India Nutrition
This is a forum to share information on nutrition, have discussions and work towards evidence based nutrition whether at individual, family, community or policy level
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Purpose of this site
This site is to share evidence, research, public opinion as well as current situation of nutrition in India. This will encourage better eating practices as well as policy making on nutrition
Who is this site for?
This site is meant for anyone who is interested in accessing evidence based nutritional information. It includes doctors, researchers, students, parents, nutritionists, media, sports persons, senior citizens and people with nutrition related health issues.
What this site offers
Discussions, news, evidence, research, public opinion, nutrition indicators as well as best methods of preparing and consuming food for better nutritional health.
What can you do?
You could contribute to the discussions, share information, contribute articles. Share the information widely, use the material in your writings, discussions, teaching, researcher, clinical practice etc.
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Sources of information
This site shares information from peer reviewed research articles primarily in the Indian context, Indian/state specific survey data, well established doctors and academicians.
This site will not engage in propaganda or prejudices around food practices arising from mythology, caste, religion etc.
If you are looking for validation of pre-conceived prejudices then there are several other sites that you can access - they are available a dime a dozen !!
Image source: NovelScience.Substack.com
Diet in Relation to Dental Caries
TOOTH STRUCTURE IN RELATION TO DENTAL CARIES
There is almost general agreement that potentially carious areas can be detected by a careful examination of the surfaces of the teeth. Dr. Thaddeus Hyatt, during his long tenure as chief of the dental clinic of the home office of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, directed his staff to explore the enamel surfaces thoroughly with a fine tine and when pits were found these were drilled and filled and the surfaces polished, thus eradicating potential food traps, or areas to produce later carious cavities. This system of caries prevention is known as prophylactic odontotomy, and has been found effective by others as a means of preventing the disease. It is fully established, therefore, that developmental defects in the enamel may predispose teeth to decay.
FAULTY NUTRITION AND DEFECTIVE TOOTH STRUCTURE
Experimental work with animals has shown clearly several ways in which dietary deficiencies during the period of tooth development can impair tooth structure. One of these is vitamin A deficiency. In deficiency of this nutrient the epithelia, no matter how they are specialized, as in mucous membranes, glandular secreting structures, and skin, suffer changes in structure and in loss of physiological function. Keratinization and desquamation of epithelia find their counterpart in the enamel-forming organ of the developing tooth, in changes in structure and partial or complete loss of function. The enamel-forming organ is of epithelial origin, being derived from embryonic gum tissue. Each cell of this organ secretes calcium, phosphate, fluoride, magnesium, and carbonate ions in such a way as to cause them to combine and deposit in the form of tenuous enamel prisms. These prisms form a mosaic, which, in the normal tooth, is of great perfection. When, owing to vitamin A deficiency, the enamel-forming cells are injured, prisms which are less dense than normal, or incomplete as to length, and imperfectly fitted together, form defective enamel. In the milder grades of this type there are pits in the enamel. In more severe grades of injury, the surface of the enamel of the greater part of the whole of the tooth may be rough, the enamel thin and deficient in hardness. This is the hypoplastic tooth.
'Agenda Forced on Locals': Activists Ask Telangaga CM to Shun 'Religious Body' Akshay Patra for School Meals
A group of activists has written a letter to Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to withdraw the decision to partner with Akshay Patra Foundation for providing free breakfast and midday meals to 28,000 school children in Kodangal.
Trapped in climate debate: Gaps in India’s alternative protein transition narratives may exacerbate injustices
The shift to alternative proteins is driven by the goal of 'saving the planet' through adopting 'sustainable diets' to mitigate the effects of industrial livestock systems. Generally, three types of foods are seen as possible substitutes for animal-based products: (a) plant-based alternatives such as meat substitutes, (b) lab-produced cultured meat, milk, and egg products, and (c) edible insects. In India, there are around 70 smart protein companies registered.
Ironically, current discussions emphasise minimising or even eliminating most livestock systems, regardless of their local socio-environmental importance. What is the broader perspective here? Are all livestock systems as detrimental as industrialized ones? How can we incorporate justice aspects into the transition to alternative proteins in India?
