People have always sniggered at the United States saying, “oh Americans eat junk, they’re all so fat.” Well guess what, India now has more obese children than the US (or any country except China).
The number of overweight people in India has almost doubled in the past decade. And a latest BIG Lancet report supports that. The study looked at BMI (body mass index) trends in 200 countries from 1975-2016. It found that worldwide the number of obese girls in age group 5-19 has risen from 5 million to 50 million in 40 years, and boys from 6 million to 74 million.
The situation becomes disturbing when you juxtapose these numbers with the problem of undernutrition in India. The two extremes have now become almost equally prevalent.
While the number of undernourished people has gone down by one-third in the last 10 years, India still has more underweight and stunted children that any other country. One reason for India being ahead of all the poorer African nations, is its high population.
This double-burden of providing healthy and balanced nutrition to people is also seen in other middle-income developing countries. Mexico grapples with widespread undernourishment even as a large section of people are increasingly becoming obese and unhealthy.