Haryana: Govt school girls overcome Vit-D deficiency with fortified laddoos

‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ — they say. This old adage has been practically implemented by a team of researchers at the Central University of Haryana (CUH) in Mahendragarh.A research study conducted by CUH researchers on the prevalence of Vitamin-D deficiency revealed a startling finding — almost 88 per cent girl students sampled from several government schools of three districts in Haryana were either deficient in Vitamin-D or had insufficient levels.The research project on prevalence and management of Vitamin-D deficiency among adolescent girls of the state has been funded by Haryana State Council for Science, Innovation, and Technology.A cross-sectional clinical study was carried out in 2023 to assess the prevalence, associated factors and dietary practices related to Vitamin-D deficiency levels among 1,009 adolescent girls studying at government schools in Mahendragarh, Bhiwani and Kurukshetra districts of Haryana.The research revealed that as many as 49.95 per cent girls were deficient in Vitamin-D, while 37.85 per cent had insufficient levels.The revelation set the researchers thinking — nay, worrying. “Vitamin-D deficiency is a major health problem affecting all sections of society worldwide, and our country is no exception. Still, it sounds strange that a sizeable population of Haryana is deficient in Vitamin-D despite the fact that the state leads in production of crops as well as milk,” maintains Dr Anita Kumari, project investigator, Department of Nutrition Biology at CUH.However, instead of relying on the commonly available Vitamin-D supplements, the researchers hit upon a novel idea — of battling the lack with a homemade hack.Research team members Dr Anita, Prof Neelam Sangwan, Prof Surender Singh and Dr Deepika state that an impact assessment study among the selected Vitamin-D-deficient adolescent girls was conducted from March to May 2025 at a government school in Mahendragarh district.The selected girls were given two fortified Vitamin-D-enriched laddoos made from biofortified button mushroom every day for three months to notice the increase of Vitamin-D levels.Encouragingly, a majority of those girls showed a substantial rise in their Vitamin D levels within two to three months.The Vitamin-D levels of both the control and experimental groups were detected after every 30 days of dietary intervention for three consecutive months.The study revealed that the control group did not show any change in Vitamin-D levels till the 90th day, while 48 per cent of Vitamin-D deficient subjects in the experimental group resulted in an increase of Vitamin-D levels after two months of dietary intervention. Upon completion of 90 days of supplementation of Vitamin-D enriched ladoos, a notable change was observed wherein 47 per cent girls who were earlier deficient in Vitamin D elevated to insufficient levels and 5 per cent girls rose to sufficient levels.“Hence, it can be concluded that regular inclusion of Vitamin-D-enriched ladoos developed from biofortified button mushrooms have significant impact to act as functional foods owing to their ability to curb the cases of hypovitaminosis D among selected subjects,” says Dr Anita.The technology on Vitamin-D enriched products is ready for technology transfer to facilitate its commercialisation for the benefit of society at large.The research team has expressed gratitude to the CUH VC, Prof Tankeswar Kumar, for his support. “We are also thankful to the Department of Science and Technology, Haryana, for funding this study. We appreciate the sincere efforts of the principals, teachers and students of the schools for participating in the clinical study,” says the team.wuw

Haryana: Govt school girls overcome Vit-D deficiency with fortified laddoos

They were given 2 laddoos made from biofortified button mushroom every day for 3 months

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Haryana: Govt school girls overcome Vit-D deficiency with fortified laddoos

They were given 2 laddoos made from biofortified button mushroom every day for 3 months

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

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