We Wish All Our Members a Happy New Year
NEWS
We congratulate:
- Dr. G. Bhanuprakash Reddy, Scientist ‘D’, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad for
being awarded International Scholars Award by Research to Prevent Blindness, USA.
Dr. B. Dinesh Kumar, Scientist ‘D’, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad who has
been elected as the General Secretary of the Indian Pharmacological Society.
The newly elected Officer Bearer and members of the Executive Committee of the
Society.
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES
A two-day International Workshop on “Leadership Skills in Nutritional Sciences” was
jointly organised by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Nutrition Society of India (NSI)
and International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) on 13th and 14th November 2007 at
NIN, Hyderabad. Apart from eminent resource persons, about 37 participants from various
parts of the country participated in the deliberations of the workshop. The workshop
programme comprised scientific sessions, interactive sessions, panel discussions as well as
group activities for the participants. The workshop covered a wide range of topics and
included talks on leadership and change management, defining research agenda, the role of
communication, leadership building, capacity building etc.
XXXIX NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE SOCIETY
The XXXIX National Conference of the Society was held on 15th and 16th November 2007 at the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad and about 700 delegates and inviters attended the same. This year a post-conference workshop on “Communication Skills in Nutrition Research” was conducted for student delegates on 17th November 2007 to develop their communication skills. This workshop was attended by about 200 student delegates. The conference was inaugurated by Prof. Ricardo Uauy, President, IUNS.
At the outset, Dr. B. Sesikeran, Director, National Institute of Nutrition and Joint Secretary, NSI and Organizing Secretary, welcomed the delegates. He briefly highlighted the various Symposia, orations and other scientific sessions organised on the occasion. He also read out the Message sent by Dr. C .Gopalan, Founder-President of the Society to the delegates. Dr. C.
Gopalan, in his speech, first complemented the NSI on completing almost fourty years and its growth from strength to strength. While stressing that nutrition is a “cross-science”, its principle agenda of prompting the health and well-being of people makes it a fertile meeting group for scientists from different disciplines and thus its fascination. Going on to the current nutritional problems, he said that the present altered, market driven, food production and nutrition situation needs to be reversed with adequate importance given to millets and pulses. This can be delivered only by committed and collective effort of the members of the society.
Our human resources is our greatest asset, he said, ensuring a healthy population is therefore essential. For such nutritional infrastructure, national nutrition policy based on sound scientific principles is essential. Formulation of this requires the following three crucial inputs.
First a national centre for comprehensive analysis of foods for carrying out nutritional composition analysis to provide authentic data regarding nutrient composition of foods, of different varieties in different regions and in different seasons and grown under different conditions. This will provide sound scientific basis and could be jointly founded by the Ministries of Food and Agriculture and Health. Second, a national nutrition and family health monitoring bureau to provide authentic data on the nutritional status of different regions and different socio-economic strata, to provide proper direction to nutrition policy. The same may be jointly operated by the National Institute of Nutrition, IIPS (Mumbai), NSSO (Delhi). Third a national centre for promotion and dissemination of nutrition education to ensure systematic and well planned programme of nutrition education and addressed to the community. It should identify key scientific messages of practices value which are tailor-made to region and communicated through all available channels for communication so as to reach every household. Formulation of the policy is of predominant importance as the present policies are only ad-hoc and knee-jerk rehabilitatary in nature. We require proactive, prophylatic policies, instead, he said. He concluded by saying that positive outcomes to the above suggestions can be brought about only by the cooperation of the members of the society, while wishing all success in future.
Dr. Kamala Krishnaswamy, President, NSI, in her Presidential address, emphasised the need to have a holistic approach to solve the existing and emerging nutritional problems of India. This approach should integrate sustainable agricultural practices, give importance to nutrition as a basic human right, enable effective delivery of services, be sustainable and forge effective public private partnerships. The problems of obesity and adolescent nutrition need immediate remediation too she said. The linking of telenutrition to existing telemedicine which would be effective in improving the level of community nutrition, knowledge, she emphasized.
She concluded by saying that the academia, researchers, national and international agencies and the government need to partner effectively to generate relevant knowledge, put the same into practice to seek answers to questions that are vital to our present and future; and that while cherishing our traditions, it is important to modernize our thinking and motive.
Dr. B.S. Narsinga Rao, Past President of NSI, also spoke on this occasion and made few brief observations. He listed out the important public health and nutrition problems such as iron deficiency anaemia affecting all age groups, vitamin A deficiency, endemic iodine deficiency, vitamin B complex deficiechncies and omega –3 fatty acids deficiencies etc. He said that novel and recent developments in molecular biology, biotechnology and genetics can be used to tackle these problems. Methods such as probiotic organisms developed to produce these nutrients, genetic modification of widely consumed cereals and millets and the use of nano- technology were highlighted. He hoped that these new technologies will be employed to find solutions to achieve better nutrition and food security.