Fact-finding Report on the Murder of Idrees Pasha in Sathanuru, Ramanagara District
ರಾಮನಗರದ ಸಾತನೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ರಿಸ್ ಪಾಷಾ ಅವರ ಕೊಲೆಯ ಕುರಿತ ಸತ್ಯ ಶೋಧನಾ ವರದಿ
On April 1st 2023, newspapers reported on an incident of assault on 30th March 2023. by a group of self-appointed “cow vigilantes” led by Mr. Puneeth Kerehalli and other members of Rashtra Rakshana Pade on a group of three cattle traders in Sathanuru village, Kanakapura taluka, Ramanagara district.
The attack led to the death of Mr. Idrees Pasha and injuries to his other two companions/associates, all residents of Mandya.
Read the full report here
ಏಪ್ರಿಲ್ 01, 2023 ರಂದು ಸುದ್ದಿ ಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗಳು ಮಾರ್ಚ್ 30, 2023 ರಂದು ರಾಮನಗರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಯ ಕನಕಪುರ ತಾಲ್ಲೂಕಿನ ಸಾತನೂರು ಗ್ರಾಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಪುನೀತ್ ಕೆರೆಹಳ್ಳಿ ಹಾಗೂ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ರಕ್ಷಣಾ ಪಡೆಯ ಸ್ವಯಂ-ಘೋಷಿತ “ಗೋರಕ್ಷಕರು” ಮೂವರು ಜಾನುವಾರು ವ್ಯಾಪಾರಿಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ನಡೆಸಿದ ಒಂದು ಹಲ್ಲೆಯ ಕುರಿತು ವರದಿ ಮಾಡಿದವು. ಇವರು ನಡೆಸಿದ ಈ ಹಲ್ಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ರಿಸ್ ಪಾಷಾ ಎಂಬುವವರು ಮರಣಕ್ಕೀ ಡಾದರೆ ಅವರ ಸಹಚರಿಗೆ ಗಾಯಗಳಾ ಗಿದ್ದವು. ಈ ಮೂವರು ಮಂಡ್ಯ ಮೂಲದವರಾಗಿದ್ದರು. ಈ ಮೇಲಿನ ಕೃತ್ಯದ ಕುರಿತು ವಕೀಲ ಸಿವಮಣಿದನ್, ಡಾ. ಸಿಲ್ವಿಯ ಕರ್ಪಗಂ, ಸಿದ್ಧಾರ್ಥ್ ಕೆ ಜೆ, ಮತ್ತು ಖಾಸಿಂ ಶೋಹೈಬ್ ಖುರೇಶಿ ಹಾಗೂ ಆಲ್ ಇಂಡಿಯಾ ಜಮೈತುಲ್ ಖುರೇಶ್ (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ) ಸದಸ್ಯರ ತಂಡವು ಸತ್ಯ ಶೋಧನಾ ವರದಿಯನ್ನು ನಡೆಸಿತು
ಇದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಓದಿ
Freedom to Eat
The fight for beef as a democratic right
The Caravan
“WE WOULD HAVE FELT PROUD if the Vice Chancellor has told that we were suspended because we organized Ambedkar Vardhanthi, Babri Masjid demolition day and Beef festival in the last week,” Rohith Vemula wrote in a Facebook post on 18 December 2015. A day earlier, the administration of the University of Hyderabad, where Rohith was a PhD scholar, upheld an earlier decision to suspend him and four other students for allegedly assaulting a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ organisation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. All five suspended students were Dalits and members of the Ambedkar Students’ Association.
“The food sovereignty movement must be anti-caste”: An Interview with Dalit, Adivasi and other members of the Food Sovereignty Alliance in India. Read more here
Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food
Catherine Shanahan believes that a comprehensive dietary education is a preventive intervention which has not received its due recognition by the healthcare system.
‘One of the most important new concepts of Deep Nutrition is the idea that the foods parents eat can change the way their future children look.’
She describes foods that will unlock genetic potential and rebuild the body.
