Opinion: We are what we eat

There is a need for concerted efforts to spread public awareness about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and nutritional balance.

Hyderabad: There has been an alarming rise in non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and cancers in India. A combination of factors — rapid urbanisation, growing consumption of highly processed foods that contain sugars and fats, sedentary lifestyles, and tobacco use — are driving this phenomenon. Obesity and overweight are the most important risk factors responsible for diabetes and the disease burden can be prevented or delayed by lifestyle changes including adopting a healthy diet and doing regular physical activity. India now has over 101 million people living with diabetes, accounting for 11.4% of the population. On an average, at least one in three Indians today are pre-diabetic and two in three are pre-hypertensive.

Alarmingly, nearly 56.4% of the total disease burden in India is because of unhealthy diet habits. Given the seriousness of the public health crisis, the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), working under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has now issued comprehensive nutritional guidelines for people to adopt healthy eating habits and reduce the disease burden. The 148-page report, which contains 17 guidelines, recommends low consumption of salt, cooking oil and processed foods such as packaged chips, cookies, bread and ketchup. A wholesome diet that includes nuts, fruits, vegetables and milk is recommended. In fact, a combination of healthy diet and physical activity can substantially reduce the incidence of coronary heart diseases (CHD) and hypertension and prevent up to 80% of type 2 diabetes. The NIN report has rightly mentioned that a significant proportion of premature deaths can be averted by following a healthy lifestyle. There is a need for concerted efforts to spread public awareness about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and nutritional balance.

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Government agencies must extensively use social media platforms to propagate the message to all sections of society. The growing disease burden has serious implications for the nation, warranting urgent state-specific policies and interventions to arrest the trend. According to the new guidelines, framed by a team of multi-disciplinary experts, a balanced diet should provide not more than 45% calories from cereals and millets, and up to 15% of calories from pulses, beans and meat. The rest of the calories should come from nuts, vegetables, fruits and milk. Total fat intake should be less than or equal to 30% energy.

The NIN guidelines, updated after a gap of 13 years, are very relevant to the changing food scenario in India. Another key recommendation pertains to protein supplements, which the national body has urged people to avoid. Prolonged intake of large amounts of protein powders or consumption of high protein concentrate has been associated with potential dangers such as bone mineral loss and kidney damage. Research findings indicate dietary protein supplementation is associated with only a small increase in muscle strength and size during prolonged resistance exercise training (RET) in healthy adults.