CM5.{1,14-15} | CM5.{1,14-15} | Nutrients, Requirements and Personal Nutrition — Summary & Reflection

KEY TAKEAWAYS

India faces a double burden of malnutrition — undernutrition (stunting 35.5%, wasting 19.3% in under-5s; anaemia 57% in women) coexisting with overnutrition (overweight/obesity 24% in women; NFHS-5 2019-21). Macronutrients — carbohydrates (4 kcal/g; AMDR 50-60% energy), proteins (4 kcal/g; RDA 0.83 g/kg/day adult), fats (9 kcal/g; AMDR 20-30%) — form the energy base of the diet. Micronutrients of greatest public health importance in India are iron (RDA adult woman 29 mg/day, pregnancy 35 mg/day), calcium (RDA adult 1000 mg/day; pregnancy/lactation 1200 mg/day), iodine (RDA adult 150 µg/day; pregnancy 220 µg/day), Vitamin A (RDA adult man 900 µg RAE/day), and Vitamin D (RDA 600 IU/day). Requirements vary with life stage (pregnancy, lactation, adolescence, infancy), sex, and activity level. Key national programmes — ICDS, PM POSHAN, POSHAN Abhiyaan, NIDDCP — convert knowledge of requirements into organised intervention. Dietary evaluation tools (24-hour recall, dietary diversity score) and brief counselling skills ('5 As') complete the clinical toolkit.

REFLECT

Think about your own habitual diet over the past week. Using the ICMR-NIN 2020 RDA values discussed in this module, estimate whether you met the recommended protein intake (0.83 g/kg/day) and consumed foods from at least 5 different food groups daily. What one practical, affordable change to your current eating pattern would bring you closest to meeting the RDA for the nutrient you most likely fall short on? How would you communicate an equivalent insight to a patient in a 2-minute consultation?