HYDERABAD: The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) has added another 5kg to the ideal weight of Indians. While the weight of an ideal or reference Indian man was 60kg in 2010, it has now increased to 65kg. In case of women, it has gone up to 55kg from 50kg a decade ago.
Along with this, the earlier height for a reference Indian man was 5 feet 6 inches and a woman was 5 feet. It is now revised to 5 feet 8 inches for a man and 5 feet 3 inches for a woman. This will now be taken for normal body mass index. NIN scientists said this was because nutritional food intake had gone up. Also, data from rural and urban areas was taken into account this time as against only urban data 10 years ago.
A premier nutrition research body of the ICMR, NIN has also revised its recommended dietary allowance and estimated average requirement of…