Supplementary value of a low cost protein food to poor Indian diets.

The effect of replacing 25 per cent of cereals in poor Indian diets
withalow cost protein food(LcPF) containing 19.3 per cent protein and
based on a blend of ragi (65 per cent), peanut flour (25 per cent) and
chickpea flour (10 per cent) and fortified with calcium phosphate and
vitamins on the overall nutritive value of the diets has been determined
by growth experiments on rats. The results showed that a highly significant
increase in the growth rate was observed as a result of replacement
of 25 per cent cereals by LCPF. The mean weekly growth rate
of rats on the poor cereal diets ranged from 6.0 to 10.1 g, which
increased to about 13.4 to 15.1 g, when the same diets were supplemented
with LCPF. The mean weekly gain in body weight of rats on a
diet in which the cereal was completely replaced by LCPF was 17.9 g.