HYDERABAD: Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in its report ‘What India Eats’ has brought out some stark findings on food consumption pattern of Indians, giving an idea as to why the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes is high in the country.The report highlights that while Indians consume carbohydrate-rich cereals in large quantities, the consumption of high-protein and micronutrient-rich foods like pulses, legumes, fruits, vegetables and meat is much lower, which puts many Indians under the risk of lifestyle diseases.
The ‘What India Eats’ (WIE) report an the ‘Nutrient Requirements for Indians’ report, containing the revised Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), were released in New Delhi by the Union Minister for Health, Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday.The report on revised RDA for the first time also includes the Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) and also the Tolerable Upper Limits (TUL) of nutrients.
While RDAs are daily dietary nutrient intake levels which would be sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all healthy individuals, EARs are the average daily nutrient intake levels of population.
Mapping nutrition intake
The Minister also launched a key initiative by NIN, a study titled ‘Mapping of nutrition and health status — A national level participatory real-time data generation programme’, which aims to develop a mobile based device, used by nutrition researchers, as well as develop food based strategies through inter-ministerial convergences to promote national programmes for ensuring food and nutrition security.This will be done region-wise simultaneously in collaboration with other institutions and the food consumption data will be conducted through crowdsourcing.
According to ‘What India Eats’ report, a meagre five per cent of rural Indians and 18 per cent of urban populace in the country consume the recommended amount of good quality proteins.While it is recommended that carbohydrates-rich cereals should contribute just 45 per cent of a day’s energy and the rest must be from other foods, the report says that cereals contribute to 51 per cent of energy among urban Indians and 65 per cent among rural Indians.
Only 8.8% rural Indians eat enough vegetables
IN contrast to this, high protein foods such as pulses, legumes, nuts, meat, poultry and fish contribute just 11 per cent of daily energy needs, whereas the recommended value is 17 per cent.Another worrying fact is that only 8.8 per cent rural and 17 per cent urban Indians consume vegetables in the required quantities, whereas just 8.7 per cent rural and 14.3 per cent urban Indians consume the recommended quantity of milk.
The report also says that junk food like chips, biscuits and chocolates contribute to around 11 per cent of the energy needs among the rural and urban Indians.When contacted, NIN Director Dr R Hemalatha pointed out that while lower consumption of milk and milk products is associated with increased risk of hypertension, adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of diabetes.