Rejuvenating the Indian Knowledge System: Bridging Ancient Wisdom with Modern Challenges

Adolescence phase of life includes the college going age and girls are the nutritionally vulnerable in this phase of life. So, these girls more likely to suffer from nutritional deficiencies as comparing to boys. Many of the girls are stunted i.e. below the median height and weight and therefore having lower Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is used to assess relative health and fitness, BMI is a useful way to classify body weight, but it is not the best indicator of health and fitness or chronic disease risk. This study is a community centered study which was conducted at various college students of Bhopal city, all participants were 18 years of age or older and provided informed consent at the time of the survey and from the survey we find that abnormal BMI, whether underweight or overweight/obese, increases the risk of anemia. There is a negative correlation of hemoglobin concentration with BMI among individuals with abnormal BMI. There are many factors that influence the BMI, skipping breakfast, higher intake of junk foods, lack of nutritional education are some of the finding from this study that strictly influences in lowering of BMI in college going girls of Bhopal city, even reading the nutrition label on packaged food also helps these girls make the healthiest selection. All these factors are affecting the BMI negatively or positively