Eat your food like your medicine else you will end up eating medicine like food”
Ratan Tata

Ratan Tata certainly has a point there! We all agree with him but do we know for sure what we must put on our plate? What we put on your plate is more powerful medicine than anything you will find at the bottom of a pill bottle. Food is the most powerful medicine available to heal chronic disease.

But the truth is that most of us are not aware of the right quality and quantity of the food we eat.
A nation-wide study carried out by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) to assess urban nutrition shows not only a great diversity in food consumption in 16 States in the country, but also that Indians consume far less than the recommended quantum of several micro-nutrients and vital vitamins.

On an average, while the recommended dietary intake of GLV is 40g/CU/day, the consumption in the country is 24g/CU/day. Kerala consumes the least amount green leafy vegetables.

Dietary Requirements as per the Food pyramid as per the Food and Nutrition Guidelines published by Government of India states that the one food that we can eat liberally is green leafy vegetables and fibrous vegetables .Nutrients that we obtain through our diet have vital effects on physical growth and development, maintenance of normal body function, physical activity and health. Nutritious food is, thus needed to sustain life and activity. Our diet must provide all essential nutrients in the required amounts. Requirements of essential nutrients vary with age, gender, physiological status and physical activity. Dietary intakes lower or higher than the body requirements can lead to undernutrition (deficiency diseases) or overnutrition (diseases of affluence) respectively. The nutrients must be obtained through a judicious choice and combination of a variety of foodstuffs from different food groups depicted in the food pyramid.