Childhood obesity sweeps #India

On Jan 18, 2017

Childhood obesity sweeps India

Projections indicate that if the current trends continue, India will be home to 17 million kids with obesity by 2025 putting them at risk of several lifestyle diseases.

New Delhi, Jan 18, 2017: More than 30% people of the society including children have potbelly abdominal obesity. India is witnessing an epidemic of metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by abdominal obesity, high triglyceride, low good cholesterol, high blood pressure and high sugar.

Abdominal girth of more than 90 cm in men and 80 cm in women indicates that the person is vulnerable to future heart attack. Normal weight obesity is the new epidemic of the society. A person could be obese even if his/her body weight was within the normal range. An extra inch of fat around the abdomen increases the chances of heart disease by 1.5 times.

Following are the health risks associated with childhood obesity:

Hypertension and high cholesterol, which are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Increased risk of impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistant states like type 2 diabetes.
Breathing disorders, sleep apnea and asthma
Joint problems and musculoskeletal disorders
Fatty liver disease and heartburn
Social stigma, low confidence and chronic stress

Padma Shri Awardee Dr. K.K Aggarwal, National President Indian Medical Association (IMA) and President Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and Dr RN Tandon – Honorary Secretary General IMA in a joint statement said that, “Normally once the height stops growing, most organs will also stop growing. The weight of the heart, liver of kidney cannot increase after that. Only muscles can build up to some extent. The only thing, after that stage, which can increase the weight of the body, is deposition of fat. Therefore any weight gain after puberty is invariably due to fat. Though the overall weight can be in the acceptable normal range but any weight gain within that range will be abnormal for that person. One should not gain weight of more than 5 kg after the age of 20 years in males and 18 years in females.”

“Potbelly obesity is linked to eating refined carbohydrates and not animal fats. General obesity is linked to eating animal fats. Refined carbohydrate includes white rice, white maida and white sugar. Brown sugar is better than white sugar. Refined carbohydrates are called bad carbohydrates and animal fat is called bad fat. Trans fat or vanaspati is bad for health. Trans fats increase the levels of bad cholesterol and reduce good cholesterol in the body. Reduction in weight can reduce snoring, pain of arthritis, blood pressure and control uncontrolled diabetes”, added Dr. Aggarwal.

Some key points:

Skip carbohydrates once in a week.
Combine a sweet food with bitter food (prefer aloo methi over aloo matar).
Walk, walk and walk…
Consume green bitter items in foods such as karela, methi, palak, bhindi etc.
Do not eat trans fats (vanaspati).
Do not consume more than 80 ml of soft drink in a day.
Do not consume sweets with more than 30% sugar.
Avoid maida, rice and white sugar.

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About IMA: Indian Medical Association is the only representative, national voluntary organization of Doctors of Modern Scientific System of Medicine, which looks after the interest of doctors as well as the well being of the community at large. It has its Headquarter in Delhi and State / Terr. Branches in 29 States and Union Territories. It has over 2, 53,000 doctors as its members through more than 1650 active local branches spread across the country.

Childhood obesity sweeps #India