• Mizoram had the highest consumption of fried foods and Goa ranked highest in aerated drinks consumption. Consumption of beverages with added sugar has replaced a notable amount of the water previously consumed. Therefore, increasing weight gain with little change in solid foods.

• Increased access, in developing countries, to processed and cheaper foods that are high in fat, added sugar, and salt is one of the factors associated with the above change.

• The shift that has occurred in the human diet and activity patterns (excess dietary energy intake and insufficient energy expenditure) is named as “Nutrition transition”.

• Decrease in the intake of coarse cereals, pulses, fruits, and vegetables and an increase in the intake of meat products, added sugar and salt have resulted in rising levels of obesity, dyslipidemia, subclinical inflammation, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

• Men and women who are obese( BMI>25 KG/m2) are 23% and 24% respectively, with urban population showing a higher proportion than rural India.

Global Burden of Disease Study

• Globally, 620,000 deaths and 35 million DALYs of type 2 DM have been attributed to high BMI in 2019, more than triple in 1990 as per the Global Burden of Disease Study.

• The biggest increase in high BMI-related type 2 DM burden between 1990 and 2019 was also found in South Asia, belonging to the low-middle socio-Demographic Index regions.

• Studies have shown that early nutritional deficiency when followed later by excesses may be predisposing to Non-Communicable Diseases later in life.

• Particularly in low- and middle-income countries undergoing rapid social and economic changes, the risk of obesity and associated illnesses is increasing with higher economic growth.

Need for Healthy Public Policies

While the daily consumption levels of fried foods and aerated drinks are higher in some States, in general across many states, levels have come down in 2019-21 as compared to 2015-16. To keep this trend going and to maintain a healthier food environment, the public health sector has an important role to play

Government programs and policies like

●      Food and nutrition labeling,

●      Promoting healthy, nutritional food at schools,

●      Control on advertising and marketing of unhealthy foods,

●      Awareness about the benefits of Increasing physical activity and decreasing sedentary time are some measures that can be taken.

Conclusion

Give it a thought, How many processed foods you regularly eat, and think about how that could be changed. Processed foods are convenient, relatively inexpensive per calorie, and yummy, but they also wreak havoc on our health.

References

1.International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and ICF. 2021. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019-21 India Fact Sheet, India: IIPS; 2021

2. Popkin BM, Ng SW. The nutrition transition to a stage of high obesity and noncommunicable disease prevalence dominated by ultra‐processed foods is not inevitable. Obesity Reviews. 2022 Jan;23(1):e13366.

3. Misra A, Singhal N, Sivakumar B, Bhagat N, Jaiswal A, Khurana L. Nutrition transition in India: Secular trends in dietary intake and their relationship to diet‐related non‐communicable diseases. Journal of diabetes. 2011 Dec;3(4):278-92.

4. Zhang X et al. The global burden of type 2 diabetes attributable to high body mass index in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study. Frontiers in Public Health. 2022;10.