Definition
A „meal? is composed of one or more readily eatable (generally cooked) items of food, the usually major constituent of which is cereals. The meals consumed by a person twice or thrice a day provide him/her the required energy (calorie) and other nutrients for living and for pursuing his/her normal avocations. A „meal?, as opposed to „snacks?, „nashta? or „high tea?, contains larger quantum and variety of food. In rare cases, a full meal may contain larger quantity of non-cereal food. Even then, if the quantum of food in a plate is heavy as a meal, the contents of the food plate will also be considered as a „meal?. Sometimes the contents of a „nashta? may not be very different from the contents of a „meal?. The difference in quantity will therefore be the guiding factor for deciding whether the plate is to be labelled as a „meal? or a „nashta?.
A person rendering domestic service (like cleaning utensils, dusting and cleaning of rooms, washing linen, carrying water from outside, etc.) to a number of households during the daytime gets some food from each of the households he/she serves. Although the quantum of food received from a single household may, by quantity, be far less than a full meal, the total quantity of food received from all the households taken together would often, if not more, be at least equivalent to a full meal. In this particular situation, the person will be considered to be consuming one meal every day under „meal taken away from home?.
Subject to the guidelines given in the two preceding paragraphs, for the purpose of data collection on „number of meals consumed? one has to depend on the judgement of the informant because, the informant would reckon the number on the basis of his/her own understanding of the concept of a meal/khana.