The big, fat problem: India’s obesity epidemic explained

While several Centre and state governments over the last few decades focussed on combating malnutrition, a new government report has revealed that India has developed a rather opposite problem as a large chunk of the population has been getting fatter. Often considered to be a problem of the rich countries, obesity has been increasing in low and middle-income countries in recent years. The fastest spread of the health condition has been observed in India. Data from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has revealed that Indians are getting increasingly overweight or obese. What does the NFHS 5 data show about India’s obesity? The NFHS 5 data is concerning across the board, however, the situation is a bit more serious for children. Obesity among children under the age of five has increased, with 33 states and union territories reporting an increase in the number of overweight youngsters. The proportion of overweight children grew from 2.1 per cent in NFHS-4 to 3.4 per cent in NFHS-5. In terms of gender, obesity has increased by 4 per cent in both men and women in India during the last five years. In NFHS-5, the percentage of overweight or obese women is 24, up from 20.6 per cent in NFHS-4 (2015-16). The prevalence in men increased to 22.9 per cent (NFHS-5) from 18.9 per cent (NFHS-4). It also found that obesity was observed more prevalently in urban areas, such as Puducherry, Delhi and Chandigarh that were among the worst performers. The report found that almost half of the population in these cities was overweight. The data also revealed a trend that the wealthiest are four times more likely to be overweight than the poorest. Urban men are almost twice as likely to be overweight than their rural counterparts. Such a huge difference between urban and rural is not seen among women. According to the News18, the survey considered Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) to identify percentage of body fat and that serves as a proxy for abdominal fat. This ratio when combined with the Body Mass Index (BMI) can more accurately predict a rise in risk of diabetes, stroke and heart attacks. More men have a bigger WHR (48 per cent) compared to women (40 per cent). Jammu and Kashmir (88 per cent) reported the highest proportion of women having a substantially increased risk of WHR while Madhya Pradesh reported the lowest (40 per cent). For men, it is highest in Chandigarh (67 per cent) and lowest in Meghalaya (25 per cent). What are the effects of obesity? According to WHO, too much body fat increases the risk of non-communicable diseases, including 13 types of cancer, type-2 diabetes, heart problems and lung conditions. And last year, obesity accounted for 2.8 million deaths globally. As per a BBC report, Dr Pradeep Chowbey, former president of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (Ifso), says “every 10kg of extra weight reduces life by three years. So, if someone is overweight by 50kg, they might end up losing 15 years of life. We also saw that mortality during Covid was three times higher for overweight and obese patients.” Obesity brings with itself a lot of metabolic diseases. Being overweight puts the individual at a greater risk of heart attack, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure. It can also lead to degeneration of joints. Obese people are at a higher risk of suffering from certain kinds of cancers (including endometrial, breast, ovarian, prostate, liver, gallbladder, kidney, and colon). Moreover, being overweight also places you at an increased risk of death due to COVID-19. How did we reach here? In NFHS 3 (2005-2006), obesity and overweight were identified as developing problems in India. The percentage of women (age 15-49) who were overweight or obese increased from 11 per cent in NFHS-2 to 15 per cent in NFHS-3. The NFHS 3 had also found out that Indian women suffer from a dual burden of malnutrition, with nearly half (48 per cent) being either too thin or overweight. The next survey concluded that this number had risen from 15 per cent to 23 per cent in 2015-16. In the case of men, there was an increase from 9.3 per cent in NFHS-3 to 19 per cent in NFHS-4. The data across various rounds of National Family Health Surveys shows that obesity has become one of the major metabolic risk factors for increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which account for more than 60 per cent of all deaths in India. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.