Ayurvedic Nutrition for Adolescent Girls

Ayurveda emphasizes on nutrition of adolescent girls for maintenance of health. Women have special dietary needs during every stage of their life, viz. adolescence, pregnancy, lactation and menopause. Ayurveda emphasizes on special care to be taken in girls' health in terms of Rajaswala Paricharya (Menstrual care).

Dietary recommendations for girls

For Girls of the age 11 -16

• Minimum 3 meals (Breakfast, Lunch and dinner) shall be given per day with a gap of at least two & half hours in each meal.
• Daily serving should include whole wheat bread/starches, fruits, vegetables, fats like ghee, protein from lentils or egg/fish/ meat, milk and dry fruits.
• Specific Advice
  • Follow regular schedule for meals and snacks.
  • If possible, mix 1/2-1 tsp Ghee (ghrita) in daily diet.
  • Maintain proper hygiene at the culinary place.
  • Inculcate the habit of eating mindfully in children (Avoid watching T.V. and Mobile while eating).
  • Avoid/minimize use of processed/ packed/ junk/ fried food/ cold food items.
  • Avoid use of carbonated drinks and switch to home prepared healthy, nutritious and fresh beverages from fruits and vegetables.

Mission Utkarsh

Under ‘Mission Utkarsh’, the Ministry of Ayush and the Ministry of Women and Child Development collaborate to control anemia among adolescent girls through Ayurvedic interventions in the five districts of the country. The districts to be covered include; Dhubri, Bastar, Paschimi Singhbhum, Gadchiroli and Dhoulpur from the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Rajasthan respectively.

Under this Mission Utkarsh program, over 94,000 adolescent girls between the age group of 14-18 years registered under Poshan Tracker at approximately 10,000 Anganwadi Centres will be benefitted in 12 months period of program.

The coordinating agency for the project will be Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS). Classical Ayurveda medicines (Drakshavaleha and Punarnavadi mandoor) for better nutrition to improve the health of the anemic adolescent girls will be provided for a period of 3 months. 

This project is being jointly funded by both the Union Ministries and will be executed in the five districts through Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Guwahati; All India Institute for Ayurveda, New Delhi; CARI, Bhubaneshwar; Regional Ayurveda Research Institute, Nagpur and National Institute Ayurveda, Jaipur. Public Health Foundation of India’s IIPH, Delhi will also play an important role by assessing the outcomes of this project.  

Source : PIB