Nutrition and Physical degeneration, Weston Price, 2006
Dr Weston A. Price, was a dentist who, in the 1920s and 30s studied several populations such as Irish fishermen, tribal Africans, Pacific Islanders, Eskimos, North and South American Indians and Australian aborigines. Those groups that followed their traditional nature based diets had good health and vigor, while those who turned to ‘civilised diets’ of processed, sugar-laden foods soon developed misshapen bones and teeth, with the situation worsening with each generation.
‘The Career of Hunger: Critical Reflections on the History of Nutrition Science and Policy’
This two part article describes at length how the science of nutrition in India became gradually corrupted by other incentives, pushing the country into a cereal trap and all the malnutrition related consequences that we are still grappling with. Dr Veena Shatrugna is retired Deputy director of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN)
Who will bell the cow? Beef ban: Decoding its cultural, social and economical aspects in India (2022)
Shruti Ganapatye documents the horrific murders under the pretext of cow protection with the attackers getting blanket immunity. Even women and children have not been spared from this brutality. She describes how these gau rakshaks are organised and are enabled by various wings of the BJP. They belong to the brahmin, Gujjar, Jat, Yadav, Bania, Agrawal, Thakur and Rajput communities. These men organise and plan attacks and have a good network on various apps including Whatsapps. Police and even Dalits act as informants for these violent pre-planned attacks.
The Untouchables Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables?
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables by Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is a sequel to his book The Shudras: Who They Were and How They Came to Be the Fourth Varna of the Indo-Aryan Society.
The Untouchables was first published in 1948 by Amrit Book Company, New Delhi.
The text is included in Volume 7 of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches published by the Education Department, Government of Maharashtra in 1990.
The Untouchables is dedicated to the three eminent saints, i.e., Nandnar, Ravidas, Chokhamela, who, despite being untouchables, had “by their piety and virtue won the esteem of all”. These are excerpts from the book.
“That the Hindus at one time did kill cows and did eat beef is proved abundantly by the description of the Yajnas given in the Buddhist Sutras which relate to periods much later than the Vedas and the Brahmanas. The scale on which the slaughter of cows and animals took place was collosal. It is not possible to give a total of such slaughter on all accounts committed by the Brahmins in the name of religion. Some idea of the extent of this slaughter can however be had from references to it in the Buddhist literature. As an illustration reference may be made to the Kutadanta Sutta in which Buddha preached against the performance of animal sacrifices to Brahmin Kutadanta. Buddha, though speaking in a tone of sarcastic travesty, gives a good idea of the practices and rituals of the Vedic sacrifices when he said:
"And further, O Brahmin, at that sacrifice neither were any oxen slain, neither goats, nor fowls, nor fatted pigs, nor were any kind of living creatures put to death. No trees were cut down to be used as posts, no Darbha grasses mown to stress around the sacrificial spot. And the slaves and messengers and workmen there employed were driven neither by rods nor fear, nor carried on their work weeping with tears upon their faces."
Kutadanta on the other hand in thanking Buddha for his conversion gives an idea of the magnitude of the slaughter of animals which took place at such sacrifices when he says :- " I, even I betake myself to the venerable Gotama as my guide, to the Doctrine and the Order. May the venerable One accept me as a disciple, as one who, from this day forth, as long as life endures, has taken him as his guide. And I myself, 0, Gotama, will have the seven hundred bulls, and the seven hundred steers, and the seven hundred heifers, and the seven hundred goats, and the seven hundred rams set free. To them I grant their life. Let them eat grass and drink fresh water and may cool breezes waft around them."
Millets are not magical foods
Did you know?
Following a proposal by the Government of India, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations (UN) had recognised 2023 as International Year of Millets or IYM2023 to ‘create awareness and increase the production and consumption of millets’ and for “harnessing the untapped potential of millets for food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture”.
Can millets meet nutritional requirements?
The introduction of millets on a large scale into the ICDS and MDM may not impact as positively on nutritional outcomes as the addition of nutrient dense foods (meat, eggs, poultry, fish, dairy), pulses, legumes, fruits, vegetables etc into these schemes.
The nutritional value of millets can be enhanced by some processes such as germination, fermentation, pressure cooking etc. but systems have to be set up for this in the schemes. Additionally if millets are pre-processed and packaged in large scale, costs can go up and the shelf life is not very long. Therefore storage and distribution facilities have to be also invested in. Processing of each kind of millet requires different technology and machinery.