Prof. Ricardo Uauy, President, IUNS, Professor, Nutrition and Pediatrics, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Chile, Chile and Public Health Nutrition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, UK inaugurated the National Conference and released the Abstract Book. In his Inaugural Address, Prof. Ricardo Uauy said that India faces many nutritional challenges such as achieving the MDGs, and it is up to the members to rise to the same. He emphasised that nutrition should be a part of all development agenda and that leadership should be put ahead of knowledge so that knowledge and action go hand-in-hand. The congress should be able to ignite minds of young nutrition scientists and get into real action, he said. India has had a long tradition of excellent science, he said, and therefore this knowledge and leadership should be synergised to make great contributions to nutrition science. He also said that nutrition scientists should play a proactive role in development so that it is given due importance in development. In conclusion, he said that we must all endeavour to make nutrition move forward. Dr. Sheila Vir, Secretary of the Society proposed the Vote of Thanks.
The following two symposia were organised:
SYMPOSIUM ON " NEW INITIATIVES FOR PROMOTING HEALTH AND NUTRITION WELL-BEING”
Dr. Vinodini Reddy and Dr. B. Sivakumar, Former Directors of the National Institute of Nutrition chaired the sessions and Dr. M. Raghunath, Deputy Director, NIN, served as the Session Coordinator. The following is a list of the distinguished speakers and the topics they spoke on.
The speakers clearly explained the nutritional problems and the new and emerging strategies to tackle these. The emerging issues in chronic diseases and proposed possible solutions to the same have been highlighted. The importance of biofortification as an emerging strategy to control micronutrient malnutrition, intestinal flora and novel peptides in maintaining optional health were also elaborated on. These presentations generated considerable and fruitful discussions.
SYMPOSIUM ON “FOOD SAFETY – AN ESSENTIAL ASPECT OF NUTRITION SECURITY”
The Symposium was chaired by Dr. V. Prakash, Director, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore and Dr. B. Sesikeran, Director, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad. Dr. S. Vasanthi, Senior Research Officer, NIN was the Session Coodinator. The following is a list of the distinguished speakers and the topics they spoke on.
The speakers elaborated on the need and advantages of i), the new food and safety standards act 2005, ii) methods of promoting nutrition advocacy in various stakeholders such as women, adolescent girls, grass-root level health functionaries etc. iii) good food manufacturing distribution practices (GMDPS) and hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP). The etiology, molecules and mechanisms involved in causing food allergies were also clearly elucidated. This session too ended after fruitful discussions.
THE THIRTY FIRST GOPALAN ORATION
The Thirty first Gopalan Oration was delivered by Prof. Ricardo Uauy, President, IUNS, Professor, Nutrition and Pediatrics, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Chile, Chile and Public Health Nutrition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, UK, on “Nutrition Challenges for the 21st Century: The double burden of disease”. In his oration, Prof. Ricardo Uauy clearly elucidated the causes, consequences of both chronic under nutrition and over nutrition leading to obesity and international efforts to combat both forms of malnutrition. He also extensively dwelt on the extent of current nutrition and public health problems faced by India. Measures to combat the same were also explained using examples of successful programs in countries like Chile, Mexico etc. The major advantages and weakness of these programs were also stressed on. He also explained in detail the trans-generational effects of malnutrition. He continued that young investigators in the nutrition and food areas are commonly well trained and have vast theoretical knowledge of what needs to be done to address the major food and nutrition problems affecting developing countries. However leadership, communications, and advocacy skills are often neglected. The acquisition of leadership skills should enable young scientists to serve better their functions as investigators, professors, program administrators, policy makers, communicators and advocates for the nutrition improvement of their community, he said. He welcomed the Nutrition Society of India’s initiative to hold a workshop to promote leadership skill in nutritional sciences at this annual meeting in Hyderabad. These are auspicious times for nutrition in India, he said that we must learn from the example of Dr. C. Gopalan, whom we honour on this occasion, and expand his legacy of leadership so that it will reach every corner of India. He then clearly listed out the nutrition problems of the 21st century and the various strategies to remedy the same. He concluded by saying that the IUNS is a truly global community dedicated to nutrition and achievement of the right to safe and healthy food for all.
