New Delhi: Keeping in mind Indian lifestyles and dietary habits, PepsiCo has tied up with the Apollo wellness group to come up with a ‘Quaker Heart Health Test’. People are encouraged to take this test comprising a set of 20 questions (based on lifestyle and medical history), through a website www.goodmorningheart.com and find out if their heart is older than they are.
Sedentary lifestyles, hectic schedules, high-pressure jobs, poor dietary habits and pulls and pressures of modern life in general contribute significantly to the overall burden of Heart Disease in the country. Preventing heart disease therefore effectively translates to correcting errant lifestyle behaviours.
This initiative has come in line with their strategy to align their product portfolios to the larger purpose of promoting healthy eating in general and Heart Health in particular. This is borne out by the sort of foods that the company is promoting – Oats, for example.
Dr. George A Mensah, Director, Heart Health & Global Health Policy, Corporate Research & Development, PepsiCo says, “Oats contains a specific type of fiber known as beta glucan, which helps in decreasing LDL (bad cholesterol), without lowering your good cholesterol thus further improving the ratio with added benefits. Regular intake of whole grains such as oats is linked to a reduced risk of heart diseases”.
He said, “At PepsiCo, the parent company for Quaker, we are committed to using the best scientific evidence in the field of nutrition to support consumers reduce their risk of heart disease. Quaker’s contributions in this arena are historic and include landmark research on oat soluble fiber and blood cholesterol lowering that led to the first food-specific health claim in the world in 1997.”
According to the World Health Organization, Heart Disease will kill almost 20 million people globally by 2015. Asian countries and especially India will account for a major portion of these heart disease-related deaths.
Reliable estimates have it that by 2010, 46.9 Million Indians will suffer from Heart Disease. This figure will account for 60% of Heart Disease patients worldwide.
Since India has already acquired the dubious distinction of being the Heart Disease capital of the world, things would go from bad to worse if we don’t intervene now.
The campaign, therefore, aimed at promoting Heart Health in the right earnest. ‘Mission to make India Heart Healthy’ is one such campaigns launched recently by the foods and beverages major PepsiCo as a part of its corporate social responsibility.
Bureau Report