Serious concerns
The serious concern of child/infant malnutrition cannot depend on millets as the one stop solution. While cereals and millets that are traditionally consumed can be a part of the diet, malnutrition itself can only be addressed by increasing the diversity of each meal, and children, especially those that are not used to eating millets should not be made guinea pigs of large food schemes in the country. Improving the diversity and nutrient density of food by the addition of adequate quantities of pulses, legumes, eggs, poultry, fish, red meat etc. will have have long reaching positive and sustainable impact.
The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet. Nina Teicholz, 2014.
Nina Teicholz is a journalist who has tracked the history of dietary recommendations in the United States of America and throws up some shocking findings. Her book draws from several references and tracks how power and money allowed some opinions to get hardened as facts while others were not give due attention.
In her book she writes “The more I probed, the greater was my realization that all our dietary recommendations about fat—the ingredient about which our health authorities have obsessed most during the past sixty years—appeared to be not just slightly offtrack but completely wrong. Almost nothing that we commonly believe today about fats generally and saturated fat in particular appears, upon close examination, to be accurate”
She says that the popular notion that the food industry drives diet related issues and is true on instances, but the real culprits were those who were trusted as scientists and experts from institutions that were expected to do due diligence.
The crisis of heart related disease and the need to urgently do something overrode normal protocols and principles that underlie research. The hypothesis that dietary fat, especially saturated raised cholesterol and therefore directly contributed to heart disease was treated as an unquestionable dogma inspite of several indications that alternative points of view or evidence needed to be factored in.
ದನದ ಮಾಂಸದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕೆಲವು ಮಾಹಿತಿ
ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ದನದ ಮಾಂಸವನ್ನು ಯಾರು ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ?
ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಶೇಕಡಾ ಹದಿನೈರಷ್ಟು ಜನರು (180 ಮಿಲಿಯನ್ ) ದನದ ಮಾಂಸವನ್ನು ತಿನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ. ದಲಿತರು, ಮುಸ್ಲಿಮರು, ಆದಿವಾಸಿಗಳು, ಕ್ರಿಶ್ಚಿಯನ್ನರು ಮತ್ತು ಹಿಂದುಳಿದ ಸಮುದಾಯಗಳು ದನದ ಮಾಂಸವನ್ನು ತಿನ್ನುವ ವರ್ಗಕ್ಕೆ ಸೇರಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ದನದ ಮಾಂಸ ಸೇವಿಸುವ ಕೆಲವರು ಅದನ್ನು ಬಹಿರಂಗವಾಗಿ ಹೇಳಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಈ ಆಹಾರದ ಕುರಿತಂತೆ ಇರುವ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಮೌಢ್ಯ, ಶ್ರೇಷ್ಟತೆಯ ವ್ಯಸನ, ತಾರತಮ್ಯತೆ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಕಾರಣ.
ಭಾರತದ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅನೇಕ ಕುಟುಂಬಗಳು ಕೊಂದ ಪ್ರಾಣಿಯ ಮಾಂಸವನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಂಡು ತಿನ್ನುವುದು ರೂಢಿ. ಅದನ್ನು ಒಣಗಿಸಿ ಅಥವಾ ಉಪ್ಪಿನಕಾಯಿಯಂತೆ ಬಹಳ ದಿನಗಳವರೆಗೆ ಬಳಸಬಹುದು .(ಇದು ತೀವ್ರ ಹಸಿವನ್ನು ತಡೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬ ಕಾರಣಕ್ಕೆ.)
ದನದ ಮಾಂಸದ ಬೆಲೆ ಏನು?
ದನದ ಮಾಂಸವು ಅತಿ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಬೆಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ದೊರಕುವ ಮಾಂಸಾಹಾರಿ ಆಹಾರ ಪದಾರ್ಥ ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದಾಗಿದೆ.
ಒಂದು ಕಿಲೊ ದನದ ಮಾಂಸದ ಬೆಲೆ ಇನ್ನೂರ ಐವತ್ತು ರೂಪಾಯಿಯಾದರೆ ಕುರಿ ಮಾಂಸದ ಬೆಲೆ ಎಂಟು ನೂರು ರೂಪಾಯಿ ಇದೆ.
