People’s Awareness about the Relationship between Food Habits, Ingredients NCDs, CVDs

Institute for Governance, Policies & Politics (IGPP)

Saturated fats, processed sugar, high levels of salts and a high degree of saturated fat and other preservatives are major contributors to the metabolic situations that lead to NCDs. More Indians are losing their lives to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) than ever. According to the Global Burden of Diseases Report 2017, cardiovascular disease kills 1.7 million Indians every year. The premature mortality (years of life lost because of in India increased to 37 million in 2010 from23.2 million in 1990 (by 59 per cent).And yet, our consumption level of sugar salt and unsaturated fat is increasing in our daily food baskets. Not only have many of these products become less healthy over time, but the sheer number of choices in stores have also made it difficult and confusing for us to select healthy food. Adding to the confusion, unhealthy products may feature misleading health and nutrition claims on their packages. This study attempted to trace the consumer awareness regarding the relationship between the food ingredients like unhealthy fat, processed sugar and salt and the incidence of ailments like Diabetes, high blood pressure and heart related diseases.