Why obesity, undernutrition high in India: what a Lancet study says

Why obesity, undernutrition high in India: what a Lancet study says

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Health 

Context: Recently, Lancet published a study which says India has become one of the countries with a high “double burden”.

Details:

• As per the study, India has seen a constant increase in obesity levels both in adults and children over the last 32 years.
• The prevalence of undernutrition has also remained high in the country.
• The rise in obesity and undernutrition is due to lack of access to affordable and nutritious food for the prominence of undernutrition and obesity.
• According to study though lack of access to food can lead to undernutrition, increased access to processed foods high in fats, salt, and sugar has driven up obesity.
• As in 2022, about 12.5 million children aged between five and 19 in India were overweight.
• In India, the adult obesity rate increased from 1.2 per cent in 1990 to 9.8 per cent in 2022 for women and 0.5 per cent to 5.4 per cent for men.
• The total number of children and adolescents who were affected by obesity in 2022 was nearly 160 million (65 million girls and 94 million boys), compared to 31 million in 1990.

What are the parameters of being obese, underweight?

• According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), obesity is an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that poses health risks.
• Adults—anyone over the age of 20years — are considered obese if they have a body mass index (BMI)of 30kg/m2ormore.
• BMI is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. School-aged children and adolescents — anyone between the ages of 5 and19years—are considered obese if their BMI is two standard deviations more than the mean.
• Underweight is one of the four broad sub-forms of undernutrition. An adult is considered underweight if their BMI is less than 18 kg/m2.Children are considered under weight if their BMI is two standard deviations below the mean.

Why are more women obese than men?

• Women do not have access to or time for physical activities such as walks or gyms.
• They are likely to put the nutrition of the family above theirs.
• They are also likely to have fewer hours of proper sleep

What is the role of socio-economic conditions?

• Obesity is no longer the disease of the rich in India
• Eating junk food is cheaper and easier
• While it is affecting more people, there continues to be a rural-urban divide in obesity.
• NFHS-5data from last year shows that the prevalence of obesity was 31.7% in urbanwomenand19% in rural women. It was 28.6% among urban men and18.8% among rural men. Undernutrition persists in remote and rural parts of poorer states.
• Undernutrition is prevalent in the extremely poor populations in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, or Odisha, where people might be eating just one meal a day

What are the impacts?

The health consequences of obesity are obvious. An increase in obesity, especially in children, is likely to lead to an increase in diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks, and strokes. The effect of undernutrition, however, is not so obvious