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A nutritionist is designing a daily diet plan of a person using five food items: Milk, Spinach, Almonds, Oats, and Rice. The Minimum Daily Requirement (MDR) of the nutrients Calcium, Iron and…

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A nutritionist is designing a daily diet plan of a person using five food items: Milk, Spinach, Almonds, Oats, and Rice. The Minimum Daily Requirement (MDR) of the nutrients Calcium, Iron and Protein should be 1100 mg, 15 mg, and 40 g, respectively. The following table gives nutrient content per serving of each food item:

Food itemCalcium (mg)Iron (mg)Protein (g)
Milk30008
Spinach9063
Almonds21046
Oats12035
Rice5014


Each serving provides a certain percentage of the MDR. For example, one serving of milk satisfies 20% of MDR of Protein. Further, the number of servings of any food item should be a whole number.

If only xx servings of Milk and yy servings of Rice are included in the diet plan, then the minimum value of x+yx + y that will satisfy the MDR of all three nutrients is
  1. 17
  2. 15
  3. 24
  4. 22

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: A - 17
Iron comes only from Rice: y >= 15. Calcium 300x + 50y >= 1100 and protein 8x + 4y >= 40. y=15 needs x=2 (total 17); y=16 needs x=1 (17); larger y only raises the total (y=22, x=0 gives 22). Minimum x+y = 17.

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  • IPMAT Indore

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