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Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
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Centre to focus on perils of liquor consumption

Special Correspondent

Bigger problem than tobacco: Anbumani

“Awareness should be created at school level”
Food labelling will become mandatory

NEW DELHI: Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Friday said the government would soon initiate an awareness programme against consumption of alcohol.

At a function to mark the launch of a pilot programme for ‘Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke,’ Dr. Ramadoss said alcoholism would pose a bigger problem than tobacco in the coming years. More and more people, particularly youngsters, were taking to liquor in the wake of globalisation. “Drinking is not our culture, it a Western culture,” he said.

There was need for an awareness programme to prevent people from taking to drinking, and the best way was to create awareness right from the school level, Dr. Ramadoss said.

Consumption of tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity were the common risk factors which led to hypertension, obesity, high blood glucose and high blood lipid levels. These in turn contributed towards risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. The increase was most notable in the urban areas of demographically and economically advanced States in the country, though it was not limited to the urban areas.

A “Food Label” would be mandatory for all items giving details of their ingredients and the nutritional value, he said. The process of labelling was expected to start in a month.

India had now overtaken the U.S. as the diabetes capital of the world and was second in obesity, primarily because of the junk food eating habits and lack of physical activity, the Minister said. This was in contrast to the fact that a large number of people in the country were undernourished.

Dr. Ramadoss said the Indian system of medicine, particularly yoga, offered enough remedies for lifestyle diseases.

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