Veggies, fruits lose favour in urban households: Study

As you gorged on your favourite food to beat the lockdown blues you perhaps moved plates away from a balanced diet This is the crux of a firstofitskind dietary study conducted on urban householdsMost families ate fruits just once a weekWhile a balanced diet is the foundation to immunity the study found that city dwellers didnrsquot eat enough pulses vegetables and fruits compromising their nutritional status The survey which was recently published in the journal Nutrition and Health interacted with 450 householdsldquoWhile the lockdown witnessed a number of changes it also impacted the agrifood supply chain The aim of the study was to explore the diet diversity of urban households during the lockdown The findings suggest that access and availability of the food items remained largely unaffected in the urban areas during the lockdownrdquo said Dr Rita Patil associate professor and the head of Department of Food and Nutrition at Maniben Nanavati Womens College who coauthored the studyThe households were chosen from Mumbai Pune Kolkata Delhi Bengaluru Hyderabad Chennai and they were not under quarantine restrictions ldquoWe calculated the Food Variety Score FVS of the household depending on commonly eaten foods that fell in nine groups cereals and millets pulses and legumes nuts milk and milk products meat vegetables fruits sugar and fatsrdquo said Dr Patil She added that despite the fact that the majority of the households belonged to the uppermiddle and upper socioeconomic status they reported poor diet diversityAlso Read How you can use good nutrition practices instead of fad diets for weight lossMost of the families seemed to prefer processed cereal alternatives such as bread 771 per cent and breakfast cereals 622 per cent rather than millets and legumes On a positive note over 90 per cent of the households took milk daily and twothirds consumed curd every dayldquoIn India milk is considered to be a wholesome food that promotes growth during childhood and adolescence During the pandemic milk with turmeric was being promoted as an immunitybuilding home remedy Besides this turmeric milk and curd have been integral immuneboosting foods in a traditional Indian diet Curd being a probiotic plays a vital role in promoting healthy gut microbiota We therefore saw many households having a good intake of milk and milk productsrdquo explained Dr PatilVegetables and fruits did not get enough attention ldquoThe most commonly consumed vegetables on a daily basis were tomatoes onions and potatoes Many of the Indian curries and gravies have onion and tomato as the base Potatoes are an integral part of cooking in several Indian households The remaining vegetables were consumed by 60ndash70 per cent of the households However their frequency of consumption was not more than once a weekrdquo she said Likewise the majority of the fruits were consumed in 75ndash80 per cent of the households at least once a weekAbout 85 per cent of the households surveyed were betteroff ldquoThe higher socioeconomic groups are considered to be more healthconscious Consumption of healthy diverse diets needs to be promoted more than ever before to enhance our nutritional status and immunityrdquo said Dr Patil771Percentage of families that used cereal alternatives like bread622Percentage that preferred breakfast cereals to millets and legumes