New Delhi: World Obesity Day is observed globally on 11 October organised by the World Health Organisation. The aim is to "lead and drive global efforts to reduce, prevent and treat obesity."
The first World Obesity Day took place in 2015. The second took place in 2016 and focused on childhood obesity, aligning with the WHO Commission report on Ending Childhood Obesity.
Despite the efforts it was found that the number of obese children and adolescents rose to 213 million in 2016, finds a new study published in the Lancet. This is more than 10 times higher than the 11 million classified as obese 40 years ago, in 1975. In pure percentages, this equated to roughly 5.6% of girls and 7.8% of boys being obese last year.
India has the second highest number of obese children in the world after China, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in June this year. Doctors say identification of obesity in children is the main issue as often parents think a chubby child is a healthy child.
What is Obesity defined as and what are its effects?
Obesity in adults is defined using a person's body mass index, the ratio between weight and height. A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is classified as a healthy weight, 25 to 29.9 considered overweight and 30 and over obese. Cut-offs are lower among children and adolescents and vary based on age.
The global annual medical cost of treating these serious consequences of obesity is expected to reach $1.2 trillion per year by 2025, data from the World Obesity Federation released on Tuesday showed.
The percentage of Indian adults living with obesity is set to jump to around 10 per cent (3.1 per cent male and 6.9 per cent female) by 2025 from 7.5 per cent (2.3 per cent male and 5.2 per cent female) in 2014.
The annual cost of treating the consequences of obesity such as heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, depression and many types of cancer will reach a staggering $13 billion (84,864 Crore rupees) in India by 2025, according to a new experts estimate.
How To Combat Obesity
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new guidelines on how trained professionals can better identify youngsters in need of help.
The guideline includes counselling, dieting and assessment of eating habits along with the usual weight and height measurements.
There are proven measures that work to reduce obesity rates, such as sugar taxes, restricting marketing of unhealthy foods to children and policies to increase physical activity at schools.
However, very few governmental policies and programmes attempt to make healthy foods such as whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables affordable to poor families.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is disseminating the WHO guideline to all its members. IMA National President K.K. Aggarwal said that the prevalence of obesity in children reflects changing patterns towards unhealthy diets and physical inactivity.
Dr. Aggarwal said that urbanisation, increased income, availability of fast foods, educational demands, television viewing and gaming have led to a rise in the consumption of foods high in fats, sugar and salt and low physical activity.
Presence of obesity-favouring genetic factors, increasing affluence of society with resultant food abundance, restricted physical activities, cultural habits like gifting sweets during festivals, and excessive use of fats in cooking are contributing factors.
Experts also recommend a minimum of 60 minutes of moderately intense activity for five days a week, or 150 minutes per week for all adults. Sports in educational institutions and creation of an environment to promote sports must be mandatory.
In a democratic society, the only option to regulate people's dietary habits and lifestyle choices is through education and awareness. Regulatory framework for food labelling and food advertising is essential.
Fad diets like General Motors Plan, Ketogenic Diet, Intermittent Fasting, and Paleo Diet, while popular, doesn't mean that these are good for you in the long run.
It is responsibility of every individual towards their spouse, children, friends, family and society to remain healthy. Every person should take a pledge to sustain better lifestyle habits today to win the battle against obesity.
Contradictions between malnutrition and obesity in India
However it must be mentioned that India and her citizens live in a strange paradox, because we have two major health issues that should ideally clash with each other. Our population is prone to both malnutrition and obesity, and there seems to be a complete lack of balance between the two.
In India and Pakistan, 50.1% and almost 41.6% of girls, respectively, were underweight in 2016 -- down from 59.9% and 54% in 1975. Numbers were similar among boys in 2016, at 58.1% and 51%, respectively.
Being underweight comes with its own health consequences among children and adolescents, including a greater risk of infectious disease and potential harm during pregnancy for adolescents and women old enough to have children.
"We mustn't forget that undernutrition remains a major global public health problem," commented Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the United States.
"We're experiencing this double burden of undernutrition and overnutrition at the same time, this is nothing new"
References
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