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Nutrition education plays a significant role in inculcating lifelong healthy dietary behaviours among adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the opinions of parents and teachers regarding nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools.

A cross-sectional, self-administered, paper-based survey comprising both closed- and open-ended questions was completed by 32 teachers and 280 parents who were recruited from five private English-speaking secondary schools in Kolkata, India. Descriptive and cross-tabulation analyses were conducted to compare the responses of teachers and parents. Thematic data analysis informed by template analysis technique was performed to evaluate the qualitative data.

While the curriculum was considered interesting and easy to understand, the gendered nature of the curriculum, excessive rote learning and lack of synchrony between the curriculum and school food services were highlighted as shortcomings of the existing curriculum. The need for the dissemination of food skills either through a compulsory food and nutrition curriculum or through extra-mural activities was expressed by most respondents. Both these ideas were indicative of strong support and motivation for modification in the current curriculum.

These findings emphasise the support for a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to inculcate experiential culinary skills and comprehensive nutrition knowledge in Indian adolescents, thus improving their nutritional and health profiles.

This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the views of parents and teachers about the status of food and nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools.

A school canteen can serve as an important setting for nutrition and health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to describe secondary school students’ perceptions of Indian school canteens.

Convenience sampling informed the recruitment of 1,026 year 9 students from nine private schools in Kolkata, India, and data were collected through self-completion of paper-based questionnaires. Frequencies and χ² analyses were computed.

The school children reported that energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods like French fries (90.4 per cent), pizza (79.5 per cent) and cakes (69.2 per cent) were frequently available in the school canteens. However, only a few students (10.2 per cent) acknowledged the availability of nutritious foods like fruits. Only a small proportion of students were content with the nutritional quality of food supplied in the canteens (3.6 per cent), the cost of food (8.7 per cent) and availability of fresh foods like fruits (5.5 per cent). The provision of healthy foods in the school canteen was supported by two-thirds of the respondents (65.9 per cent); however, only a small proportion (18.3 per cent) supported the restriction of fried foods in school canteens.

These findings underscore the need for the design and implementation of healthy school canteen policies to foster healthy eating habits among Indian adolescents.

This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the views of adolescents regarding school food services in the Indian context.

School-based nutrition education programmes have the potential to reinforce healthy dietary behaviours in adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of secondary school students in Kolkata, India, regarding the food and nutrition curriculum, food skill acquisition at school and home and barriers to learning food skills.

The sample of 1,026 year nine students was drawn from nine private, English-speaking secondary schools in Kolkata, India to participate in a cross-sectional, self-reported paper-based survey. Data analyses including descriptive statistics and χ² analyses were performed.

The majority of the respondents (65.3 per cent) were female. Biology, Home Science and Life skills classes were the main places in which students acquired food and nutrition knowledge. Almost two-thirds of the respondents acknowledged the importance of acquiring food-related knowledge and skills. Approximately half (48.3 per cent) reported that the food and nutrition curriculum involved excessive memorisation while around the same proportion described the curriculum as interesting (47 per cent) and easy to comprehend (50.3 per cent). However, relatively few students said they enjoyed attending food and nutrition classes (38.7 per cent). Only a minority reported receiving food skills training, i.e. cooking skills (23 per cent), meal planning skills and food purchasing skills (12.3 per cent) at school. Despite some parental support received at home, time constraints (50.5 per cent) and lack of interest (26.3 per cent) were cited as prominent barriers to learning food skills.

These data underscore the need for a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to improve Indian adolescents’ food-related skills, nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviours.

This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the delivery of nutrition education and food skills in the Indian school context.

The rising prevalence of obesity among Indian adolescents has underscored the need to develop effective strategies to reduce this epidemic. The purpose of this paper is to assess the patterns of snacking, meal consumption and fast food consumption among adolescents in private schools in Kolkata, India.

A cross-sectional, paper-based, self-administered dietary and lifestyle survey was completed by 1,026 year-nine students aged 14–16 years. Cross-tabulation analyses were performed to compare the frequencies of various dietary behaviours across gender.

The two most common episodes for snacking among respondents were while watching television (57.9 per cent) and while interacting with peers (54.1 per cent). In contrast, snacking throughout the day (8.7 per cent) and in the middle of the night (7.8 per cent) were minimally practiced by the adolescents. The most regularly consumed meal was lunch (94.6 per cent), whereas the most frequently missed meal was breakfast (14.0 per cent). Fast food was most frequently consumed as snacks (26.8 per cent) but least frequently consumed for lunch (9.2 per cent). Overall, boys exhibited more unhealthy dietary behaviours than girls.

