NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 3 - Mindful Eating: A Path to a Healthy Body

Chapter 3, Mindful Eating: A Road to a Healthy Body from Class 6 brings in students the importance of consuming healthy food and learning how nutrition influences overall well-being. The chapter describes the advantages of balanced diets and healthy diets in basic terms, allowing students to establish a strong foundation for a healthy life.

This Story also Contains

1. Access NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 3: Solved Exercise Solution
2. Approach to Solve Questions in NCERT Chapter 3
3. Important Topics of Chapter 3 Mindful Eating: A Path to a Healthy Body
4. Important Question from Chapter 3
5. NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science: Chapter-wise

The NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 3 - Mindful Eating: A Path to a Healthy Body offer clear answers and explanations to textbook questions, allowing students to better understand key concepts, study efficiently, and prepare confidently for exams. Students can refer to the NCERT Solutions for Class 6 for all the subjects.

Access NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science Chapter 3: Solved Exercise Solution

This solution will help you understand the main principles of mindful eating and how it helps in maintaining our body's health. Through these questions, you can support your understanding regarding balanced nutrition and healthy food choices.

1. Pick the odd one out and give reasons: (i) Jowar, Bajra, Ragi, Chana (ii) Kidney beans, Green gram, Soya bean

Answer: Odd one out, Channa. Reason- Jowar, bajra and ragi are millets, while chana is a legume. It differs in both source and nutritional profile

Odd one out, Soybean. Reason- Soyabean has significantly higher protein and fat content compared to others, making it nutritionally distinct.

2. Discuss traditional versus modern culinary practices in India.

Answer: Traditional Indian cooking includes fresh, seasonal and diverse ingredients like vegetables, whole grains, pulses and spices. Meals are usually home-cooked with balanced nutrition in mind. Modern cooking practices often lean towards processed, ready-to-eat or fast foods, which may lack essential nutrients and contain more fat, sugar and preservatives. While modern methods offer convenience, traditional practices usually support better health.

3. A teacher says that good food may act as medicine. Ravi is curious about this statement and has some questions for his teacher. List at least two questions that he can ask.

Answer: How can the food we eat, prevent or cure illness?

Can eating certain foods improve our immunity or eyesight?

4. Not all delicious foods are necessarily healthy, while not all nutritious foods are always enjoyable. Share your thoughts along with a few examples.

Answer: Junk foods like chips, burgers and soft drinks taste great but are high in unhealthy fats and sugars. On the other hand ,foods like spinach, sprouts, or bitter gourd may not be liked by everyone, but are rich in nutrients. It is important to find the balance- making nutritious food tastier, or limiting unhealthy treats occasionally.

5. Medu does not eat vegetables but enjoys biscuits, noodles and white bread. He often has stomach aches and constipation. What changes should he make in his diet to get rid of these problems? Explain your answer.

Answer: Medu should include fibre-rich foods like green vegetables, fruits, and whole grains in his meals to improve digestion and prevent constipation. Drinking plenty of water and avoiding highly processed foods like biscuits and noodles will also help add fibre and ease bubble movement

6. Reshma had trouble seeing things in dim light. The doctor tested her eyesight and prescribed a particular vitamin supplement. He also advised her to include a few food items in her diet.

(i) Which deficiency disease is she suffering from?

(ii) Which food component may be lacking in her diet?

(iii) Suggest some food items that she should include in her diet to overcome this problem (any four).

Answer: (i) She is suffering from night blindness.

(ii) Her diet lacks vitamin A.

(iii) She should include foods like carrots, spinach, mangoes, milk, and egg yolk to overcome the deficiency.

7. You are provided with the following: (i) Canned fruit juice (ii) Fresh fruit juice (iii) Fresh fruit Which one would you prefer and why?

Answer: Fresh fruits are the best choice as they contain natural fibre, vitamins, and minerals, in their original form. Fresh juice is healthy but lacks fibre while canned juice may contain added sugar and preservatives, reducing its nutritional value.

8. Gourav got a fracture in his leg. His doctor aligned the bones and put on a plaster. The doctor also gave him calcium tablets. On the second visit, the doctor gave him Vitamin D syrup along with calcium tablets.

(i) Why did the doctor give calcium tablets to Gourav?

(ii) On the second visit, why did the doctor give Vitamin D syrup along with calcium tablets?

(iii) What question arises in your mind about the choices made by the doctor in giving the medicines?

Answer: (i) Calcium tablets help strengthen bones and support healing after a fracture.

(ii) Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium properly; without it, calcium alone won't be effective.

(iii) Questions: Why is vitamin D necessary, if calcium is already being taken or can sunlight exposure help in bone healing too?

9. Sugar is an example of a carbohydrate. Sugar is tested with iodine solution, but it does not change to a blue-black colour. What can be a possible reason?

