dies. This is happening with food all over India.
Question 3: Is it better to eat fresh dal cooked at home, or instant noodles from a packet? Why?
Answer: Fresh dal is better
Why:
Natural ingredients (just dal, water, spices)
High protein and fiber
No chemicals or preservatives
Digests well
Gives lasting energy
Instant noodles:
Maida (refined flour) - no nutrition
Palm oil - unhealthy fat
MSG and chemicals
High sodium
Empty calories, makes you hungry again quickly
Question 4: Food used to be grown near your home. Now it travels hundreds of kilometers. What are the problems with this?
Expected answers:
Freshness:
Takes days/weeks to reach you
Loses nutrition during travel
Not as tasty as fresh food
Pollution:
Trucks, trains use fuel
Adds to air pollution
Carbon footprint increases
Preservatives:
Need chemicals to keep food fresh during long travel
These chemicals may be harmful
Natural food doesn't need preservatives
Accept answers that show understanding of any of these problems
Question (at end of Traditional Food Facts section): Do you see this kind of balanced meal at home now?
Likely answer: No (for most urban students)
If no, what replaced it?
Expected answers:
Packaged food (noodles, pasta, pizza)
Outside food (restaurant, delivery)
Quick meals (sandwiches, parathas only)
Separate items, not balanced thali
Junk food snacks
Part 5: What Did We Lose?
Question: Can we bring this knowledge back? How?
Expected answers:
Learn from elders while they're still alive
Ask grandparents to teach recipes
Write down family recipes
Practice cooking at home
Teach younger siblings
Value traditional food instead of calling it "boring"
Start cooking classes in school
Key teaching point: Yes, we can bring it back, but we have to actively try. It won't happen automatically.
DAY 2 ANSWER KEY: The Present
Part 1: The Lost Art of Cooking
Question 1: Yesterday you talked to your family about old recipes. Did they still cook those recipes? Why or why not?
Expected answers:
If YES:
Family values tradition
Someone (usually grandmother) still cooks
Special occasions only
If NO:
Takes too much time
Don't know how to make it
Ingredients not available
Prefer modern/easier food
Recipe was forgotten
Accept honest answers - the point is to make students aware of the loss
Question 2: How many students in your class know how to cook a complete meal (dal, sabzi, roti)?
Expected answer: Very few (probably 2-5 out of 15-20 students)
Teaching point: This shows the problem - cooking knowledge is disappearing
Part 2: Cities and Cooking
Question 3: Why do you think people in cities stopped cooking?
Answer: All of the above reasons are valid
Main reasons:
Time: Both parents work 9-10 hours, commute takes 1-2 hours, no time/energy to cook
Tiredness: After working all day, cooking feels like more work
Convenience: Ordering food or buying packaged food is faster and easier
Lack of knowledge: Many young people never learned to cook from elders
Key point: It's not because people are lazy - city life is genuinely difficult
Question 4: What is lost when recipes are forgotten?
Answer: Not just the recipe. All of these are lost:
Family tradition: The story behind the dish, when it was made, who made it
Health knowledge: Why certain spices were used, what foods help what problems
Connection between generations: Grandmothers teaching granddaughters while cooking together
Cultural identity: Food connects us to our roots, our region, our community
Self-reliance: Knowing how to feed yourself and your family
Accept any answer that shows deep thinking beyond just "the recipe"
Part 3: The Food Industry Takes Over
Question 5: If a company wants to make profit, what will they do?
Answer: b) Use cheap ingredients and make it taste good with salt, sugar, and chemicals
Explanation:
Companies exist to make profit
Profit = sell price minus cost
To increase profit: reduce cost (cheap ingredients) OR increase sales (make it tasty)
They do both: cheap ingredients + added salt/sugar/MSG to make it taste good
Health is not their priority - profit is
Teaching point: This is not about being evil - it's just business logic. YOUR job is to be aware and make smart choices.
Part 4: The Truth About Packaged Food
Question 6: How can noodles last for 1 year without spoiling?
Answer: Preservatives (chemicals that prevent bacteria growth)
Common preservatives:
Sodium benzoate
Potassium sorbate
Citric acid
TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone)
Also:
Deep frying removes water (bacteria need water to grow)
Palm oil doesn't spoil quickly
Airtight packaging keeps bacteria out
But: Fresh food is meant to spoil. That's natural. Food that lasts 1 year is NOT natural.
Question 7: If fresh dal spoils in 1 day and packaged curry lasts 1 year, which is more natural?
Answer: Fresh dal is more natural
Why: Natural food spoils because bacteria can eat it. If bacteria can't eat it (because of chemicals), neither should you.
Part 5: Reading Labels - The Truth Behind the Package
Question 8: What is the first ingredient in "healthy" breakfast cereal?
Answer: Sugar (or wheat flour, but often sugar is first or second)
Is this surprising?
