Priyanka Tiwari
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Indian Obesity Crisis: A recent study conducted by the Lancet states that obesity and overweight issues in India will be a problem to deal with. As by 2050, estimate shows that almost 1/3rd of the Indian population, i.e 449 million people will be overweight. With further division of the data, it summaries that 218 million men and 231 women will suffer from obesity issue at some level. Beyond this, nearly three quarters of adults and up to fifty percent of teens and children will be overweight by 2050.
Why are older adolescent ranging 15-24 years so highly afflicted? This demographic has high levels of obesity. Teenage boys have had an ever increasing problem of obesity, which has moved from under 4 million boys in 1990, to almost 17 million in 2021, and is expected to reach 22.7 million by 2050. In comparison, over a decade chronic problem of obesity in teenage girls has rises from 3.3 million to 13 million in 2021 and is expected to rise to 16.9 million in 2050. In 2021, this category India has already surpassed China and the US in bare figures.
What makes this worrying?
Overweight adults in India make up one of the largest portions of the global demographic, which as of 2021 rested at 650 million people. Based on those combinations, the combination of growing child obesity, adult malnutrition and infectious diseases have the potential to overextend India’s healthcare infrastructure. Insufficient food in childhood is often associated with both fat accumulation in later years along with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and certain forms of cancer.
Childhood obesity is on a steep rise.
A primary reason for this is processed foods containing high sugar, fats and salt. For a period of time, multinational food companies and fast-food restaurants began expanding their operations in developing and middle level economies. India, Vietnam, and Cameroon between the years of 2009 and 2019 showed the largest sales in ultra processed foods and snacks. All-in-all, the obesity epidemic is severe in these regions. In order to reverse this trend, obesity has to be approached with strong regulatory measures alongside targeted anti-obesity policies and education.
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