Raja Khandelwal

India suffers from "Protein Poverty"! The average protein intake in our country is around 20-25 gms per day. That is far the below the required minimum protein intake going by any standards. Even if you go by the recommendation by ICMR (which is very low btw), it be require 0.8 gms per kg bodyweight. So if you are an adult weighing 75 kgs, you would require atleast 60 gms Protein per day. Where are we going wrong? Is it the vegetarian culture? or misconceptions regarding protein? or something else? Vegetarians & occasional Non veg eaters make up the majority of our country. Regular non veg eaters are very few. But that is only part of the problem. The main issue lies in the misunderstandings about protein, both regarding its so called risks and its available sources. Majority of our people think Protein is harmful for the body & something required only by Bodybuilders. Secondly, people can't differentiate between protein rich food & food that contains trace protein. What we perceive as Protein in this country; Dal, Rajma, Chana, Almonds, Peanuts, Millets etc are not good protein sources at all. And we what all agree upon as good protein sources like Meat, Fish, Chicken, Eggs, Paneer, Cheese, Curd are all maligned for one reason or another. Less we say about Whey the better. Poison is seen as better than Protein powder in this country. Our abysmal performance at the Olympics is majorly because of this Protein Poverty, in addition to other aspects. Protein deficient diet in the childhood & teenage will severely impact ones development how much ever we make up for it in the later years. Generations of Protein poverty will surely lead to some epigenetic adaptations which will make us an under muscled population & prone to Metabolic illnesses. The treat of Protein Poverty is very real. If we don't address it effectively, a Metabolic catastrophe is eminent, as the signs are already showing. (Pic from 2015)