AYUSH Ministry organized National webinar on Nutrition Science and Advancements

As part of the “AYUSH for Immunity” campaign of the Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India, a webinar on Nutrition Science and Advancements, titled POSHAN AAHAR was conducted recently. Experts, researchers, Clinical Nutritionists, Surgeons and Yoga& Naturopathy physicians were participated in the webinar. The webinar was organised by the Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy (CCRYN), an Autonomous Body under the Ministry of AYUSH.

The first session was by Prof Kalidas Shetty, Professor of Plant Science at North Dakota State University, North Dakota, USA and he highlighted the significance of indigenous foods. The contribution of ecology to our existence cannot be overlooked, though adaptations are possible. From the ecological perspective the indigenous foods are to be brought back to the food chain which is necessary for the maintenance of health and also to combat the diet linked chronic diseases.

Dr Vimal Karani Associate Professor, Nutrigenomics from University of Reading, UK covered a wide range of nutrition principles, from genetics to genetic variation and from genetic risk to disease risk. He has emphasized on the importance of personalised diet and modification of the lifestyle for prevention of diseases. Dr Praveen Jacob, associate Professor, KS Hegde Medical College, Nitte highlighted the relationship between our climatic conditions and our food habits and onset of diseases. Another significant session was on healthy choices of food based on the nutritional values, handled by Dr Esther Sathiaraj Head, Clinical Nutrition, Health Care Global Enterprises Ltd.

Dr Prabhu Nesargikar, a Consultant Oesophageal &Gastric Oncosurgeon, HCG Oncology Hospitals, emphasized the nutritional status in cancer patients stressing on the malnutrition during post surgeries which can be corrected with healthy nutritional supplements. A highly informative session about various nutrition programmes and findings of various surveys was presented by Dr Mahesh from National Institute of Nutrition. It threw light on the nutrition status in both urban and rural communities and the role of community-based nutrition programmes including the health of the communities in various states of India. Another interesting topic discussed was the nutritional significance of millets. This session was handled by Dr Dayakar from Indian Institute of Millet Research and it covered the various researches, advancements going on processing, growth and food processing of millets. He has also explained various methods in processing involved in various methods in millet recipes which can be used as a product. He also talked about clinical benefits of having millets in the diet which helps in reducing the glycaemic index and glycaemic load following several research studies.

Dr Achutan Eshwar who leads a new start up called “Sampoorna Aahar” talked about advocating plant-based nutrition and plant-based diets which will be sent to various parts of Bangalore. There was also a talk by Dr Kousalya Nathan, about nutrition and immunity. She explained how minerals and trace elements in nutrition are very important for better immune response. She also talked about anti-oxidants which are present in foods and vegetables. Dr Chidambaram Murthy, Principal Scientist from MS Ramaiah Medical Teaching College, Bengaluru threw light upon various nutraceuticals and functional foods and bioactive compounds in nutrition which can be used as medicine.

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