India will have more than 27 million obese children by 2030. Can we combat this? | Eye News,The Indian Express
Experts suggest behavioural modification by simple tricks, smart substitutes that do not compromise a child’s nutritional requirements and ways to minimise dependency on food apps
Sunday, Sep 11, 2022
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HomeEyeIndia will have more than 27 million obese children by 2030. Can we combat this?
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India will have more than 27 million obese children by 2030. Can we combat this?
Experts suggest behavioural modification by simple tricks, smart substitutes that do not compromise a child’s nutritional requirements and ways to minimise dependency on food apps
Written by Rinku Ghosh
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Updated: September 11, 2022 12:11:38 pm
According to UNICEF’s World Obesity Atlas for 2022, India is predicted to have more than 27 million obese children, representing one in 10 children globally, by 2030 (Source: Getty Images/Representational)Normally when girls turn 16, there is a spring in their step, they gain body confidence and a certain carriage born out of self-esteem. Rohini Gupta* didn’t have any of this. She was waiting to turn 16 so that she could have a life-saving bariatric surgery, just so that she could breathe and walk easy. Weighing 100 kg, she had Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, high cholesterol and blood pressure. Yet, she was not born fat, had no hormonal issues, nor was she diagnosed with any rare condition.
In fact, she weighed normal in her childhood. But then came the school years, the peer pressure, the rebellious distaste for home food, the binge-eating of junk food at get-togethers and the ordering out. In a nuclear family, where working parents are stretched between home and office responsibilities, the food app waved a magic wand. So much so that Rohini, who had mainly food apps on her cellphone for emergency use, ordered different kinds of food every day, a habit that soon turned into an addiction. Yet nothing seemed to satisfy her. Never too outdoorsy, she wasn’t into much physical activity either.
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Dr Ganesh Jevalikar, child endocrinologist at Max Healthcare, who has been monitoring her unusual obesity, says, “Bariatric surgery, which involves reducing the stomach to kill hunger and increase satiety, is not an acceptable solution and we had to wait till she had gained puberty. You cannot drastically reduce calories in pre-teens when growth hormones are kicking in. She had a dangerously high BMI (body mass index) of 47, the normal being 25. Her diabetes and cholesterol levels worried us. She admitted that gorging on food was a stress reliever. In urban India, the onset of adult Type 2 diabetes is becoming common. We are seeing an increase in bone problems and PCOD in girls.” There has been a gradual increase in hyperactivity and neurological conditions, all the result of over-eating, he adds.
Child obesity, particularly in a sedentary world legitimised by the pandemic and a wishful living that thrives on the food-at-your-doorstep service, is an emerging epidemic in India. According to UNICEF’s World Obesity Atlas for 2022, India is predicted to have more than 27 million obese children, representing one in 10 children globally, by 2030. Dr Anuja Agarwala, former senior dietitian, Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), says, “The National Family Health Survey (2019-21) found that 3.4 per cent of children under five are now overweight compared to 2.1 per cent in 2015-16. And if you compare another study from 2012 on 14- to 16-year-old school children of private schools (in the upper middle-class urban context) with the present, the obesity index has climbed sharply from 25 per cent and is touching near about 30 per cent. An obese child becomes an obese adult and obese adults make for a diseased generation.”
Rating: 5