Your food choices each day affect your health – how you feel today, tomorrow, and in the future.

Good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, are not passed from person to person. They are of long duration and generally slow progression. The four main types of noncommunicable diseases are cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.

If timely action is not taken to correct and change our lifestyles, these non-communicable diseases will increase much more significantly and exponentially.

E2E focuses on creating awareness amongst people by educating:

1. Harmful effects of Chemicals and Pesticides
2. Healthy Lifestyle
3. Dental Hygiene
4. WIFS program in adolescent girls and women.

Harmful effects of Chemicals and Pesticides

Chemicals in daily Life:

BPA – Primary component in polycarbonate plastic and used in resin lining in most food and beverage cans. Studies show pre-cancerous changes, altered development of brain, reproductive abnormalities, obesity and insulin resistance.

Stay Safe – Use BPA free reusable water bottle. Avoid canned food and beverages, avoid polycarbonate bottles with #7 PC.

Phthalates – Found in air freshners, plastic toys, medical devices, nail polishes,, fragrances, vinyl, inks and adhesives.

Stay Safe – Buy Phthalate free cosmetics, personal care products, cleaning products, detergents and air freshners.

Styrene – Chemical used to make several kinds of plastic, foam cups, plastic spoons and forks. Linked with irritation in eyes, lungs, vision and hearing loss, memory issues, and increased risk of leukemia and lymphoma.

Stay Safe – Avoid idling your vehicle, using photocopies in well-ventilated areas.

1,4 Dioxane – hazardous chemical found in shampoos, cosmetics and other household products.

Stay Safe – Avoid consumer products containing the ingredients contaminated with 1,4 Dioxane.

Arsenic – Ingesting arsenic contaminated water, food, or sol can increase the risk of bladder, kidney and lung cancer, pre-birth exposure with lower IQ scores. Probable use as preservative and can contaminate woodens structures, playground equipments.

Stay Safe – Find out if the drinking water is contaminated with arsenic.

Formaldehyde – is a chemical that is known to cause cancer (a carcinogen) used in many consumer products and building materials.

Lead – Most lead contamination in air and soil comes from coal-fired power plants, smelters, metal-working and other industrial facilities, hazardous waste sites, battery manufacturing and car repair shops.

Lead has been found in paint on imported toys, in children’s metal costume jewelry, and in imported candy. Some hair dyes which gradually darken the hair contain lead. It is also found in bullets, making target practice and firearm cleaning potential routes of lead exposure.

Healthy Lifestyle

1. Choose not to smoke – Smoking causes emphysema, cancer, and heart disease and is responsible for many deaths every year.
2. See your doctor regularly – Everyone should see their doctor for regular blood pressure checks as well as cancer screening and immunizations. It is important for people over 50 to be screened for colon cancer and women over 40 to be screened for breast cancer. Women should also have a yearly PAP smear up until age 65.
3. Choose a healthy diet – What you eat is a big part of your health and wellness. Heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers are linked to what you eat.Eat plenty of whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. Substitute fish for red meat at least once a week. It’s also important to drink enough water to promote healthy digestion,
4. Choose to exercise regularly – Exercise is the answer for health and wellness as well as stress relief.
5. Get enough sleep – Most people need about 6 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Sleep is natural, healing, and restorative..
6. Limit your alcohol – Drinking too much is a sure way to interfere with a healthy lifestyle. Alcohol in excess can cause liver damage and contribute to head and neck cancer
7. Watch your weight – Being overweight interferes with health and wellness. Carrying too much weigh increases all the common disease risks and also puts stress on your weight bearing joints that contributes to arthritis.
8. Take care of your teeth – You only get one set of permanent teeth. Poor dental heath can be expensive, painful, and interfere with overall wellness. Brush your teeth twice a day, floss every day, and see your dentist regularly.
9. Get educated – People who take an active role in their own health care experience better health and wellness. Good health consumers do their own research and become good advocates for themselves.
10. Don’t forget your emotional health – Health and wellness also means a healthy emotional and social life. “Take time for yourself. Women especially may get so wrapped up in their work and home responsibilities that

WIFS program in adolescent girls and women

Adolescent Anaemia is a long standing public health problem in India and it is estimated that more than 5 Crores adolescents (15 to 19 years are anaemic in the country). Anaemia is caused by Iron deficiency and adolescents are at high risk of Iron deficiency and thereby anaemia due to accelerated growth and body mass building, poor dietary intake of iron and high rate of worm infestation In girls deficiency of iron is further aggravated with higher demands with onset of menstruation and also due to the problem of adolescent pregnancy and conception.

Guided by the empirical evidence that weekly supplementation of 100mg elemental Iron and 500ug Folic Acid (IFA) is effective in decreasing incidence and prevalence of anaemia in adolescents, MOHFW has launched the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) Programme for school going adolescent girls and boys and for out of school adolescent girls. The Programme envisages administration of supervised weekly IFA Supplementation and biannual deworming tablets to approximately 13 crore rural and urban adolescents through the platform of Govt/Govt. aided and municipal school and Anganwadi Kendra and combat the intergenerational cycle of anaemia.

Procurement and supply mechanism, implementation, monitoring, roles and responsibilities and capacity building of frontline workers of Health, Education and WCD department is detailed in the Operational Framework. All States and UTs have proposed the procurement of IFA and Albendazole in the PIP 2012-2013.