Nearly 12 years after a piece of similar advice was issued, India’s leading nutrition research organization is scheduled to provide dietary guidelines for all age groups in order to encourage healthy eating in people. The most recent dietary recommendations for India were issued in 2011. The National Institute of Nutrition-Indian Council for Medical Research is slated to issue the final draught of the guidelines for stakeholder comment soon.
The recommendations, which will serve as a reference tool for both people and nutritionists or dieticians and will inform people what to eat, when to consume it, and how, will for the first time address the subjects of processed food, food with excessive salt, sodium, and sugar levels. ‘We hope to issue the paper, which will be extremely valuable to all population groups, in a few months,’ said NIN director Dr. R Hemalatha.
The existing recommended dietary allowance, which indicates a minimal amount of intake targeted at sustaining the needed level of nutrition in the majority of individuals, will also be simplified as part of the next comprehensive guidelines, according to scientists.
‘The recommendations will not only teach people about food, but also about the necessary quantity of physical activity and salt and sugar intake needed for healthy living,’ said Dr. SubbaRao, a senior scientist at ICMR-NIN who heads the nutrition communication, information, and health section. He went on to say that the standards’ goal would be to make technical information like food labeling easier for people to understand.
‘When we buy food from a store, for example, what is the notion of a food label, why is it manufactured, and all of these principles that we may apply in everyday life have been simplified (in the guidelines). As part of the effort, we will issue 15 or 16 guidelines that will attempt to guide individuals on dietary requirements for all ages, from children as young as 6 months to the senior population’, Subba Rao elaborated.
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