The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently revised the dietary guidelines for Indians to provide healthier diet and lifestyle recommendations, ensuring dietary and nutritional requirements for people of all ages. According to the report, released on May 8, 2024, a proper diet diversity will also help prevent non-communicable diseases. …
a new study claims to turn toxic cottonseeds into nutritious dinners for millions of undernourished people across the world. Keerti Rathore, a scientist at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, has tinkered with the genes in cottonseeds to stop the release of gossypol, its naturally-occurring toxin. If cottonseeds become edible, it …
Eating at home isn't the in thing anymore. Hanging out is hip, especially in the mushrooming fast food joints that blister the skylines of India's cities. The urban middle classes with money to burn are redefining nouvelle cuisine. The costs are huge but few are counting the calories fewer still …
Eating habits, cooking habits, cuisines have changed, are changing, across the country, across social strata, across the rural-urban divide. And for anybody’s money, it isn’t a change to inspire confidence in the future of public health. Sample this. Ria Ghosh, a 14 year old who lives in south Delhi’s Chittaranjan …
The price-nutrition dynamic plays out differentially in the developed and developing worlds. In the former, as a number of studies have noted, fast food constitutes a much greater proportion of the diet of the poor. In the us, for instance, this correlation maps on to an ethnic divide: the minorities
Earlier, most people ate what was locally available: fish, for example, was a staple in coastal areas, and people living in, or close to, fertile agricultural tracts preferred grains. Classical cuisines are often a good indicator of local food preferences, even if we account for the caveat that these were …
Indira Hiriway of the Centre for Development Alternatives in Ahmedabad has recently produced a working paper on the valuation of mangroves in Gujarat. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the uses and potential of mangroves, their value and the cost of their replacement. She explains they have importance at the …
The uk food industry's new nutrition labelling scheme is making its products look healthier than they really are, notes a recent report of the uk-based National Heart Forum. Under the new scheme some manufacturers and retailers are fooling customers by using misleading labels while others are manipulating the labels to …
The objective of this paper is to look at the financial and economic aspects of the NREGA. It will be studying the implications for the rural economy as a result of the minimum wage and employment instituted by the Act. Also, the greater bargaining power of the rural workforce and …
GUARANTEES for social services have been kicking in of late. After guarantees for rural employment and education, people will find it easier to get an anganwadi on demand. On December 13, 2006, the Supreme Court has ordered the government to set up 8 lakh more anganwadi centres in the next …
This paper documents the main findings of a study on food insecurity and vulnerability in the Indian state of Orissa in support of promoting interventions for food security and livelihoods at state level. The paper analyses the main characteristics and causes of food insecurity and vulnerability. It seeks to identify …
Moringa oleifera Lam (Moringaceae) is a highly valued plant, distributed in many countries of the tropics and subtropics. It has an impressive range of medicinal uses with high nutritional value. Different parts of this plant contain a profile of important minerals, and are a good source of protein, vitamins, β-carotene, …
A health camp conducted in Sama, 60 km north of Bageshwar in Uttaranchal in November, revealed that anaemia, chronic infections, gout, tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis are the common ailments there. And, 80 per cent of the 250 people who had come for the check up, suffered from these. Most women, …
Advertising is a pervasive influence on children and adolescents. Young people view more than 40 000 ads per year on television alone and increasingly are being exposed to advertising on the Internet, in magazines, and in schools. This exposure may contribute significantly to childhood and adolescent obesity, poor nutrition, and …
The Sahariya tribal population in Sheopur district continues to suffer from hunger and malnutrition. LIFE for the Sahariya tribal people in Madhya Pradesh is an unending struggle against hunger, malnutrition, disease and, above all, neglect. In August 2006, Frontline reported hunger-related deaths in Sheopur district, which has a high concentration …
India will host the second International Rice Congress from October 9-13 in New Delhi. This is the most important event in the calendar of rice research since the International Year of Rice in 2004. But in this short span, the field of rice science has registered phenomenal growth and probably …
There are a large number of indigenous rice varieties in India, which are still grown by the tribal people and small farmers of the remote areas where the modern agricultural practices, sufficient foods as well as healthcare systems are a dream. Nature has provided them some alternative ways. They have …
NP-NSPE, 2006 seeks to address two of the most pressing problems for the majority of children in India, namely, hunger and education by: Improving the nutritional status of children in classes I – V in Government, Local Body and Government aided schools, and EGS and AIE centres; Encouraging poor children, …
A patent on a process for making storage - stable edible food materials from kernels of gorgon nuts or fox nut (Euryale ferox) has tremendous impact on biodiversity resulting in triggered mass culture and commercialization of this aquatic macrophyte. Besides ecological impact, it has social and economic impacts too. This …
FATS Jim Mann, professor of human nutrition and medicine at the University of Otago in New Zealand, has reviewed several studies which claim that when people cut down on sugars and replace it with starchy foods such as potatoes for five months, they lose weight. Also people with high-fat diets …
