Listen to Story Indians, across all age groups, are deficient in iron, calcium and folate, which are essential for health. According to researchers, who published their findings in the Lancet , people in India are consuming inadequate amounts of iron, calcium and folate. After studying diet consumption of people from 185 countries, the study revealed that billions across the globe are lacking in 15 essential micronutrients, without taking any supplements.
Around the world, over five billion people do not consume iodine, vitamin E and calcium. In India, women consume insufficient amounts of iodine compared to men and more men consume inadequate amounts of zinc and magnesium, compared to women, the team found. Men and women aged 10-30 years were most prone to low-levels of calcium intake, especially in South Asia, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), highlighted in the study that micronutrient deficiencies are one of the most common forms of malnutrition globally.
"Each deficiency carries its own health consequences, from adverse pregnancy outcomes, to blindness, to increased susceptibility to infectious diseases," the researchers said. Most Indians are iron deficient, says new Lancet study. (Photo: Getty Images) Chris Free, co-lead author of the study and research professor at UCSB, said that the study is a big step forward because it is the first to estimate inadequate micronutrient intakes for 34 groups, depending age and sex, in nearly every country, and it makes these methods and results easily accessible to researchers and practitioners.
More than half of people in the world consume inadequate levels of riboflavin, folate, and vitamins C and B6. Intake of niacin was closest to sufficient, with 22% of the global population consuming inadequate levels, followed by thiamin (30%) and selenium (37%). In India, estimated inadequate intakes of riboflavin, folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 were especially high.
(Photo: Getty Images) The researchers found that micronutrient deficiencies varied more distinctly by sex . They also noted that men and women aged 10-30 were particularly at risk of low calcium intake, especially in South and East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Besides this, calcium intake was found to be low in North America, Europe, and Central Asia as well.
In India, estimated inadequate intakes of riboflavin, folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 were especially high. The authors said that fortified foods or supplements weren't taken into account in the study. Therefore, the results might be an overestimate of some key nutrients in particular locations where people consume high amounts of fortified foods and supplements.
(With inputs from PTI).
