Average daily Indian diet fulfills only up to 70% of nutrition need: Bayer survey

As high as 73% of doctors and nutritionists agree that deficiencies in the daily diet can be fulfilled by taking a multivitamin – multi-mineral supplement daily

The multivitamin supplement brand Supradyn, from Bayer’s Consumer Health Division in India, has released intriguing results from its recent, nationwide doctor-led survey which thoroughly investigates the nutrition met by an average daily Indian diet.

The ‘Supradyn Nutrition Survey’, released to mark the recently concluded ‘National Nutrition Week’ celebrated from 01 – 07 September annually, has found that an overwhelming 85% of doctors and nutritionists from urban India believe that only up to 70%, or in fact even lower, of one’s nutrition need is fulfilled by the average daily Indian diet.

The study conducted by BrandEigen Insights and Analytics, surveyed 220 healthcare practitioners (doctors and nutritionists) across major states from all four zones (North, South, East, West) of the country, on the sufficiency of micronutrients in the average diet, bringing to light an alarming gap in meeting the body’s 100% nutrition requirements.

This stands true across all zones in India and astonishingly even in states with pre-dominantly non-vegetarian diets, where the study revealed that as many as 90% doctors and nutritionists agreed to at least a 30% nutrition gap in their state’s average daily diet.

The research reported that that Vitamin B12 and D3 are the top two vitamins lacking in an average daily diet across the country, followed by Zinc, Iron, Calcium, Folic Acid and Vitamin C.

Further, the survey reported that an astounding 73% doctors and nutritionists believe that this inadequacy can be overcome with a daily dose of multivitamin-multimineral supplements. In fact, nearly half of those who believed in the micronutrient insufficiency in the average diet and agreed that a daily supplement can help, said that they would recommend a multivitamin when patients complain of fatigue, weakness, tiredness, and lack of energy.