Replace tea and coffee with clean drinking water, unboiled fruits and vegetables during official review meetings and training programmes. Sweets, biscuits, and fried snacks should be completely avoided, along with biryani, fried rice, ghee rice, and parotta. Fruits, either cut or in full, are better than ‘payasam’ or ice cream as desserts.
These are among the guidelines issued recently by the District Medical Officer (DMO), Kozhikode, for primary health centres and community health centres and other institutions under the department to combat lifestyle diseases caused mainly by food habits. They come against the backdrop of World Heart Day, which was observed on September 29.