Influence of Cooking Methods on Physical Fitness in Urban and Rural Women

Key difference between rural and urban household is the adaptation of new cooking technologies and fuels. Rural areas use traditional cooking utensils such as deep cooking pot, clay water pot, and earthenware while utensils generally used in urban areas are stainless steel, Teflon and microwave compatible plastics and glass for cooking. Nutritional deficiency not only lead to severe illness but also physical development, psychic behavior and susceptibility to infection. Much of the urban population and all rural population still use traditional cooking utensils such as clay and aluminum pots. Unlike modern utensils, traditional one do not have a protective layer of inert material to prevent contamination of food.

To study physical fitness in rural population using traditional methods.

To study physical fitness in urban population using modern methods

To find out difference of physical fitness in rural and urban population

Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethical Committee. 190 subjects were selected between the age group 25 to 50 years, all female. They were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were made to perform physical fitness tests based on strength, power and endurance. According to which conclusion was made.

a statistical analysis for rural women was significant depending on physical fitness tests while it was not significant for urban women.

the majority of participants who were more physically fit were from rural population. The study concluded that there is a difference between the physical fitness in rural and urban women. As there are different methods of cooking, there is a difference in the fitness levels as well.