During a survey conducted by TGI (The George Institute for Global Health), Indian packaged food and beverages are found least healthy. Earlier FSSAI has also asked for a red color warning for food with high sugar content.
The George Institute for Global Health was initiated in India in 2007. The main goal was to produce high quality proofs by surveying a considerable amount of consumables.
These surveys will help in improving the health of millions by minimizing premature deaths and disability by non communicable diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental health, injuries and stroke.
TGI always tries to come up with more practical and innovative way of conducting studies. They are dedicated in improving the health of people from all sections of society and empower them with affordable ways to improve their health.
TGI Global survey for food and beverages health
(TGI) has done a major survey on the quality of packaged food and drinks for 12 countries and region around the world. This report was published in the journal Obesity Reviews.
They have conducted these studies on 400,000 products which included food and beverages. In this study, countries are rated using Australia’s Health Star Rating system.
In this ranking system, rating ranges from ½ to 5. Where ½ represents least healthy level while 5 ranks represent the healthiest one.
While the measures that covered in this ranking system are levels of nutrients like salt, energy, saturated fat, sugar, calcium, fiber and protein.
These studies had found high levels of saturated fat, sugar, salt and excessive calories in the food which we like to have a lot. Indian packaged food and drinks were found most energy dense compared to other countries.
A wakeup call for countries like India
While talking about this study, Prof Vivekanand Jha, Executive Director of the George Institute for Global Health, India said that this is a wake-up call for countries like India where the packaged food industry is burgeoning and expanding its reach to small towns and villages.
“Policymakers and the food industry need to work together to reformulate products to reduce the ever increasing risk of obesity and its consequences.” he added
The other highlights are
1. Chinese drinks were some of the healthiest while packaged food scored lowest at 2.39
2. South Africa scored low in beverages around 1.92 and its food had 2.87 points.
3. Canada topped the list with unhealthy salt level in food and drinks with an average of 291mg/100g of sodium and US coming second highest at 279mg/100g
4. China’s packaged food and beverages have most harmful levels of saturated fat.
5. India’s packaged food and drinks were most energy dense (kilojoule content 1515 kJ/100 g) and South African products were least energy dense at an average of just 1044kJ/100 g.
We Indians always believe in the mantra of “health is wealth”.
As PM Narendra Modi had said in his Mann ki Baat speech “Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat are supplementary to each other”.
With these reports, somewhere we should question ourselves for what kind of choices we are making to achieve this.
Are we ready for a change or this will remain a part of the survey report only?
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.