Environmental Biomonitoring

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IMPACT OF FOOD HABIT ON BODY
ELEMENTS LEVEL AND HEALTH
Dr. G. NAGARAJ
Lab. Asst. in Zoology
ZOOLOGY SECTION
REGIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION (NCERT)
MYSORE
e-mail: gnriem@gmail.com

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Background
• Every food item is a source for multi-element
exposure
• Food habit may have association with changes in
body element levels
• Such altered status of body elements may leads to
health disorders
• It is needed to assess concentration of elements in
subjects with chronic health hazard
• Such assessment is done by biological monitoring

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Objectives of the study
To find out the influence of food habit on
body levels of trace elements and in turn it’s
effect on physical health of Mysore subjects.

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MATERIALS AND METHODS
1. Subjects: The residents of Mysore city & surrounding villages (M:100 & F:76)
2. Samples: Teeth, blood, urine, scalp hair & fingernail
3. Sampling places:
Teeth: JSS dental college, Mysore
Blood, scalp hair, fingernails and urine: Kamakshi, Bassappa
Memorial and Vickram Hospitals, Mysore.
4. Questionnaire: personal and sample characters were collected
5. Processing of samples:
Washing: T, F - DDW, H, N, - DDW & Acetone-wit magnetic stirrer
Drying: Hot air oven - 50C - 24hr
Digestion: HNO3 & HClO4 (4:1), Kjeldhal apparatus – 80’C - 8 hr
Make up to 10 ml with DDW and stored in refrigerator at 4’C

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Element Analysis:
Sample Element Instrument Place
Teeth
Cr, Cu, Fe,
Ni, Pb, Zn
AAS 6 VARIO
AAS-GBC 902
CES- Anna Univ,
Chennai.
SES-JNU- New Delhi.
Blood, urine,
hair, fingernail,
Cd, Co, Cr, Cu,
Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb,
Zn
ICP-AES - JY-
IYON-2002–2 DEE - SJCE, Mysore
Quality control studies: Certified Reference Material (CRM) i.e.
human hair powder supplied by the National Institute of
Environmental studies (NIES), Japan, (NIES-CRM) was analysed Anna
University, Chennai Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
Statistical analysis: Mean, Standard Deviation, Student ‘t’ test.
Mean elements concentration for food habit and blood sugar level
were computed in each sample & given in following tables;

6. Result
Table 1. Comparison of element levels of blood
Note: Significance: * -P ⊆ 0.05, N – Number of samples, SD- Standard Deviation.

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Table 2. Comparison of element levels of
teeth
Note: Significance: * -P ⊆ 0.05, N – Number of samples, SD- Standard Deviation

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Table 3. Comparison of element levels of urine
Note: Significance: **-P ⊆ 0.01, N – Number of samples, SD- Standard
Deviation.

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Table 4. Comparison of element levels of scalp hair
Note: Significance: * -P ⊆ 0.05, N – Number of samples, SD- Standard Deviation

10. Table 5. Comparison of element levels of fingernail
Note: Significance: **-P ⊆ 0.01, N – Number of samples, SD- Standard
Deviation.

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FINDINGS
1.Rural vegetarian had lower Cd-B & Pb-B than non-veg.
2.Rural diabetics had higher Co-H & Fe-H than non-
diabetics.
3.Urban diabetics showed lower Zn-FN, & higher Cd-FN,
Cr-FN, Cu-FN, Mn-FN, Ni-FN, Pb-FN & Pb-T.
4.Lower Zn & Higher Pb are due to food habit &
environment;
is one of the casual factors related to diabetes.
5.Positive correlation exists between elements & diabetes.

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CONCLUSION
Food habit affects/changes the elements level and
causes elements imbalance leading to altered
element metabolism, which may be one of the
causal factor for diabetes.

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THANK YOU