Answer: The iodine solution reacts with starch, not with simple sugars like glucose or sucrose. That's why sugar does not show a blue-black colour because it's a carbohydrate, but not the type that reacts with iodine.

10. What do you think of Raman’s statement, “All starches are carbohydrates but not all carbohydrates are starches.’’ Describe the design of an activity to test your answer.

Answer: Raman is right. Starch is a complex carbohydrate, while sugars are simple carbohydrates. Activity- Take two test tubes. Add starch to one and sugar solution to the other. Add iodine to both the solutions, the starch solution will turn blue-black, while sugar won't. This shows that while both are carbohydrates, only starch reacts with iodine.

11. While using iodine in the laboratory, a few drops of iodine fell on Mishti’s socks, and a few fell on her teacher’s saree. The drops of iodine on the saree turned blue-black while the colour on the socks did not change. What can be a possible reason?

Answer: The saree likely had starch, which reacted with iodine to give a blue-black colour. The socks didn't contain starch, so there was no colour change.

12. Why are millets considered a healthy choice of food? Can eating just millets suffice for the nutritional requirements of the body? Discuss.

Answer: Millets are rich in fibre, protein and essential minerals like iron and calcium, making them highly nutritious. However, eating only millet may not provide all the necessary nutrients like vitamin B12 or essential fats. A balanced diet, including all the vegetables, fruits, dairy, and pulses, is necessary for complete nutrition.

13. You are given a sample of a solution. How would you check the possibility of it being an iodine solution?

Answer: Dip a starch-containing item into the solution. If it turns blue-black, it is likely an iodine solution. You can also note its colour and smell. Iodine solution is typically brown and has a distinct colour.

NCERT Solutions for Class 6 - Subject-Wise

• NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Maths
• NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science

Approach to Solve Questions in NCERT Chapter 3

To answer Mindful Eating: A Path to a Healthy Body, simply apply the following steps:

1. Read the chapter well to realise how important mindful and healthy eating patterns are.
2. Discover and learn about food's main nutrients and how they help maintain body health.
3. Demonstrate sorting food as healthy food or junk, and realise how each impacts health.
4. Revisit definitions such as balanced diet, deficiency diseases, and food miles to get concise answers.
5. Complete all textbook questions and activities to firm up your comprehension and answer writing skills

Important Topics of Chapter 3 Mindful Eating: A Path to a Healthy Body

The important topics are given below:

3.1 What Do We Eat?

This section introduces students to the wide variety of food items, people consume across regions. It helped the students understand that food is not just for taste but provides essential nutrients. The topic teaches about cultural and regional variation in food habits. It encourages mindful eating based on nutrition needs.

3.2 What are the Components of Food?

This topic helps students know the different micro- and macronutrients that make up our food- carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. The section explains how each nutrient plays a specific role in body functioning. It also gives the importance of water and roughage. Understanding these components helps in making healthier food choices.

3.3 How to Test Different Components of Food?

This topic brings a hands-on approach to learning by explaining simple methods to test for starch, proteins and fats in food samples through easy experiments, using iodine, copper sulphate and paper. Students connect theory with real-world food analysis. This strengthens practical skills and observation.

3.4 Balanced Diet

Students learn what a balanced diet is and why it is necessary for overall health and energy. This section highlights how meals should include the right proportions of all nutrients. It teaches students to avoid junk food and eat only home-cooked meals. Special interest is also given to planning diets as per age and activity levels.

3.5 Millets: Nutrition-rich Cereals

This topic educates students about millets like ragi, bajra, and jowar, which are ancient grains that are packed with nutrition. It promotes the inclusion of millet in their daily diets due to its high fibre and mineral content. Students also learn how millets are climate-friendly and useful for farmers and consumers.

3.6 Food Miles: From Farm to Our Plate

This topic introduces the concept of “food miles” the distance for travel of food from where it is grown to where it is eaten. It inspires us to choose local food available near us to reduce our carbon footprint. Students also understand how the transportation of food affects the environment and that eating fresh and local is both eco-friendly and healthy.

Important Question from Chapter 3

Question 1: Which of the following is a characteristic of mindful eating?
a) Eating quickly while watching TV
b) Being aware of hunger and fullness cues
c) Skipping meals to lose weight
d) Following strict diet plans
Answer: b) Being aware of hunger and fullness cues

Explanation:

Mindful eating is the practice of paying close attention to your eating experience, including your body's internal cues of hunger and fullness, without judgment or distraction. This approach encourages you to tune into your body’s signals, so you eat when you are hungry and stop when you are satisfied, rather than eating out of habit or while distracted. Being aware of these cues helps prevent overeating and promotes a healthier relationship with food. In contrast, eating quickly while distracted or skipping meals is not part of mindful eating and can lead to unhealthy eating patterns.

Also, check the NCERT Books and the NCERT Syllabus here

• NCERT Books Class 6

• NCERT Syllabus Class 6

NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Science: Chapter-wise

Below are the chapter-wise solutions: