Abstract
‘Health is wealth’, goes the saying. Health and nutrition are the most important contributory factors for human resource development in the country. Unhealthy eating and physical inactivity cause 1/3 of premature deaths. Nowadays nutrition related non communicable diseases have become a major threat to public health. Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM), micronutrient deficiencies such as vitamin A deficiency, Iron Deficiency Anemia, Iodine Deficiency Disorders and vitamin B-complex deficiencies are the nutrition problems frequently encountered, particularly among the rural poor and urban slum communities and among children and women. These nutritional risk factors, are considered responsible for 3.9 million deaths (35%of total deaths) and 144 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYS) (33% of total DALYS) in children below 5 years of age [1]. The scenario clearly shows there is a need for reappraisal of nutrition intervention programmes for children and pregnant women in India for which an attempt was made by us through identification of some healthy recipies and introduction of these among a set of population which are presented in this paper.
Highlights
Malnutrition remains a major health problem with consequences that are too grave to be ignored
The results clearly show that a healthy diet includes enough food from each of the food groups every day
The menu planning in one’s life should aim at maintenance of a state of positive health and optimal performance in populations at large by maintaining ideal body weight, ensuring adequate nutritional status for pregnant women and lactating mothers, improvement of birth weights and promotion of growth of infants, children and adolescents to achieve their full genetic potential, achievement of adequacy in all nutrients, prevention of deficiency diseases and increasing the life expectancy
Summary
Malnutrition remains a major health problem with consequences that are too grave to be ignored. Long-term malnutrition leads to stunting and wasting, non-communicablechronic diet related disorders, increased morbidity and mortality and reducedphysical work output which causes great economic loss to the country and underminesdevelopment. It is estimated that 30% of deaths in childrenunder 5 years of age are attributable to mild to moderate malnutrition. Malnutrition in women of reproductive age increases the maternal mortality ratio and the risk of lowbirth weight for their children. 186 million children in theworld are estimated to be stunted and 20 million to suffer from the most deadly form of severeacute malnutrition each year. About 33% of adult men and 36% of the women have a BodyMass Index (BMI) [Weight in kg/(Height in meter)2] below 18.5, which indicatesChronic Energy Deficiency or CED [2]
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