Hyderabad: Vegetarians are eating more added fat than non-vegetarians according to a survey carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Nutrition. Also, men eat more fat than women.
The researchers noted that contrary to general belief, vegetarians consumed more fat (40.7 gram) than non-vegetarians (30.2 gram) in the seven metro cities included in the survey — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. Men consume 34.1 gram of fat per person per day while women consume 31.1 gram per person per day.
The added fat is high in foods such as dal fry, rice, stuffed paratha, chudwa, bisi bele bhat, puliyodharai (tamrind rice) and also mutton biryani and chicken biryani and cereal based non-vegetarian recipes.
The added fat is the oil or ghee which is used for cooking. In the case of dal fry, butter is also used in large quantities.
Professor P.K. Seth, chairman of International Life Sciences India, which has supported the analysis of the survey, said the level of added fat was significantly higher in Delhi (44.4 gram per person daily) and Ahmedabad (43.9 gram). The average intake of added fat in Mumbai and Hyderabad was the lowest at, respectively, 28.8 gram per person daily and 25.1 gram per person daily, he said. The average intake of added fat in all the seven metro cities pooled together was 32.6 gram per person each day, which was higher than ICMR-recommended levels of 20g per person per day. Overall, 18 per cent of the total intake of energy was obtained from visible fat, the survey found.
About the methodology used for assessing added fat intake, Dr A. Laxmaiah, the head of the division of Public Health Nutrition at the city-based National Institute of Nutrition, said they evaluated the intake of an assortment of foods such as regular home-made food, packaged food, sweet-based preparations, bakery and biscuits, and milk products to arrive at the quantum of added fat consumed across a fairly large sample of 5,123 individuals from 1,293 households.
The data was collected by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) and analysed by the Division of Public Health Nutrition, NIN. The collated data was also used to measure gender-wise consumption of added fat.
The highest intake of added fat was observed in the age group of 36 to 59 (36.1 gram per person per day), followed by the 18-35 age group (34.8 g per person per day) and adolescents (32.8 g per person per day). The least intake of added fat was noticed in children under the age of five (15.7 g per person per day).
Experts state that people have to be motivated to have a balanced diet, adopt healthy lifestyle and include sufficient physical activity.
