Read the passage given below
Changing food preferences have brought about rapid changes in the structure of the Indian diet. The rapid proliferation of multinational fast-food companies and the influence of Western culture have replaced traditional home-cooked meals with ready-to-eat, processed foods thus increasing the risk of chronic diseases in urban Indians. Therefore, nurturing healthy eating habits among Indians from an early age would help to reduce health risks.
To date, little is known about the quality and quantity of foods and beverages consumed by urban Indian adolescents. This lack of evidence is a significant barrier to the development of effective nutrition promotion and disease prevention measures.
Therefore, a self-administered, semi-quantitative, 59-item meal-based food
frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was developed to assess the dietary intake of adolescents. A total of 1026 students (aged 14–16 years) attending private, English-speaking schools in Kolkata completed the survey.
A sample percentage of the food consumption pattern is displayed (Fig. 1)
The survey results report poor food consumption patterns and highlights the need to design healthy eating initiatives.Interestingly, while there were no gender differences in the consumption of legumes and fried snacks, the survey found more females consumed cereals, vegetables and fruits than their male counterparts.
In conclusion, the report suggested that schools ought to incorporate food literacy concepts into their curriculum as they have the potential of increasing the fruit and vegetable intake in teenagers. Additionally, healthy school canteen policies with improved availability, accessibility, variety and affordability of healthy food choices would support the consumption of nutritious food in students.
(i) What does the researcher mean by ‘changing food preferences’?
Answer
By ‘changing food preferences’ the researcher means the change/transition of the urban populations from home cooked food to ready-to-eat processed food which is predominantly influenced by Western culture.