NCERT MCQ Solutions for Class 5 EVS Looking Around Chapter 3 From Tasting to Digesting

The story uses Jhumpa’s reaction to bitter gourd to illustrate how taste preferences, especially in children, often lean towards sweet flavors over bitter ones. Her refusal to eat karela highlights the natural human aversion to bitterness, which can sometimes be an indicator of toxins in nature, and a preference for sweet-tasting foods, which often signify energy.

Jhumpa’s ability to identify fried fish by its smell alone demonstrates the powerful connection between our senses of smell and taste. The aroma of food often triggers our appetite and helps our brain anticipate and identify flavors even before the food enters our mouth, playing a crucial role in our enjoyment of eating.

This simple experiment shows that our sense of taste is heavily influenced by our sense of smell. When the nose is blocked, it becomes difficult to distinguish complex flavors, as much of what we perceive as “taste” is actually flavor information coming from aromas reaching the olfactory receptors in our nasal cavity.

The suggestion to chew food thoroughly highlights the first step of digestion, which begins in the mouth. Chewing breaks down food into smaller pieces and mixes it with saliva, which contains enzymes that start breaking down carbohydrates. This process not only makes food easier to swallow but also enhances its taste and nutrient absorption.

This experiment demonstrates that saliva is essential for the sense of taste. Taste buds on the tongue can only detect chemical flavors when they are dissolved in a liquid. Without saliva to dissolve the sugar, the taste receptors cannot be stimulated, and therefore, no taste is perceived.

Nitu’s condition of vomiting and diarrhea led to severe dehydration and loss of nutrients, making her too weak to eat or drink normally. A glucose drip is an intravenous (IV) solution that provides the body with essential fluids, sugar for energy, and salts directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system to quickly rehydrate and strengthen the patient.

A sugar and salt solution is a simple form of an Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). This home remedy is effective for treating dehydration because the salt helps the body retain water, while the sugar provides necessary energy and helps the intestines absorb the salt and water more efficiently.

The story of soldier Martin, who was shot in 1822, is a famous case in medical history. The unusual nature of his wound—a hole that never fully closed—provided a unique window into the human stomach, allowing for direct observation of the digestive process in a living person for the first time.

Dr. Beaumont conducted experiments on Martin’s stomach over a period of nine years. This long-term study allowed him to make numerous detailed observations about digestion, such as the chemical nature of gastric juices and the influence of emotions on digestion, which formed the foundation of our modern understanding of gastroenterology.

Dr. Beaumont maintained the digestive juices in a glass at approximately 30°C, which is close to the human body’s core temperature. By replicating the stomach’s temperature, he could ensure his experiments on digestion outside the body were as scientifically accurate as possible, allowing for a valid comparison with digestion inside the stomach.

Dr. Beaumont’s observation that a fully boiled egg took the longest to digest illustrates how food preparation affects digestion. The heat from boiling causes the proteins in the egg to denature and coagulate tightly, making them more difficult for digestive enzymes to break down compared to the proteins in a raw or soft-boiled egg.

Dr. Beaumont’s key finding was that digestion is much more efficient inside the stomach than in a glass with just digestive juices. This proved that digestion is not only a chemical process but also a mechanical one, involving the stomach’s muscular churning action which mixes and breaks down food more effectively.

This observation was a pioneering discovery in the connection between mind and body. It demonstrated that emotional states like sadness and stress can directly impact physiological functions like digestion. This concept is now a well-established field of study in medicine, linking psychological well-being to gut health.

Dr. Beaumont’s discovery that stomach juice is acidic was a fundamental breakthrough. The high acidity (due to hydrochloric acid) in the stomach is crucial for killing harmful bacteria ingested with food and for activating enzymes that begin the complex process of protein digestion.

Rashmi appearing much younger than her actual age is a classic sign of stunting, a form of malnutrition. When a child does not receive adequate nutrition over a long period, their physical growth is severely impaired, which is a visible indicator of chronic hunger and poverty.

Rashmi’s diet, consisting of barely one meal a day, represents severe undernutrition and food insecurity. This lack of sufficient calories and nutrients is the root cause of her poor health, weakness, and stunted growth, illustrating the devastating impact of poverty on a child’s development.

Kailash’s diet of processed junk food is an example of a different kind of malnutrition, where there is an excess of calories but a lack of essential nutrients. This type of diet often leads to health problems like obesity and lethargy, showing that “being well-fed” is not the same as “being well-nourished.”

By prescribing “proper food” as the single treatment for both undernourished Rashmi and obese Kailash, the doctor emphasizes that nutrition is the cornerstone of health. It highlights that the solution to different forms of malnutrition is not medicine, but a balanced, adequate diet tailored to an individual’s needs.

The statistic that about half the children in the country suffer from undernutrition like Rashmi highlights the widespread public health crisis of hunger and malnutrition. It underscores that access to sufficient and nutritious food is a fundamental right that is not being met for a vast number of children, affecting the nation’s future.

The journey of grain from farms to mandis (markets) and then to godowns (warehouses) is part of the national food supply chain. However, it is points to a critical problem within this system: significant wastage of food in storage, which is a tragic irony in a country where millions suffer from hunger.