Answer: Yes, very surprising!
Why: They market it as "healthy breakfast" but sugar is the main ingredient. This is misleading marketing.
Question 9: Count how many different types of sugar are in that cereal.
Expected answer: 2-4 types
Common ones in cereals:
Sugar (regular)
Malt extract
Glucose syrup
Corn syrup
Teaching point: Companies use multiple types of sugar so "sugar" doesn't appear as the first ingredient. It's a legal trick to hide how much sugar is really in the product.
Question 10: Look at your packaged food. How many ingredients can you NOT pronounce?
Expected answer: 5-15 ingredients (varies by product)
Common unpronounceable ingredients:
Monosodium glutamate
Disodium inosinate
Sodium benzoate
Tartrazine
Carboxymethylcellulose
Teaching point: If you can't pronounce it, your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize it as food. Do you want to eat it?
Part 6: The Big Lie - "Healthy" Marketing
Question 11: Have you seen any of these tricks on food you eat? Give one example.
Expected examples:
"No added sugar" trick:
Fruit juices (have natural sugar or glucose syrup)
Diet cold drinks (have artificial sweeteners)
"Made with real fruit" trick:
Fruit juices (2-5% real fruit, rest is sugar water)
Fruit-flavored biscuits
"Fortified with vitamins" trick:
Breakfast cereals
Health drinks (Complan, Horlicks type)
"Natural flavors" trick:
Chips
Fruit drinks
Candies
Accept any legitimate example students bring
Part 7: The Health Crisis
Question 12: What changed in 50 years? What is the main cause?
Answer: All three changed, but FOOD is the main cause
Explanation:
Food changed most:
From fresh, home-cooked, natural → to packaged, processed, chemical-filled
From seasonal, local → to year-round, imported
From simple ingredients → to complex additives
Activity decreased:
From farming, walking, physical work → to sitting jobs, cars, less movement
Stress increased:
From simple village life → to competitive city life
But: Even if you're stressed and less active, good food can prevent most diseases. Bad food, even with exercise, causes problems.
Question 13: Do you see these diseases in your family or neighborhood?
Expected answer: Yes (most students will know someone)
Common answers:
Uncle has diabetes
Neighbor had heart attack
Cousin is obese
Aunt has thyroid problem
Father has high blood pressure
Teaching point: These diseases were rare 50 years ago. Now they're everywhere. Why?
Question 14: What were they eating? Traditional food or packaged/outside food?
Expected answer: Packaged/outside food (most likely)
Common pattern:
Breakfast: Biscuits, bread, cereals
Lunch: Outside food, fried items
Snacks: Chips, namkeen, cold drinks
Dinner: Sometimes home food, but often outside/packaged
Teaching point: See the connection? Bad food = bad health. It's not a mystery.
Part 8: Why Companies Do This
Question 15: If packaged food is causing disease, why do companies still make it?
Answer: Companies care about profit, not your health
Full explanation:
Companies are businesses, not charities
Their goal: make money for shareholders
Health is YOUR responsibility, not theirs
They follow the law (barely), but the law is weak in India
As long as people buy it, they'll sell it
Teaching point: Don't expect companies to care about you. YOU have to care about yourself.
Question 16: Who is responsible for your health - the company or you?
Answer: YOU are responsible
Why:
Companies give you choices, but YOU choose what to buy
Parents buy the food, but YOU can tell them what you learned
Government should regulate better, but until they do, YOU protect yourself
Knowledge is power - now you have knowledge, use it
Teaching point: Don't be a victim. Be informed and make smart choices.
Part 9: Dussehra Connection
Question 17: Can you see the parallel? How is a junk food company like Ravana?
Expected answer:
Similarities:
High knowledge, low wisdom:
Ravana: Knew all Vedas but used knowledge selfishly
Companies: Know food science but use it for profit, not health
No self-control:
Ravana: Couldn't control his desires, kidnapped Sita
Companies: Can't control greed, sell harmful products
Destroying what sustains life:
Ravana: Destroyed Sita (symbol of Earth/nature)
Companies: Destroy health, environment (pollution, plastic, factory farming)
Misleading/deception:
Ravana: Disguised himself to trick Sita
Companies: Misleading labels, false health claims
Accept any answer that shows understanding of the parallel
Question 18: One packaged food you will stop eating after today's learning:
This is personal - no right answer
Common answers might be:
Chips
Cold drinks
Instant noodles
Biscuits
Packaged juice
Why: Because now I know what's in it / Because it has too much sugar / Because it's not real food / Because I want to be healthy
Teaching point: Knowledge without action is useless. Make ONE small change. That's enough to start.
LABEL READING ACTIVITY - SAMPLE ANSWERS
Example 1: Popular Instant Noodles
Example 2: "Healthy" Breakfast Cereal
Example 3: Packaged Fruit Juice
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