Open Access: View PDF

DOI: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21088/ijfnd.2322.0775.10322.2

Abstract

The nutritional status of our country remains worrisome, due to the fever availability of nutritious food and inaccessible access to the community. In such a situation, not using the easily available food due to misconceptions and wrong beliefs is making the situation worse. In this study, the Inhibitors that hinder the use of food items in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh have been studied through a mixed method research design. The study explores the belief for misconceptions hindering the use of food items in the rural community of Uttar Pradesh state and the criterion has been done based on published research articles. The results of the study showed that several assumptions were hindering the use of food ingredients present in the selected area, which did not prove correct with the criterion thought published scientific literature. In the study area, there were a total of 3 assumptions whose claimants were more than 50% of claimants, and 10 assumptions were claimed by more than 20% of claimants. The existing beliefs about pumpkin, meat, bottle gourd, millet, green vegetable, and citrus fruits were not supported by any research article. There is a need to promote the use of all types of food items by removing the existing barriers in the selected area.

Keywords : Keywords: Misconception; Food myth; Food beliefs; Food assumption, Food items; Food stuff; Food knowledge; Religious beliefs; Rural food.

Corresponding Author : Indresh Kumar, Programme Coordinator, Reginal Center of Excellence for Nutrition Rehabilitation, Department of Pediatrics, AIIMS, Bhopal 462020, Madhya Pradesh, India.