Who eats beef in India?
15% of Indians (180 million) consume beef in India. This includes dalits, Muslims, Christians, Other Backward castes (OBCs) and adivasis. Some people who eat beef may not disclose it in public because of social stigma that has been created around this food.
In Indian villages, the meat of a killed animal is shared among many families. When this meat is dried or pickled it can feed the family over many days. It is protective against starvation
2. What is the cost of beef in Karnataka?
Beef is one of the cheapest sources of animal foods and one kg is about Rs. 250/- compared to mutton which is about Rs. 800/kilo
How Sugar Messes with Your Health
with Sally Fallon Morell & Hilda Labrada Gore
Are you addicted to sugar? Do you feel your blood sugar dip when you haven’t eaten?
Do you get hangry?
If you’re struggling with any of the above, or with insulin resistance or weight gain, this episode is for you.
All of these are signs that you may need to curtail your refined sugar intake and help your body stabilize by avoiding refined sugar. Dr. Weston A. Price called sugar a “displacing food of modern commerce.” Too often it takes the place of more nourishing fare. It’s also highly addictive.
Sally Fallon Morell, President and Founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation, offers specific suggestions for how to make some simple shifts. She discusses the ways sugar impedes good health, but also how we have healthier options to help satisfy our natural sweet tooth without compromising our health.
posters
Some information on nutrition
Breastfeeding
In 2020, following a complaint by the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), the government pulled up lobby groups among pediatricians (Indian Academy of Pediatricians) and gynaecologists (Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India – FOGSI) over seminars sponsored by pharma companies and major food companies which were in contravention of the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding bottles and Infant Foods Act (IMS Act), which clearly states that no producer, supplier or distributor of infant milk substitutes, feeding bottles and infant foods shall offer or give any contribution or pecuniary benefit to a health worker or association of health workers including funding of seminars, meetings, conferences educational course, context, fellowship, research work or sponsorship. These are cognizable offences. Similar complaints had been made against Nestle, which through its frontal organisation Nestle Nutrition Institute, was attempting to influence doctors to recommend baby products, including infant milk powder, to parents.
Dietary guidelines of ICMR-NIN fail to do due diligence, exhibit food bias
In April 2024, the ICMR-NIN released Dietary Guidelines for Indians (DGI), selectively quoting data from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS 2019). Instead of bringing out evidence-based dietary guidelines befitting a 106-year-old institution of national importance, they have failed to do due diligence and instead seem to have released a vegetarian dietician’s recipe booklet to enthral India’s middle class and elite.
In what can only be seen as deliberate and wilful obfuscation, the DGI makes it appear like ‘severe forms of undernutrition have largely disappeared’ and only ‘subclinical manifestations of undernutrition and anaemia persist as public health issues’.
Relegating ‘ghosts’ to the past
It is surprising that, without any national consultation or consensus, NIN is orchestrating this position; why is there such a hurry to show India in such a good light? This seems to be in keeping with a broader agenda of erasing incriminating data to project India as a superpower where all kinds of malnutrition are relegated to a ghostly past.
Vegetarianism in India has more to do with caste hierarchy than love for animals
Apr 06, 2017 Scroll.in
An increase in meat consumption, intensive animal farming and growing cruelty against animals have given rise to compassion movements across the world. It should be a matter of pride, therefore, that India is among the most vegetarian countries in the world. The Sample Registration System Baseline Survey 2014 notes that close to 30% in India are vegetarians. And that the number of non-vegetarians in India has decreased from 75% in 2004 to 71% in 2014. The rate of vegetarianism is more in northwestern states as compared to the rest of India. And, urban areas are more vegetarian than their rural counterparts. Increased urbanisation could possibly mean further dwindling of non-vegetarianism, particularly in Northwest India.
Pure vegetarian – all good?
Some questions linger, however. For instance, how does meat become a source of contention, violence and even governmental repression in India? Is our vegetarianism based on compassion for animals? If yes, why does this lead to disgust, social distance and even violence against humans?
