Chennai : The Department of Women and Child Development's Community Food and Nutrition Extension Unit of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development organised a workshop on Wednesday, as part of the National Nutrition Week celebrations. Delegates at the meet, led by P. Sivasankaran, Project Co-ordinator, Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), called for awareness on nutrition literacy, which was a continuous process. People need to avoid junk foods in favour of traditional dietary habits, they stressed.

S. Muthiah, Joint-Coordinator, Communication and Training, ICDS, said there was ignorance even among the literate people about nutrition.

Success

The success of the nutrition programme depended on people's realisation of the objectives and acceptance of the message of nutrition.

The awareness campaign had to be area specific and continuous, he said.

Other speakers, including academic Usha Ravi and professional dietician Dharini Krishnan, highlighted nutrition counselling techniques, inculcating of healthy eating habits and lifestyle in pre-school and school children and food toxicity and adulteration. They also touched upon nutrition education as a critical tool for healthy generation, water and food safety besides diet for healthy ageing.

H.A. Amanullah, Superintendent, Park Department, Chennai Corporation spoke on promoting kitchen gardens with homemade organic manure to avoid toxicity due to pesticides.

Gomathi Shivaji, Lecturer, Department of Home Science, Women's Christian College, chaired the workshop session. Rema Radhakrishnan, Deputy Technical advisor, Food and Nutrition Board, said that lecture demonstrations on nutrition, focusing on the right food choices and appropriate cooking and handling practices were being held throughout the year. The programmes are offered free and the focus is on the rural and below poverty line population, she said.

Preservation

People could also contact them to learn about vegetable and fruit preservation or bring fruits and vegetables "to our units and process it under our guidance," she said pointing out that processing vegetables and fruits was also an income generating initiative. (Unit phone numbers: 2491 6004/2827 0402).

A week-long celebration was organised in collaboration with the ICDS at Puzhal. It included contests such as healthy baby for infants, essay writing and debate for students, recipes on low cost nutritious foods for mothers and a quiz for school students.

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