Why are Children getting Fatter? Exploring India's Youth on Obesity Rise, Insights from Lancet Study

Why in news?

The Lancet, found that 12.5 million children (7.3 million boys and 5.2 million girls) in the country, aged between 5 and 19 were grossly overweighted in 2022, up from 0.4 million in 1990. 

Obesity Numbers Source: IE

Basic terminology: The Lancet and Obesity

The Lancet

It is a weekly peer-reviewed general Medical Journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also one of the world's highest impact academic journals, founded in England in 1823.

Obesity

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that presents a risk to health. A body mass index (BMI) over 25 is considered overweight and over 30 is considered as obese.

Why it's important to address obesity?

Obesity is a major risk factor and a trigger for early onset of various non-communicable diseases such as heart diseases, strokes, diabetes, especially the type 2 diabetes. And when it comes to India, India is already having a high burden of these non-communicable diseases acting as a threat to human resource.

Primary Drivers of obesity

The primary drivers of obesity are shift in diet choices away from the traditional food and physical activity. We see that people especially in India have shifted from whole food such as pulses, whole grains, fruits and vegetables to refined carbohydrates, high fat meat products, and processed food. Our traditional food was low in animal products, salt, refined oil, sugar and flour but now the shift is causing obesity among the children as well. 

How can obesity be addressed?

Obesity can be addressed via some healthy lifestyle changes and such reports that publish about health which make people conscious about their health. The lifestyle changes involve following adequate and fruitful diet plan, exercising at least 140 to 150 minutes a week, prioritizing adequate amount of sleep and stress management can lead to healthy outcomes. And such studies as published by The Lancet can be awakening for the people who forget their health in the race of life.

Conclusion 

Apart from obesity, India is also the top rankers when it comes to under-nutrition. Both obesity and under-weight are forms of malnutrition. The two divergent peaks show that India has a double burden of both thinning and obesity and tackling both forms of malnutrition is a vital which will involve significant improvement in affordability of healthy and nutritious food.