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Soon, Blue dot for diabetic-friendly food

The United Diabetes Forum (UDF) is an association of diabetologists with over 100 specialist diabetologists as its members, predominantly based in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, rest of Maharashtra and other states.

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A green dot signifies vegetarian food, while the red dot stands for non-vegetarian food products. However, if all goes well, soon a third category — a blue dot — will be added to the list that will stand for diabetic-friendly products.

With the number of people suffering from diabetes going up every day, a group of diabetologists came up with an initiative where they want the government to put a blue dot on food packets to state that it is diabetic-friendly. The group will make a directive and submit it to the ministry of health.

The United Diabetes Forum (UDF) is an association of diabetologists with over 100 specialist diabetologists as its members, predominantly based in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, rest of Maharashtra and other states. These doctors started the initiative called blue dot project towards defining, labelling and popularising the need for food products meant for diabetics.

Recently, a stakeholders meeting was held that was attended by UDF managing committee, diabetes experts from around the country, nutritional and food regulation experts, local health authorities, Pharma and food industry representatives and leading chefs from the city.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Diabetes is fast gaining the status of a potential epidemic in India with more than 31.70 million diabetic individuals currently diagnosed with the disease.

"To improve the quality of life for every diabetic, to enable them to lead a normal a life, to ensure healthy options for food when one chooses to eat out or pick up a packed food, the blue dot is being introduced as a universal sign that represents diabetic-friendly food. The UDF has chosen the blue dot on lines of existing green and red dots. Blue has been the colour picked up by WHO and International diabetes federation (IDF) to spread awareness about diabetes and educate millions worldwide," said Dr Manoj Chawala, founder member of UDF.

He added: "We have created some an expert committee that is working on this project. We are taking the opinion from all sections of the society and coming with the directives. These directives we will submit to the health ministry."

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