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NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 13, 2005: All the big talk about healthy lifestyle and rainbow diets seem to be falling on deaf ears as people in the capital continue to spend a substantial amount of their monthly incomes on junk food and beverages. Fruits and vegetables are much below on their priority list be it the Delhiwalla or the person residing in smaller towns and cities. According to the latest NSSO survey released by Delhi government recently, Delhiites on an average spend US$8.43 on processed food and beverages per month compared to $6.59 on vegetables and around one-third of it on fruits. In rest of urban India, it is $8.73 per month on processed food and $6.59 on vegetables. The difference is very thin even in ‘rural’ India where it is $6.00 on junk and processed food and $6.45 on vegetables. “Eating processed food, junk food and beverages like cold drinks has probably become a way of life. Some level of awareness is coming in, but that is once a person becomes ill and reaches the doctor,” says Dr. Manish Mohil, an internal medicine expert at G M Modi Hospital here. Agrees Dr. Rajeev Passi, a cardiologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, “people generally do not go in for fruits and vegetables because of low socio-economic conditions. Most people even from high income groups, start this sort of diet once their bad cholesterol becomes high or the incidence of coronary artery disease starts.” PTI

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