25 per cent women and 20 per cent men are obese in urban India
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New Delhi: Unbelievable it may sound, but experts say every fourth woman in urban India is either overweight or obese. And the revelations come when the policymakers are struggling to eradicate malnutrition and anaemia from the country.
Recent surveys show India has world’s third highest number of obese persons after the USA and China. And, more surprisingly, the problem is prevalent among women. In urban India, about 25 per cent of women are either overweight or obese, which is higher than the prevalence among men (20 per cent).
The shocking findings of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and Indian version of Demographic Health Survey (DHS) were recently shared by the health experts at a two-day conference on bariatrics surgery in the national capital.
“About 44 per cent of diabetes and an estimated 10 to 40 per cent of certain cancer cases are attributable to overweight or obesity. Obesity reduces the life span of an individual by an increased risk of diabetes, cancer, heart attacks, stroke, kidney and liver failure,” said senior obesity surgeon, Apollo Hospital, Dr Arun Prasad.
Experts claim that these findings throw up a strange challenge of two different nutrition-related health problems in the country — one of undernutrition and anaemia in one hand and overweight or obesity on the other.
“Our country has been struggling with undernutrition with a substantial 40 per cent of the country being undernourished. Here comes another 20 per cent ‘over-nourished’ population, and taken together, India has 60 per cent improperly nourished population and this is a matter of concern,” said obesity expert Dr K.S. Kular.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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