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dietary habits
we analyse the Global Hunger Index figures and the diet of urban and rural
Indians
Coronavirus is definitely a dangerous epidemic, but hunger is a bigger
epidemic. According to a UN report, more people die of hunger than of
AIDS, TB and malaria. According to this report, 90 lakh people die due to
hunger every year all over the world. On Friday, World Food Day was
observed globally.
The Global Hunger Index figures have also been released on the occasion of
World Food Day and you will be very pained and angered to see India's
position in this index, and you will probably be ashamed of the food you
waste.
A total of 107 countries have been included in the Global Hunger Index of
2020 and India is on the 94th position. While the situation in backward and
small countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and even
Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia are also better than India. India is the
first in the world in terms of malnutrition of children, according to this report.
Last year, India was ranked 102 in the list of 117 countries in this index. That
means, India's position in this matter is not improving.
Do you know about 19 crore people in India sleep hungry every day. Such is
the sad state of affairs.
According to an estimate if only 25 per cent of the food that is wasted all
over the world is saved, 82 crore hungry people around the world can be fed.
According to the United Nations, food that is wasted every year all over the
world weighs more than 130 million tonnes.
Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founders, had said, "I have seen as
many people die of hunger but far more people have died because of more
food. Franklin said this 300 years ago. Even today, obesity remains the
biggest problem in the world. And one of the major reasons for this obesity is
that the size of people's food plate is so constantly growing. People don't
know how to eat and how not to eat to keep themselves healthy.
According to this report, a person should take 150 grams of fruits, 90 grams
of dal, eggs or meat, 20 grams of dry fruits, 27 grams of oil or ghee, 270
grams of cereals, 350 grams of green vegetables and at least 300 ml of milk
or yogurt throughout the day.
-There is a big difference in the plate of villages and cities. The villages have
about 65 per cent of the grains like wheat, barley, bajra and maize. While the
grains in the cities plate are only 51 per cent.
-The amount of fat and oil in the cities plate is nearly doubled as compared to
the village. People living in cities are eating about 13 per cent of fat, ghee and
oil, the biggest contributor to junk food. While the village people have a
share of such food in the plate, it is only 7 per cent.
Let us look at some food items to understand how many calories we are
consuming on a daily basis:
- 250 grams of rice contains 170 Calories, 100 calories in 100 grams of pulses
and 170 Calories in 250 grams of vegetables
-If you consider Corn Flakes as a low Calories diet, know that 250 grams of
Corn Flakes have 220 Calories.
-1 cup of tea contains 75 Calories. If you drink tea several times a day, you
can count Calories now.
-200 ML cold drinks have 200 Calories in a Slice of 150 Calories and Pizza.
By discussing food daily, we indians who set menus think about food in the
minds of the taste first, and health later.