Become iron woman, eat veggies

Veggies delight

Ram Oraon blames his grandfather for his frail health and for much of his life spent battling poverty. He has watched his two brothers die young. “They always had poor health,” says the 60-year-old marginal farmer from Malhan Bhuiyadih village near Ranchi.

Danone, Unilever and Nestle top newly released nutrition index

In an index released on March 13, industry organisations have ranked companies Danone, Unilever and Nestle as top performers on both the obesity and under-nutrition rankings, in spite of their dubious reputations. The Access to Nutrition Index (ATNI) was developed to rank global and regional food and beverage manufacturers based on their practices for increasing access to nutritious products.  Slamming the rankings, critics say the initiative is nothing but a whitewash and an attempt to promote business houses with dubious records.

Vitamin D complex

Small fish, big net

At a rural market, fishers selling tiny fish in small baskets cannot escape the curious eye. Often ignored as “trash” or “miscellaneous” by the formal fishery sector, small fish is a delicacy rural people line up for. A loving husband would never miss the chance to give his expecting wife a meal full of nutritious small fish. A mother would always pursue her children to have them for good eyesight.

For the love of gond

During childhood, winters were spent running around the house with my grandmother chasing me. “Just one bite. It will save you from cough and cold,” badi mammi would say, carrying a laddoo made of gond (edible gum) in her hand. She knew how to make the laddoo from the age of 10, when she was married. “Your dada (grandfather) used to love them,” badi mammi told me once while forcing one down my throat.

High BP, tobacco are top killers

DISEASE patterns are changing world over. Deaths from infectious diseases, poor nutrition and maternal and child illnesses, which used to be the key global killers two decades ago, are down. More people today die of non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure and due to tobacco and alcohol consumption. This is one of the key findings of a study on the global burden of disease, published in The Lancet on December 13, 2012.

Not all is lost

IODINE IS important for the body. It helps convert food into energy and is needed for normal thyroid function. But there have been concerns that the element is lost during cooking. Two studies have now shown that Indian recipes retain most of the iodine in food.

First comes chick

Bitter gets better

BITTER gourd is one of the most disliked vegetables because of its taste. But given its nutritional and medicinal value one is often forced to eat it. However, over the past three decades, this vegetable’s bitterness has reduced, thanks to the hybrid varieties created by scientists in India. These hybrids—pusa do mausmi, pusa vishesh, arka harit and many others—are commonly available and differ in their shape, size, colour and taste.