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(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) Dietary Guidelines for lndians-2024 For Appropriate Nutrition & Health Promotion of the Masses

(OCTOBER-2024)

Dietary Guidelines for lndians-2024 For Appropriate Nutrition & Health Promotion of the Masses

Introduction:

Dietary guidelines play a pivotal role in guiding individuals towards selecting appropriate foods in adequate quantities across a range of food groups and achieving dietary diversity; thereby facilitating optimal nutrition throughout the lifecycle. These guidelines can also help in addressing the escalating incidence of under-/malnutrition, overweight/obesity and non-communicable diseases like type-2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and cancers in India.

Key highlights of the guidelines:

Eat a variety of foods to ensure a balanced diet

Eat plenty of vegetables (particularly GLVs) /fruits (in moderation) and legumes
Obtain good quality proteins and essential amino acids (EAAs) through appropriate combination of foods;and avoid protein supplements to build the muscle mass
Use a variety of oils/fats in moderation; choose a variety of oil seeds, nuts, millets (nutri-cereals/shree-anna) and pulses/legumes to meet the daily needs of fats and especially the essential fatty acids (EFAs).
Restrict salt intake; and keep sugar intake to the minimum
Minimize the consumption of high fat, sugar, salt (HFSS) and ultra-processed foods (UPFs)
Drink adequate quantities of water and other fluids/beverages
Consume clean & safe food including water
Adopt appropriate pre-cooking/cooking methods to minimize the nutrient losses
Ensure provision of extra food and appropriate healthcare during pregnancy & lactation
Ensure exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and continued breastfeeding till two years & beyond
Start feeding home-made semi-solid complementary foods to the infant soon after the age of six months
Ensure adequate quantities of nutritionally appropriate diets for children and adolescents, both in health and disease/sickness
Include nutrient-rich foods in the diets of the elderly for better health and well-being
Be physically active and exercise regularly to maintain good health
Adopt a healthy lifestyle to prevent overweight/obesity (esp. abdominal obesity), type 2 diabetes (T2D), hypertension (HTN), coronary artery disease (CAD) etc.
Read the information on food labels carefully to make informed and healthy food choices

Sources of right foods:

Cereals/millets (e.g. wheat, rice, maize, jowar, bajra, barley, Italian millet (foxtail millet), ragi, oats etc.);
Pulses/legumes (e.g. bengal gram, green gram, black gram, redgram, lentils, moth beans, rajmah, soyabean, cowpea etc.);
Green leafy vegetables (e.g. spinach, bathua, methi, coriander leaves, mint, cabbage, mustard leaves, amaranth leaves, radish leaves, Bengal gram leaves etc.);
Starchy roots & tubers (e.g. potato, sweetpotato, colocasia, yam,tapioca etc.);
Other vegetables (e.g. cauliflower, peas, beans, carrot, radish, beetroot, tinda, bottle gourd, brinjal, bitter gourd, cucumber, pumpkin, drumsticks, ladiesfinger, onion, tomato, ginger etc.);
Fruits (e.g. apple, orange, sweet lime, guava, papaya, banana, grapes, figs, grapefruit, mango, water melon, musk melon, phalsa, pine apple, sapota, custard apple etc.);
Nuts & oil seeds (e.g. almond, cashewnut, walnut, coconut, groundnut, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, watermelon seeds etc.);
Milk & milk products (cow's/buffalo's/goat's milk, curds, buttermilk, skimmed milk, channa, processed cheese, khoa etc.);
Non-vegetarian populations can include a variety of meat, poultry/ chicken, fish and various other sea foods in their diets
In addition, a variety of edible oils and fats (butter/ pure ghee) should be included in moderation not only to improve payability of the diet but also to meet the daily needs of essential fatty acids, esp. omega-3 and omega-6 series fatty acids.
Further, moderate amounts of various spices, herbs & condiments should also be included in the diet for improving our immunity, protecting us from various diseases and maintaining our health.

Conclusion and way forward:

For maintaining good health, appropriate dietary practices and lifestyle modifications are necessary; therefore, we need to improve our eating patterns & nutrient intake along with adequate physical activity, cessation of smoking/tobacco, restricting alcohol consumption and appropriately managing the stress.
These dietary guidelines need to be widely disseminated among the masses for improving their knowledge, attitudes and practices; and thus, not only improving their health but also for preventing the diet-related diseases/disorders, especially the non-communicable diseases (NCDs).