The Functional Food Association of India (FFAI) was founded by Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni, to address food-related concerns. On the occasion of the university's 11th convocation on December 7, the Governor of Himachal Pradesh formally inaugurated it.
The initiative was started by experts from the university's Department of Food Science and Technology. Food experts from prestigious institutions around the country serve on the association's governing body.
“In India, the shift from traditional to modern lifestyle, consumption of a diet rich in fat and calories, combined with a high level of mental stress, has resulted in increased incidences of lifestyle-related diseases. Scientific evidence regarding the role of food in maintaining good health and preventing diseases, and adverse effects of allopathic medicines and rising health care costs are some of the factors which require education of large population toward functional foods and nutraceuticals,” said Dr Parvinder Kaushal, Vice-Chancellor of the university and patron of the FFAI.
Dr. KD Sharma, The association's founding president, also said that: “Japan was the first country to realise the ill effects of junk food and introduced the idea of functional food in 1980, which led to increasing in life-span of their population with the delayed onset of chronic diseases. It also saved the government expenditure in setting up huge hospital infrastructure.”
India is a land with a variety of foods and the current thinking on functional foods can easily be applied to many traditional Indian subcontinent foods as these are based on whole grains, legumes, oilseeds, nuts, vegetables, fruits, spices, condiments, and many fermented milk products. Consumption of such foods on a regular basis not only provides the human body with most of the nutrients in adequate quantities but also improves gastrointestinal health, boosts immune functions, improves bone health, lowers cholesterol, oxidative stress, reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, various types of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, ill-effects of obesity, and metabolic syndrome.
Hence the creation of associations like these will surely lead to an increase in the health and lifespan of Indian citizens as a whole.
