“Lack of good nutrition causes diseases''


Pondicherry University kicks-off National Nutrition Week celebrations

Many of the people who die from heart attacks between the age of 35 and 40 come from a lower income group, according to Director of National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, B. Sesikeran.

Delivering a special address at Pondicherry University's National Nutrition Week celebrations, Dr. Sesikeran said this is because people who come from lower income groups often do not have good nutrition growing up.

This could affect their Body Mass Index and other factors, making them more susceptible to hypertension, cholesterol and other lifestyle diseases.

Maternal nutrition could alter the genetic programming of the child and children who are born with low birth weight had an increased susceptibility to hypertension, diabetes and other lifestyle diseases, he said.

He explained that even though the child's weight was under 2.5 kg, it was still possible that the percentage of fat in the baby's body was high. Children that were not breast fed for six months also had a higher susceptibility to lifestyle diseases.

Dr. Sesikeran then quoted a study conducted by the National Institute of Nutrition where they compared villages around Hyderabad that had access to the Integrated Child Development Scheme to villages that did not have access.

They found that in villages where the ICDS was available, there were fewer instances of hypertension, diabetes and glucose intolerance.

One of the main reasons for this, he said, was that the ICDS insisted that babies be breast fed for six months and they closely monitored various factors in the mother like nutrition, anaemia and others that would affect the child's development.

It is important, therefore, that pregnant and lactating mothers take care to eat right so that their babies remain healthy. Another important thing to monitor, he said, is that the children spend at least one hour a day playing. Children who spend over three hours a day watching television were at a higher risk of lifestyle diseases.

Sometimes, people who are otherwise lean could also be susceptible to heart attacks because of high fat content in their body.

Studies show that in Asians, the BMI alone is not an indicator of susceptibility to lifestyle diseases. It is important to also take into consideration abdominal fat, he said.

Even things like sleeping disorders, psychological problems, certain cancers, obesity and joint pains are lifestyle diseases, he said, not just hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol.


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