Effect of Amaranth on the health and nutritional profile of adolescents

Abstract

The present study entitled 'Effect of amaranth on the health and nutritional profile of adolescents' was conducted among 120 adolescents, selected from juvenile home and orphanage in Trichur district on the basis of occurrence of anaemia. The selected samples were divided into three groups viz., control, 2/3rrl RDA and full RDA groups, consisting of 40 adolescents in each group. Food consumption pattern of the inmates revealed that all were non- vegetarians and rice formed their staple food. The daily used food items by the inmates of the institutions included cereals, pulses, roots and tubers, other vegetables, milk, fats and oils, sugar and spices. Advanced meal planning was done in both the institutions. The acceptability study of amaranth recipes showed that they were acceptable with respect to different quality parameters. Among the recipes, cheera minced meat thoran obtained the highest score in the acceptability study and' cheera pittu scored the lowest. The 10 recipes which obtained the highest total scores were selected for the feeding trial. The nutrient analysis of fresh amaranth and amaranth recipes showed that the protein content of most of the recipes were higher than the fresh amaranth. All the recipes had higher starch and soluble carbohydrate content than fresh amaranth. The fibre content of cheera thoran, cheera vada, cheera curry and cheera green gram thoran were higher than the fresh and cheera thoran and cheera curry had higher iron content compared to fresh amaranth. All the recipes showed lo;ver content of calcium,ft carotene and vitamin C compared with fresh amaranth. Assessment of the nutritional status of adolescents after the supplementation study revealed significant increments m anthropometric measurements, haematological indices and mean scores of the functional performance test in all the three groups with greater increase in full RDA?U1d 2/3rrl

RDA groups compared to control group. The distribution of adolescents into various nutritional status based on weight for height and body mass index revealed changes in nutritional status irrespective of the groups. The most common nutritional deficiency disease observed among . adolescents was anaemia, which was reduced in all the three groups after the supplementation study. Dental caries was also observed among adolescents irrespective of the group.