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‘Webinar Series on life Skills’ on the topic ‘Nutrition’ held on
15th March 2021

St. Xavier’s College, Mapusa, Goa conducted a 5-day webinar series from 15th March to 19th March 2021
for the UG and PG Self-Financed courses of the institute.

The Department of BSc. Biotechnology and MSc. Physical Chemistry organized the 1st day of the web-

series on 15th March 2021 at 3:00 pm through Google Meet.

The topic for the webinar chosen for the 1st day was ‘Nutrition’ and the resource person for the online

session was Miss Nezlyn D’souza who is an Assistant Professor in Food Technology, Carmel College of
Arts, Science and Commerce, Nuvem. Ms. Aquilla Afonso, the course coordinator of the BCA
Department introduced Fr. Antonio Salema, the Administrator of St. Xavier's College. The participants
were addressed by Fr. Tony Salema followed by an introduction to the resource person given by Miss
Virginia DeMello, a student of MSc. Physical Chemistry.

Ms. Nezlyn D’souza started the session by introducing her topic ‘Obesity and Nutrition’ where she
highlighted the meaning of obesity as to not only being fat but also being linked with other factors

genes, individuality, family, socio-economic factors, etc. She carried on her presentation by explaining
in detail what obseogens are and how they are related to obesity. Obseogens are environmental
pollutants like Bisphenol A (BPA), Pthalates, Tributyn, etc that are surprisingly also the factors
contributing to the cause of obesity. This obseogen also alters the hormone pathways, the ecosystem,
modifies genes related to fat cell metabolism and induces changes in the DNA. She spoke about how we

can fight obesity through calorie deficit method in a safe and sustainable method. She also explained the
ways by which obesity can be preventable at the consumer and individual level. She elaborated by giving
differences among the two levels where she said, for consumer level, maintaining a calorie deficit to lose

fat can be done by burning a greater number of calories than what we intake, by eating organic food,
intake of probiotics and engaging in physical activities; whereas at an individual level it is necessary to
use toxin-free products, phthalate-free cosmetics and minimization of the use of plastics.

The presentation was followed by a question and answer session where students as well as faculty

members asked their queries which were kindly cleared by Miss Nezlyn D'Souza. The webinar was
attended by 138 students and 24 faculty. The webinar ended at 4.00 pm with a vote of thanks by Miss
Florence Pereira TY BSc student of the Biotechnology Department.

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