These findings highlight the need to develop nutrition education programmes for nutritionally vulnerable adolescents which communicate the importance of regular meal consumption, reduced intake of fast food and less snacking on energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods.

This is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate patterns of snacking, meal consumption and fast food consumption amongst urban Indian adolescents.

The current Indian secondary school curriculum has been criticised for its failure to deliver relevant skills-based food and nutrition education for adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of adolescents, their parents, teachers and school principals on the present food and nutrition curriculum and the role of the schools in developing food skills.

Semi-structured interviews were held with 15 students aged 14-15 years, 15 parents, 12 teachers and ten principals in ten private schools in Kolkata, India. The interview questions were primarily based on the content, merits and demerits of the curriculum. The digitally recorded data were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.

All the 52 interviewees observed that the food and nutrition curriculum created awareness in students about the importance of healthy eating. However, they also described certain weaknesses of the curriculum. These included lack of practical assignments, an out-dated and a limited curriculum, which failed to initiate critical thinking and was contradicted by sales practices in the school food environment. The interviewees prioritised the inclusion of food skills in the curriculum.

The emerging evidence suggests the need for the development of a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to encourage healthy eating behaviours among adolescents.

Most of the work on food and nutrition education has come from developed nations – this is the first study in the Indian context of the secondary school food and nutrition curriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of various workplace characteristics on work-family conflict among dual-career couples in India.

Primary data based on 393 employees belonging to dual-career couples were analyzed. Using multiple regression analysis, the study has attempted to find out the effects of workplace characteristics on work-family conflict in dual-career couples.

The findings indicate that not all workplace characteristics effect work-family conflict in dual-career couples. Out of 13 characteristics, 8 workplace characteristics, namely, development and flexibility, co-worker support, supervisory support, job competence, self-employee control, practicing overtime, flexibility and discrimination, are found to have significant effects on work-family conflict in dual-career couples.

As this study is limited to the dual-career couples employed mainly in organizations operating in India, these results may not be generalized to other areas such as traditional career couples, self-employed member of couples and in other national contexts.

It would be beneficial for organizations to understand and implicate that adoption of certain workplace characteristics provide appropriate choices, freedom and environment for dual-career employees, which further encourage them to build effective amalgamation of work and family roles suiting their individual circumstances.

This study is an important and almost first study on dual-career couples in India on such issues. As a very scant number of researches have examined the impact of workplace characteristics on work-family conflict on such extensive basis, it definitely contributes to HR literature.

Menstruation poses psycho-physiological challenges globally due to a lack of awareness, unhygienic practices and social stigma. This paper aims to assess the existing body of research on menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) worldwide.

This study focuses on seminal works published in the Scopus Database from 1946 to 2023 for extensive bibliometric analysis, involving 756 bibliographic records analyzed through Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software. The authors use thematic analysis to identify core research themes and sub-themes, coupled with a critical review of the most highly cited articles within each thematic category.

The research into MHH has consistently grown since 2010, with a notable surge in the past five years. Among all countries, the USA emerges as the most active contributor, boasting the highest number of publications and citations. In terms of organizations, The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine takes the lead with 54 articles. Further, PLOS ONE and Waterlines were the most productive and influential journals, respectively. The thematic analysis identifies key research foci, including tampons, menstrual health, sanitation, hygiene and bleeding.

Further research could be initiated in areas of menstrual education and awareness, menstrual product safety and effectiveness and menstrual disorders and treatments to address the concerns especially encountered by women from developing countries.

This research provides a comprehensive analysis of 77 years of MHH research, offering valuable insights into key areas of concern and guiding future research directions, ultimately addressing critical global health challenges.

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a rich source of nutrients as compared to the major cultivated cereal crops. However, major factors which limit its utilization are the presence of anti-nutritional factors (phytate, tannins and polyphenols) which lower availability of minerals and poor keeping quality because of higher lipase activity. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on the impact of different processing methods on the nutrient composition and anti-nutritional components of pearl millet.

This is a literature review study from 1983 to 2017, focusing on studies related to pearl millet processing and their effectiveness in the enrichment of nutritional value through reduction of anti-nutritional compounds.

From the literature reviewed, pearl millet processing through various methods including milling, malting, fermentation, blanching and acid as well as heat treatments were found to be effective in achieving the higher mineral digestibility, retardation of off flavor, bitterness as well as rancidity problems found during storage of flour.

Through this review paper, possible processing methods and their impact on the nutrient and anti-nutrient profile of pearl millet are discussed after detailed studied of literature from journal articles and thesis.