The students of M.Sc. Food and Nutrition, Department of BioSciences, Collage of Arts, Science and Humanities of Mody University of Science and Technology (MUST), Lakshmangarh participated in a two-day National Conference on ‘Global approaches in Nutrition, Inclusive Education and Textile sciences’ held on 2nd and 3rd Feb, 2018. Under the supervision of Dr. Khushboo Gupta, Assistant Professor, Food and Nutrition, the conference was organised by Department of Home Science, The IIS University, Jaipur.
India, at present is undergoing a rapid nutritional and health transition, with the target being on improved nutrition to ensure proper growth and development. Thus, the main focus and challenge in the field of nutrition is to have a healthy and productive life with the delayed onset of life style diseases. Therefore, this conference provided a platform for discussions and deliberations on the related issues. The conference proved to be an excellent learning experience for the students as they learned different aspects of food and nutrition, i.e., role of food based strategies for combating malnutrition; role of traditional dietary approaches, nutraceuticals, functional food in healthy and productive life of individual; current advances in nutrition and food research; relationship between nutrition, health and ageing.
They gained knowledge about value addition of food items, food fortification techniques and horticulture intervention. Apart from the topics of food and nutrition they familiarized themselves with numerous aspects of inclusive education and its importance in today’s time. The invited lectures were very interactive. Facilitators shared their field experiences and enlighten the delegates.
Dr. Khushboo Gupta (faculty mentor, who accompanied the students to the conference) presented an oral paper entitled “Process optimization of cowpea and malted wheat flour added instant kheer mix using RSM”. Four students namely, Deepika Shekhawat, Monika Shekhawat, Medhavi Singh and Vasundhara Bengani presented their poster under the thrust area of “Role of nutraceuticals in healthy and productive life”. The titles of the poster were (i) effects of dietary components on skin ageing; (ii) quinoa, fenugreek and chia seeds as antidiabetic agents; (iii) nutraceutical potential of khejri (Prosopis cineraria (L.) Druce; (iv) spices as nutraceutical.
The event was organised under the patroonshipsof Prof. (Dr.) Atul Kumar, Dean, College of Arts, Science and Humanities (CASH) and Prof. (Dr.) R.K. Gaur, HOD BioScience, CASH