Effect of Meal Replacement and Nutrition Education on Obese Adolescent Girls

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in India in the 21st century, with morbidity obesity affecting five percent of the country's population. Adolescent is a crucial period in life and implies multiple physiological and psychological changes that affect nutritional needs and habits. Meal skipping and eating irregularly are common during adolescence and especially prevalent during middle and late adolescence. High fiber diets provide bulk or more satiating and have been linked to lower body weight. Nutrition education must help teens to become informed decision makers about their diets. Three hundred adolescent girls were involved in screening for obesity. From them forty five adolescents and baseline survey was conducted with them and then they divided into three groups each have 15 members. In this study they researcher has developed high fiber recipes like kozhukattai, roti and porridge using fiber rich ingredients like varagu, horse gram and curry leaves. Four different samples of high fiber recipes were developed using the same ingredients at various proportion and then it was subjected to organoleptic evaluation with 30 semi-trained panel members. Sample III got over all acceptability then other samples in three high fiber recipes. Recipes are subjected to biochemical analysis. Dietary fiber content in kozhukatti, roti and porridge found to be 7g, 8g and 8g respectively. Power point was prepared for nutrition education based on management of obesity and meal replacement given to obese adolescent girls in group I and nutrition education only nutrition education given to group II. After three months of meal replacement and nutrition education, the changes in height, weight, BMI, Waist to hip ratio and body fat percentage were evaluated. From the study results meal replacement was very effective in weight reduction.