THE NINETEENTH SRIKANTIA MEMORIAL LECTURE
The Nineteenth Srikantia Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr. V. Prakash, Director, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, on “Nutrition Links in the Food Chain”. In his lecture, Dr. Prakash emphasised that while the demand of food grains for human consumption will and shall continue to increase, the demand for quality value added food products shall definitely increase logarithmically. In this process, the role of nutrition is very crucial in synergizing the quality nutrition with the food processing system in the food chain. Loss of food is also loss of nutrition, he said. The food chain will only become stronger if the nutrition links are stronger, he emphasised. This involves capacity development, prevention of nutrition loss during processing, innovative technologies, evaluation of nutritional profile with bioavailability built into it, the role of the end customer, the wellness of the food, the shelf -life of the food, packaging of food, all being equally vital, he said. Therefore, the entire food chain is a very complex issue and the nutritional losses or the nutritional availability is a very fragile commodity he emphasised. He put forth solutions to measure enhancement or on by metrological methods and emphasised the need and means to be able and reach a balanced nutritious food (at least two times a day) to the 800 million plus population who just eat only one meal every three days as we also address the subject of ‘farm and agriculture’ engulfing itself into ‘fork and obesity’!
AWARDS FOR RESEARCH PAPERS
Award Session
A total of 24 papers consisting of 3 in Community Nutrition and 4 in Experimental Nutrition under the category Senior award and 9 in Community Nutrition and 8 in Experimental Nutrition under the category Junior award were presented. The following were selected for awards:
Senior Award in Community Nutrition
Dr. Vanisha Nambiar, Department of Foods and Nutrition, The Maharaja Sayaji Rao University of Baroda, Vadodara, for the paper entitled “Impact of antioxidants from drumstick leaves on the lipid profile of hyperlipidemics” by Vanisha Nambiar, Parul Guin, Shilpa Parnami and M. Daniel.
Senior Award in Experimental Nutrition
Ms. Sheetal Gupta, Department of Studies in Food Science and Nutrition, University of Mysore, Mysore, for the paper entitled “Antioxidant Components and Antioxidant Activity of Selected Vegetables” by Sheetal Gupta and Jamuna Prakash.
Junior Award in Community Nutrition
Ms. Deepti Khanna, Nutrition Foundation of India, New Delhi, for the paper entitled “Obesity in Delhi School Children and Adolescents” by Deepti Khanna, Sakshi Kapoor Bhushan and Prema Ramachandran.
Junior Award in Experimental Nutrition
This year, the Junior Award in Experimental Nutrition was given to the following two participants :
- Mrs. Pratibha Dwarakanath, St. John’s Research Institute, St, John’s National Academy of
Health Scences, Bangalore, for the paper entitled “Glucose kinetics in early and mid-pregnancy in low BMI Indian women” by Pratibha Dwarakanath, Muthayya S, Thomas T,
Jahoor F, Mhaskar A, Thoma A, Mhaskar R, Kurpad AV.
Mrs. Sherill Alex, Department of Lipid Chemistry, National Institute of Nutrition,
Hyderabad, for the paper entitled “Diverse effects of PUFAs on glucose intolerance,
dyslipidemia and obesity in glucose intolerant obese rat model of WNIN-GR Ob strain” by
Sheril Alex, Jeyakumar SM, Jayashree T, Giridharan NV and Vajreswari A.
Ramanathan Award
A total of 16 papers were presented in Oral Presentations Session. Keeping in view of the best presentations made in the Session, the Ramanathan Award was awarded this year to the following two participants :
- Dr. Anura V Kurpad, St. John’s Research Institute , Bangalore, for the paper entitled “Is there a significant intestinal microbial contribution to essential amino acid homeostasis in humans? By Anura V Krupad, Tony Raj, R.Kishore, M.Vaz.
Ms. Anvita Kale, Interactive Research School for Health Affairs, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune for the paper titled “Essential polyunsaturated fatty acids and nerve growth factor levels in first episode schizophrenia” by Anvita Kale, Sadhana Joshi, Anil Kumar Pillai, Nilesh Naphde, MSVK Raju, Sahebarao Mahadik.
Best Poster Awards
A total of 122 posters were displayed in the disciplines of Community Nutrition, Clinical Nutrition, Experimental Nutrition Food Science and Nutrition Education and Communication. The NSI Prize for best presentation, in each category was awarded to a total of three participants this year, apart from Haveli Ram Pasricha Prize. The following are the awardees:
The Haveli Ram Pasricha Prize
Ms. A. Roychowdhury et al., St. John’s Research Institute, Bangalore, for the paper entitled “Low Pre-Pregnancy BMI : A Risk Factor for Low Birth Weight and IUGR Babies” by A Roychowdhury, S Muthayya, P Dwarkanath, T Thomas, A Mhaskar, R Mhaskar, A Thomas, AV Kurpad in the field of Community Nutrition.
