National Nutrition Week 2018, A note on Diet cults!

By Edwina Raj, Senior Dietitian, Head of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics, Aster CMI hospital 

This year’s theme is ‘Go Further with Food’ . As the theme emphasizes on exploring nutritious food sources which is natural and healthy. Today most of our lifestyle revolves around erroneous eating habits and anecdotal information that we perceive from online or offline. We have left behind our traditional foods for various reasons which has resulted in the rise of nutritional deficiencies and lifestyle disorders. According to the recent data by Global Burden of Disease Study 2016, Diabetes has caused 70.5% deaths and India has the highest prevalence of iron deficiency anemia at 39.86%.

People are battling with these disorders and trying to find an expeditious solution due to which there is a rise in quacks who promote Fad diets which are popular and practised blindly even without understanding the consequences.  All are fascinated by the instant results but never tried to assess the impact on body composition and its morbidity but the ultimate long term effects are known to the healthcare professionals and those who have experienced the fallacy of such diets .A prescription obtained from a Doctor is scrutinized to know the side effects but Dr. Google’s information is practised without any hitch!

Remember food is also a medicine. There are a plethora of different diets and the  word ‘Diet’ is better replaced with eating right to avoid an imbalance in one’s actual nutritional requirement. If you are following such diets then better seek an advice from healthcare professional who will monitor you closely and prevent you from detrimental effects of Cult Diets. Such diets only work for a finite amount of time, whereas a healthy lifestyle and eating right helps to maintain long-term wellness results.

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)