World Diabetes Day – a day to reflect upon why India has become the diabetic capital of the world with 50.8 million (7.1%) of its people suffering from diabetes. It is high time we prepared to combat this menace and curb its spread. As the new President of IDF has rightly remarked that either we turn off the diabetes tap or else spend our lives mopping the floor.

We Indians are genetically more prone to diabetes. On top of this, a rapid shift in our dietary habits and life styles is resulting in a rapid rise in obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease. Hence a proper and healthy diet remains the cornerstone of prevention and management of these diseases.

Perhaps the most important reason for increasing prevalence of diabetes, obesity and hypertension is the rapidly changing imbalanced dietary habits, both in rural and urban areas, due to several factors – easy availability of convenience foods, frequent snacking on energy dense fast foods, high consumption of packaged food in place of traditional home made food, etc. This transition has resulted in excess consumption of calories, saturated fats, trans fatty acids, simple sugars, salt and a low fibre intake.

This has necessitated a revision in the existing dietary guidelines prepared 10 years a go by the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, which was predominantly rural centric. So, more than 100 renowned experts, belonging to varied disciplines of health and nutrition, have got together under the aegis of Science For Equity and Empowerment Division (SEED), Ministry Of Science and Technology, Govt Of India and Diabetes Foundation (India), to formulate a "National Consensus on Dietary Guidelines for Adult Asian Indians for Healthy Living and Prevention of Obesity & Diabetes". They have incorporated worldwide research and opinions in nutrition modulated to India specific data. They are simple, easy to understand by doctors and common public alike, and provision of standard diet charts catering to different regions of India will help people from all parts of India.