NSI Prizes
- Miss Vasuprada Iyengar, et al., National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, for the paper entitled “Iron and Zinc Interactions during Uptake are Determined by Cellular Zinc Status of CACO-2 Cells” by Vasuprada Iyengar, P. Raghu and K.Madhavan Nair in the field of Experimental Nutrition.
Miss Sudha Sairam et al., University of Mysore, Mysore, for the paper entitled “Physico- chemical characteristics of defatted rice bran and its utilisation in a bakery product” by Sudha Sairam, Asna Urooj and Gopala Krishna A.G in the field of Food Science.
Miss Kejal Joshi et al., Department of Foods and Nutrition, the MS University of Baroda, Vadodara, for the paper entitled “Capacity Building of Salt Traders – A Community Perspective for Nutrition Breakthrough” by Kejal Joshi and Sirimavo Nair in the field of Nutrition Education and Communication.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Proceedings of the Society
We are glad to inform that the proceedings of the Society (from 1975 to 2005) are digitalized and are available on CDs. The members can obtain the same against payment through demand draft drawn in favour of the TREASURER, NUTRITION SOCIETY OF INDIA, payable at any Nationalised bank in Hyderabad/Secunderabad.
New Office-Bearers of the Society
The following have been elected as the New Office-Bearers and Executive Committee members of the Society for the term April 2008 – March 2010:
Executive Committee Members
1. Dr.G. Bhanuprakash Reddy, Hyderabad
2. Dr. R. Hemalatha, Hyderabad
3. Prof. Rajoo Singh Chhina, Ludhiana
4. Dr. S.K.Mann, Ludhiana
5. Prof. G. Subbulakshmi, Mumbai
6. Dr. K. Sheela, Meghalaya
7. Dr. S. Rajagopalan, Chennai
8. Dr. Vandana Bharathi, Indore
9. Mrs. Sunita Malhotra, Chandigarh
10. Dr. Vidyadhar Kawalkar, Bhopal
11. Dr. Prema Ramachandran, New Delhi
12. Dr. Anura Kurpad, Bangalore
13. Dr. A.N. Radha, Nagpur
40th National Conference of the Society
The 40th National Conference of the Society will be held at Chennai in the month of November 2008, under the Convenership of Dr. Varsha, Convener, NSI Local Chapter, Chennai. The exact dates will be announced in the June 2008 Newsletter of the Society.
Change of Chapter Convenor
Dr. Kasturi Sen Ray will be the Convenor of Mumbai Chapter in place of Dr. G. Subbulakshmi.
OTHER INFORMATION
DIRECTORY OF MEMBERS
All the members of the Society are requested to inform any change in their mailing address and email ID to enable the Secretariat of the Society to update the mailing list. It is also noted from the records that many of the members, particularly student members, have not renewed their annual membership. All such members are requested to update their membership by remitting the dues through demand draft drawn in favour of the TREASURER, NUTRITION SOCIETY OF INDIA, payable at any Nationalised bank in Hyderabad/Secunderabad.
Members are requested to log on to NSI web site www.nutritionsocietyindia.org for activities of NSI and provide feedback so that it can be updated. In future the NSI newsletter will be sent by email / posted on our web site (www.nutritionsocietyindia.org). We will be able to provide a hard copy of the a written request letter.
NEWS ITEMS REGARDING MEMBERS
Members receiving awards and honours etc. are requested to send the relevant information to Joint Secretary, Nutrition Society of India, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad – 500 604, email: nsihyderabad@yahoo.com for incorporation in the forthcoming issues of the Newsletter.
REMITTANCE OF MEMBERSHIP FEE/COST OF PUBLICATIONS
In view of the delay in realisation of cheques, members are requested to remit their membership fee of the NSI through demand drafts drawn in favour of the TREASURER, NUTRITION SOCIETY OF INDIA, Hyderabad, payable at any nationalised bank in REMITTANCE OF MEMBERSHIP FEE/COST OF PUBLICATIONS In view of the delay in realisation of cheques, members are requested to remit their membership fee of the NSI through demand drafts drawn in favour of the TREASURER, NUTRITION SOCIETY OF INDIA, Hyderabad, payable at any nationalised bank in Hyderabad/Secunderabad or as “at par” cheques payable at Hyderabad/Secunderabad Branch.
Correspondence relating to the Society and other related matters should be addressed to:
The Joint Secretary
Nutrition Society of India
National Institute of Nutrition
Jamai-Osmania PO
Hyderabad – 500 604
Andhra Pradesh
Phone. 040-27002008 (Direct line), 27008921 ext. 353
Email. nsihyderabad@yahoo.com
WebSite: www.nutritionsocietyindia.org
Cordially,
(B. Sesikeran)
Joint. Secretary
