India’s rich heritage of fermented foods is highlighted as a solution to combat the growing trend of ultra-processed diets that pose risks to gut health and overall public well-being. Rajiv Gauba, a Member of NITI Aayog, emphasized this at a probiotic symposium. He expressed concerns over the impact of social media-driven food choices, changing lifestyles, and the rise of quick-commerce on people’s shift away from nutritious traditional diets.
Gauba warned about the potential long-term consequences on gut health, as a significant portion of India’s disease burden is linked to unhealthy eating habits. He emphasized India’s potential to lead the global probiotic movement by leveraging its traditional knowledge of fermented foods and combining it with genomic and microbiome research to create validated probiotics. These probiotics could play a crucial role in reducing disease burdens, improving nutrition, and enhancing population immunity.
Highlighting the importance of probiotics, Gauba urged healthcare professionals to address misleading advertisements in the probiotics and supplements market. He also mentioned government initiatives like Ayushman Bharat and PM-JAY, which have significantly reduced out-of-pocket health expenses for households. Gauba stressed the need for a healthy workforce and adequate preparation for the aging population to realize India’s demographic dividend.
Gauba called for increased prescription of affordable generic medicines and the use of digital health tools to provide specialist care to underserved communities. He noted the advancements in microbiome science, moving towards targeted anti-inflammatory and metabolic functions for precision medicine through next-generation microbiome-based therapeutics and synthetic biology.
