MSU department starts nutrition counselling for public

To provide counseling for child health, women nutrition etc free of cost

In a first by a university in the state, the department of food and nutrition under MS University of Baroda (MSU) has set up a nutrition counseling centre for general public.

The centre, launched on September 5, would provide dietary counseling in the field of child health, women nutrition, weight management, sports nutrition as well as anyone who requires diet plans.

"Our group of teachers, alumni and doctoral students will provide nutrition counseling to the public. The centre will be open for all. Initially we will not charge anything for counseling," said Uma Iyer, head - department of food and nutrition, a part of the Faculty of Family and Community Sciences at MSU.

Further, Iyer noted that this is the first time that a department of a university in the state has opened a nutrition counseling centre for public.

The department will provide dietary counselling related to sports nutrition, geriatrics, specially challenged groups, maternal and child health.

"We had been doing it on request basis but now a full-fledged counseling centre will operate," added Iyer.

Iyer further mentioned that the need of such a centre was felt as the city of Vadodara has increasingly witnessed cases of various diseases due to malnutrition or over nutrition.

The target group for the counseling is everybody in society. People can bring their medical records at the centre on every Saturday during 1-4 pm and they will be given counseling on nutrition.

"Our faculty member Komal Chauhan will be the coordinator of the centre. We are doing this as a service to public," she said.

Notably, the department has been recognized as a Collaborating Centre for Nutrition Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is a member of the South-East Asia Network for research in Nutrition.

Also, the union ministry of health and family welfare has identified the department as an Institution of Excellence for training health personnel in maternal and child health.