India's rich heritage of fermented foods should be used to reverse the current shift toward ultra‑processed diets
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NEW DELHI — India's rich heritage of fermented foods should be used to reverse the current shift toward ultra‑processed diets that threaten gut health and long‑term public health, Rajiv Gauba, Member, NITI Aayog, said at a probiotic symposium.
Gauba, at a symposium organised by Gut Microbiota and Probiotic Science Foundation, mentioned social media‑driven food choices, changing lifestyles and the rise of quick‑commerce and are distancing people from traditional, nutritionally rich diets, a statement from NITI Aayog said on Saturday.
He cautioned that these trends could have serious long-term consequences for gut health as an estimated 56.4 per cent of India’s disease burden is attributable to unhealthy or imbalanced diets.
Due to India’s rich heritage of fermented foods and traditional dietary practices, the country is uniquely positioned to lead the global probiotic movement by combining traditional knowledge with genomic and microbiome research to develop clinically validated probiotics, he said.
He underlined the vast public health potential of probiotics to reduce infectious and chronic disease burdens, improve nutrition and strengthen population immunity.
“Micro‑organisms could create macro consequences,” Gauba warned and urged clinicians and researchers to counter misleading advertisements in the probiotics and supplements market.
Citing government initiatives such as Ayushman Bharat, PM-JAY, PM Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, Gauba pointed out that out-of-pocket health expenditure has declined from 62.6 per cent to 39.4 per cent between FY15 and FY22, resulting in savings of over Rs 1.25 lakh crore for households.
India’s demographic dividend can only be realised with a healthy workforce and timely preparation for active and healthy ageing as the elderly share of the population rises, he said.
He urged healthcare professionals for increased prescription of affordable generic medicines and greater use of digital health tools, telemedicine, data analytics and AI to expand specialist care to underserved communities.
Gauba noted that microbiome science has progressed from descriptive studies to mechanistic and translational research. He highlighted emerging frontiers such as next-generation microbiome-based therapeutics, synthetic biology and CRISPR-enabled engineering of probiotic strains with targeted anti-inflammatory and metabolic functions for precision medicine.