MANGALURU: A report published by the directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development under ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare in their Indian Journal of Arecanut, Spices and Medicinal Plants in the January-March 2020 issue has given a big boost to the areca nut sector. The report highlights that chewing of betel quid in its traditional form is not harmful but beneficial. The above report is in volume 22 of the journal.
The report is the result of a joint survey that Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Plantation Crops Research Institute and Arecanut Research and Development Foundation (ARDF), Mangaluru carried out during May-June 2018. Survey was held in Kasaragod in Kerala and Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada in Karnataka to study the effects of traditional chewing of areca nut/betel quid and human health.
S R Satishchandra, managing trustee, ARDF said as part of the survey, data was collected from 977 people from 112 families, classified into age groups (15-39 years, 40-59 years, 60-79 years and 80 and more years).
The groups included three chewing types (non-chewers, betel quid without tobacco (BQ) chewers and Betel Quid with tobacco (BQT) chewers. Among the 917 respondents, 232 (25%) were non-chewers.
People chewing areca nut alone were rare with only four (0.44%) persons indulged in that habit. Hence such people were included in the group of betel quid chewers without tobacco. Hence, there were 292 (32%) BQ chewers and 393 (43%) BQT chewers. All the chewing people used to chew for 10 to 30 minutes and spit out the remaining quid. Chewing for long years without any visible health problems was noticed in both BQ and BQT chewers.
Of the 232 people surveyed in non-chewing group 72 (31.03%) people reported certain health problems, whereas, in BQ chewing group, out of 292 people only 40 (13.70%) and in BQT chewing group out of 393 people 71 (18.07%) reported such problems. There is no significant difference between non-chewers and chewers with regard to various health issues except for tooth problems, the report in the journal surmised based on available data.
Interestingly, tooth problem was significantly more in non-chewers compared to BQ/BQT chewers. The present study clearly shows that chewing areca nut or betel quid without tobacco are beneficial and not harmful as far as their health effects on humans are concerned. Other reports too are in conformity with this.
A study carried out by Shrihari on similar community in DK District, it was reported that chewing areca nut had several beneficial effects.