Nutritional Status and Food Habits of Major Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh
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Date
2017-09
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University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad
Abstract
An investigation was carried out during the year 2014-2016 in Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Community Science, University of Agricultural Sciences Dharwad. A total of 500 families were selected from five of the major tribes (Apatani, Nocte, Galo, Nyishi and Monpa) of Arunachal Pradesh. General information, documentation of foods, socio-economic status and nutritional status of the tribal people were collected. Foods were analyzed for proximate composition and mineral content. Value addition to ethnic foods of regional origin was done on ragi, glutinous rice, sesame and wild yam.
The main religion followed by the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh was Donyi-Polo (51 %), followed by Buddhism (20 %) and Christianity (16.8 %). Almost all were landholders (90.2 %), belonged to upper middle class (80.2 %) and medium sized families (48.6 %) with very few illiterates (8.4 %). All the families were non-vegetarian and consumed rice, green leafy vegetables, tea and sugar daily. Fermented bamboo shoots and soybean were popular delicacies of the tribal people. Many festivals celebrated by the different tribes were indicative mainly of harvesting. Anthropometric assessment showed that majority of the infants, children, adolescents and adults were under normal category and abdominal obesity was a common feature among the adults and elderly women. Higher percentage of stunted children was observed in Galo (1-3 years), Nocte (4-9 years) and Monpa (10-12 years) tribes. Locally grown and processed foods commonly consumed were found to be rich in nutrients. Value addition was done using locally available foods and five products were developed which were highly accepted by the people. Awareness programme for the tribal women on value addition showed significant improvement in knowledge scores.