Dietary suggestions for prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD)
Non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is non-infectious. The NCDs are by far the leading cause of death in the world, representing 63% of all annual deaths (WHO 2013) and 61% of all adult deaths in Bangladesh (BIRDEM 2013).
The major NCDs include cardiovascular disease, hyper-tension, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis and asthma .
Unhealthy eating habits are one of the major risk factors for the development of NCDs. We eat to live. We need to eat a balanced diet composed of a variety of food. If is important to take carbohydrate, fat, protein, minerals, vitamins, water and fiber. We need to maintain a reasonable weight. There is also need of reducing saturated fat intake. Saturated fats are found in red meat, dairy products and eggs. The healthy fats are unsaturated fats, available from plants and are liquid in room temperature. The primary source include mustard, groundnut, flax, etc.
It is wise to stop smoking and smokeless tobacco products. It is also better to reduce the intake of refined sugar, increase eating food with enough fiber and eat less salt.
The following table may be useful for selecting food for preventing the NCDs which are main cause of concern for health today. The dot mark in the row indicates beneficial attribute of the food for preventing disease in that coloumn.
Food Preventing Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD)
