Can traditional foods like millets, pulses or diets tailored to India's diverse food habits help reduce the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease?
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is seeking scientific evidence to answer these questions, inviting researchers to study food-based approaches that could help prevent or manage NCDs.
The initiative comes against the backdrop of a substantial metabolic disease burden in India. A 2023 study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, based on the ICMR-INDIAB study, has estimated that 101 million Indians had diabetes and another 136 million had prediabetes. An estimated 315 million people had hypertension, while 254 million had generalised obesity and 351 million had abdominal obesity.
The findings underline the need to strengthen prevention alongside treatment. While diet is an established factor influencing metabolic health, researchers need robust evidence to establish which foods or dietary patterns work, for whom, and under what conditions.
Under the Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation (SEHAT) Mission, a joint initiative of ICMR and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the medical research body has invited Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from researchers and institutions across the country. The aim is to connect India's agricultural resources with measurable health benefits.
The research call focuses on specific foods, food-derived interventions and dietary patterns that could help prevent or manage diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, abnormal blood lipid levels and related metabolic disorders, said an official from the ICMR.
The proposed research could explore a wide range of approaches, including millets, pulses, cereals, fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, traditional and indigenous foods, biofortified crops and minimally processed or reformulated food products.
Researchers may also investigate prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics and other food-derived bioactive components, including those that could influence the gut microbiome — the community of microorganisms living in the digestive tract.
The mission seeks to understand not only whether a dietary intervention improves health, but also how it works. Studies could examine changes in blood sugar control, body fat, blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation and other metabolic indicators. Where relevant, researchers may investigate biological pathways involving the gut microbiome and metabolites.
However, the objective is not to assume that traditional foods or any single crop automatically offer protection against chronic diseases. The proposed studies are expected to generate evidence on their health effects, including the quantity consumed, the population that may benefit and the feasibility of incorporating the intervention into everyday diets.
India's dietary diversity offers an important opportunity, but it also presents challenges. Food habits vary across regions, communities and income groups, while the growing availability of highly processed foods and changing patterns of consumption have added to concerns about metabolic health. Research must therefore look beyond individual ingredients to examine overall dietary patterns, portion sizes, cooking methods and the foods consumed alongside them.
It will also be important to assess whether recommended interventions are affordable and accessible to vulnerable populations. Evidence from such studies could help shape nutrition guidance, inform food product development and support preventive healthcare strategies suited to India's diverse population, added the official.
The last date for submission of the proposal is October 23, 2026.
