Healthy Nutrition to Build a Healthy Nation

‘Health is wealth’, goes the saying. Health and nutrition are the most important contributory factors for human resource development in the country. Unhealthy eating and physical inactivity cause 1/3 of premature deaths. Nowadays nutrition related non communicable diseases have become a major threat to public health. Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM), micronutrient deficiencies such as vitamin A deficiency, Iron Deficiency Anemia, Iodine Deficiency Disorders and vitamin B-complex deficiencies are the nutrition problems frequently encountered, particularly among the rural poor and urban slum communities and among children and women. These nutritional risk factors, are considered responsible for 3.9 million deaths (35%of total deaths) and 144 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYS) (33% of total DALYS) in children below 5 years of age [1]. The scenario clearly shows there is a need for reappraisal of nutrition intervention programmes for children and pregnant women in India for which an attempt was made by us through identification of some healthy recipies and introduction of these among a set of population which are presented in this paper.