Thursday, 18 APRIL 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The consumption of nutritional drinks may lead to diabetes, obesity, depression and hormonal imbalances among other ailments, warned dieticians based in Dehradun and urged parents to ensure that children are kept safe from such health-damaging beverages.
Speaking on this matter, a dietician working for the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) hospital, Richa Kukreti said that the recent advisory issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry instructing e-commerce companies to remove beverages like Bournvita from the health drinks category on their platforms due to the negative impact on children’s health. “This is a well-timed move and the parents should take serious note of this. However, many parents I chanced to talk professionally on this matter wondered over the substitutes to these nutritional drinks in vogue. Besides, they said that some kind of addiction has developed in their children to these drinks. I asked them to help their children get rid of this addiction which impacts their health adversely,” she said.
Speaking to this correspondent on the same matter, a parent Ritu Vadera said that children run away on seeing plain milk. “This is why we resort to supplementing their diet with powdered nutritional drinks. We have now come to understand that the advertisements on such health beverages are misleading that goad us to place trust in them. We used to believe that these drinks contain essential vitamins and other nutrients. So, now is the time to select drinks which will be liked by the children and at the same time impact their health positively,” she said.
Echoing the same, another parent Abhilasha Pant said that although parents are now acknowledging that the long-advertised health beverages are not good for the children’s health their options are quite limited. “Bereft of options, we must invent something to help children adopt healthier dietary habits. For instance, we may add chocolate powder to milk to make it easier for our children to consume, compared to plain milk to which they have aversion.”
Continuing her conversation with this correspondent, Kukreti said that instead of being misled by the advertisements, the parents should turn to easy homemade substitutes like jaggery and kheer. “The proper diet for infants should begin when they are six months old. This is an important time during which the parents should provide a diet they want their children to develop a preference for later with long-term health consideration,” she added.
