"Diet is the top cause of death and chronic ailments" - says studies

World heart day 2018

On a positive note, I am witnessing an uptrend in the informed food choices of the consumer. Many are really intrigued by the fact that food can play a positive role in health like a medicine.  People are probing me on the types of edible grains to address chronic alignment. Having dedicated my present productive life towards this subject, I have researched recently and found some interesting data that could have profound impact on the consumer preference outlook. Let's understand the study outcome in detail

Health and well-being 

Why is there an abrupt shift in the consumer diet preferences?

Scientists across the globe are constantly publishing research papers on the importance of nutritious food and its positive impacts to heath. Amid many such useful findings, a global collaborative of scientists led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington depicted inferior diet and inadequate physical activity as two of the driving forces behind poor health. Also, they have consolidated data from various countries and attributed top 10 reasons for low life expectancy and fatalities. Please find below the sample data for Indian sub-continent, enthusiasts can experiment various data visualization in their website. As illustrated, in the last one decade d dietary risks is ranked as top  factor

Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

Moreover, it is also noteworthy to mention that as per a new study there is an increased risk of cancer with the consumption of foods that have a low nutritional quality. This study conducted by Mélanie Deschasaux, at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris, in collaboration with specialists from numerous other research institutions is found to be very alarming.

Will these health issues can still perpetuate? – Maybe yes!!

From the above facts, it is evident that diet is pivotal for optimal health. However, in spite of becoming health conscious, we are not choosing the right diet to enhance our well-being. Beside various reasons, I could say, the following are the major challenges in ensuring the wide reach of these products in market 

1. Narrow outlook - in the last 50 years, rice and wheat has become the only choice of major meal for Indian household. However, there are many edible grains that are prevalent in the 19th century with rich nutritious values. Sadly, our narrow outlook in selection of grains among wide variety of staples has left out the sources of vital nutrients to our body

2. Commercialization - lack of support to commercialize the crops other than the popular staple grains is one of the biggest setbacks for healthy produce. It is becoming a uphill task for entrepreneurs to establish their brands with continuous challenges for their products from stages involving farm to fork 

3. Regulatory framework – there is a hostile environment in the regulations as most of the traditionally consumed grains are treated as novel food and requires an exhaustive approval process prior to launch. Further, adaption of western standards without proper assessment of local demographics is also proven costly for consumers 

Hence due to the above reasons, the availability of the healthy foods to the consumer is becoming difficult and which is why these alignments still perpetuate.

On the flipside, with the western world moving towards the concept of “food as medicine”, I positively assert that we too can defeat the above challenges and win over the evil effects of unhealthy food. Further, it is encouraging to see medical students from the University of California spending time cooking in the kitchen as a part of their curriculum and also learning the nutrition aspects of food. Education at that level would empower the individuals and also have tremendous impact on the patient with positive counseling. In conclusion, with these developments and the scientific community conducting widespread awareness campaign on the health and eating habits, we can safely believe that the chronic alignments can be significantly mitigated in the generations to come

Healthy eating is happy living!! 

Dr. Srinivasa Rao obtained his Ph.D in molecular genetics from university of Paris, France. He worked at Columbia University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine at New York in various scientific positions and taught cell & molecular biology at Queens College of USA. He is also the director of Granova Naturals which cater products that augment health benefits to consumer. He can be reached for further insights at srao@drquinoa.com or follow the website http://www.drquinoa.com/ 

(All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site)

Issue 22