OPTIMIZATION OF DIETS WITH EQUAL QUALTITY OF PROTEIN DERIVED FROM FOOD LEGUME AND CEREAL FOR HARD WORKING RURAL POOR USING PROGRAMMING APPOACH

Over 40 per cent Indian population needs to be attended for nutritional improvement. Traditional nutritious food resources though abundantly available but presently less used, if incorporated in the diets, can yield low-cost nutritionally balanced diets. The linear programming (LP)model was used for optimization of food resources to satisfy protein -energy requirements of hard working rural poor. Soybean-a highly nutritious food legume-available at reasonably low price was included along with chick -pea and pigeon -pea for comparison .The three cereals predominantly used in Indian diets -rice, wheat and sorghum -and three typical leafy vegetables namely, spinach , drumstick leaves and rajagira (Amaranths paniculantus) leaves were used for optimization . The contribution of food legume was restricted to supply only 50 per cent of daily protein requirement for maximum protein value. The quantities of other food stuffs namely , milk , sugar , tubers etc. were restricted to nati nal per capita availability. the nutrition satisfaction levels in per cent RDA by the model are 149-250 for protein , 51-106 for fat, 134-362 for iron an d143-1158 for Vitamin-A. Quantities of food legumes, cereals and leafy vegetables ranged from 289-601, 3000-3700 and 360-1200 g/day respectively for a reference family of five hard working rural poor. Daily food resources cost ranged from US$ 0.6 to 1.0 for the family. Amongst food legumes, soybean based diet combinations provide maximum nutritional benefits at minimum cost indicating its suitability for wider adoption by hard working poor.