A Study on the Relation between Lifestyle Diseases and Food Habits of regular eatery consumers in Malappuram District

Abstract

The WHO has recognized India as one of the nations with maximum number of lifestyle- related disorders in the near future. The prevalence of lifestyle diseases is high and alarmingly increasing in Malappuram district of Kerala. So, the study was conducted in Manjeri municipality of Malappuram district. In this study the prevalence of life style diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cancer among regular eaters of food from food outlets were analyzed and an awareness of food safety and food quality among the regular eaters of food outlets were also conducted by using questionnaire. Among the selected samples, 69% of Subjects had the incidence of lifestyle diseases. Among them majority was 40–49-year aged people. 67% people like fast foods and remaining 33% subjects did not prefer fast food. Diabetes was the most prevalent lifestyle disease among the selected sample (49%of the samples), 39% of the subjects had hypertension and 22.5% subjects had cancer in the selected sample. 20.6% of sample below 30 years consumed hotel food regularly. Visited food outlets once in a week, 33.5% of sample visited twice in a week, 28.5%of subjects visited thrice in a week, 21.5% subjects visited more than three times in a week. The results of the study had well proved that there is strong relationship between the habit of having food from food outlets and development of lifestyle diseases.