Background: The mounting trends of beauty perceptions have contributed to distorted body image among adolescents. This demands understanding about current pointers of body image satisfaction to prevent eating disorders associated with mismanagement of weight in adolescents. Aim & Objective: The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to apprehend body image perception and dissatisfaction among adolescents (12-14years) across the genders and associate it with their actual BMI along with identifying the factors influencing body image perception. Settings and Design: A structured questionnaire was developed and administered on randomly selected 112 adolescents (68% boys & 34% girls, 12-14 years), mean age=12.8 ±0.45 from urban coeducational school of western India. Anthropometric measurements were taken with standardized tools and BMI z-scores were calculated. The actual and perceived weight was compared using paired t-test and descriptive statistics. Association between body image indicators, gender, and BMI were assessed using Chi-square test and One-way ANOVA. Factor analysis was done by Principal component analysis. Results: There was a significant difference in the perceived (M=2.31, SD=0.93) and actual BMI (M=1.96, SD=0.69), p=0.002. A significant association between gender and the influence of media idols, discrimination due to physical appearance and BMI was observed (p≤.0.005).   Self-perception and judgements of others, behaviors related with self-fixation, social influence and inappropriate dietary practices and comparison with models and actors were the emerging factors identified. Conclusion: The body image perception was distorted among adolescents of both sexes, with higher body image discontent shown by girls. The perceived body image, when compared with their BMI was found to be incongruent across sexes.

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Background: Genetic engineering has stimulated interest in a range of fields, including agribusiness, food technology, food product development, and nutrition. Even though the public opinion on genetically modified (GM) goods is polarizing, the majority of experts believe that the advantages outweigh any potential risks, if at all there are any. As a result, the role of science education is to prepare students to be citizens who have a fundamental understanding of genetic engineering. As the students of life sciences are the future scientific experts and scholars who progress in the subject of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), they need to have correct knowledge of GMOs, GM foods, and appropriate attitudes regarding the same.Methodology: To investigate the knowledge and attitudes of life-sciences university students (n= 203) concerning GM foods, a cross-sectional observational survey-based study was carried out by administering a structured questionnaire across three disciplines of life sciences -Biotechnology, Food Technology, and Nutrition for undergraduates, postgraduates, and post-graduate diploma students. The scores for knowledge and attitudes were divided into tertiles as high, moderate, and low scores.Results: 88.2% of the participants agreed to have read about GMOs in their curriculum and 76.8% had defined GM foods correctly. When the participants were categorized into tertiles, it was observed that out of all the high scorers, 45.5% were food technology majors and 43% were biotechnology majors and only 11.3% were nutrition majors. 63.1% of students were found to be in favor of GMOs and GM foods and had a positive attitude toward them. There was a moderately positive association of knowledge levels with attitudes toward GMOs and GM foods (p< 0.05). Conclusion:Although in general, the life-sciences students had the basic knowledge of GMOs and GM foods, the food technology, and biotechnology majors had better knowledge about GMOs and GM foods as compared to nutrition majors. The attitude scores were directly proportional to knowledge scores which emphasizes the need for robust science education on comprehending the topic better. Incorporating a GMrelated curriculum for nutrition discipline can help students learn better about the issues surrounding transgenic technology, food safety, and nutrition.

India has wide social, economical and cultural diversity. It also has an extensive range of nutrition and health related problems especially nutrition related. Therefore, to overcome, it requires professional and appropriate knowledge and related skills so as to influence all possible levels of societies from children to policy makers. Therefore this systemic research was conducted to assess the impact of Nutrition education on dietary practices of school going children & Child care a cognitive approach using multimedia technology. Impact of nutrition education on school going children was evaluated on the basis of alteration of responses obtained from 100 (hundred) selected 5th and 6 th grade students. Study protocol was divided into three different phases such as pre test, teaching programme (nutrition education) and post test. Student's nutrition awareness was evaluated by using a specially designed questionnaire, which was prepared by experts working in the area of Nutrition. After completion of fifteen days training programme post test was conducted to assess the improvement of 40 Radhika Hedaoo and Sabiha Vali knowledge about nutrition and health awareness amongst those selected children. Results obtained in the post test significantly provide evidence that proper training of nutrition, healthy diet might improve cognitive behaviour towards healthy eating habits as well as help to change their mid set especially towards food preference. Thus present study revealed that proper nutrition education will certainly improve student's focus towards their dietary habits but also improve their participation and performance in day to day activities.

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