The Hindu Business Line : Beating the obesity trap

It's important to educate today's youngsters and children on the importance of a good diet and healthy living to help avert a generation of fat people.

To change the way you look, just change the way you cook, may be a smart line to market products to the calorie-conscious. But it would have to be more than just that for harassed mothers looking to wean away their little ones from that omnipresent fast-food store. Whether it is children who prefer soft-drinks and chips to a healthy meal, or the young urban professional who has a "working lunch", ordered from the nearest food outlet, the net effect is being reflected in a condition that has reached epidemic proportions worldwide — obesity. And alarm bells are ringing loud and clear because this disease is increasingly occurring in tomorrow's generation, in adolescents and children alike.

A whopping 10-14 per cent of the adolescent population worldwide is affected by this disease and make no mistake, it is being fuelled by a sedentary lifestyle, bad eating habits comprising largely of "junk" food and the complete lack of exercise or physical activity, point out obesity management specialists.

The US is touted to be the most obese nation and Australia is not too far behind — with projections stating that in Australia every third child is expected to be obese in the next five years. When that happens, it will surpass the US on the obesity front, say medical practitioners.

It's not as though we don't have a problem. Urban Indian families too are facing a problem in getting their little Shreyas or Rajus to go out and play — rather than surf the Internet or watch television, while they tuck-in "junk" food from popular food-retail outlets.

"Fast-food outlets are the single largest culprits in creating obesity, because they give children food that is not healthy, marketing it aggressively with toys and other goodies," says Dr S.K. Wangnoo, Senior Consultant Endocrinologist and Diabetes expert with the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.

Earlier, obesity was a life-style problem, but now the World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified it a disease, he points out. Not surprising then, that the `slimming industry' is in full-throttle — with commercials promoting slimming teas and abdominal-trimmers and similar gadgets to dissolve flab. The daily newspaper with your morning cup of tea, is now becoming quite a battle — for, every morning, an average resident in the Capital has his or her newspaper inundated with direct mailers from the friendly neighbourhood slimming centre, promising "no exercise, no medicine... lose X number of kilograms in Y number of days!"

And then, there are also the over-the-counter (OTC) food supplements promoted by chemists, family doctors and even dentists, in one known case!

With such an array of slimming products — what are the chances that these products actually help knock off fat?

"Absolutely zero," is Dr Wangnoo's unflinching answer, a reply echoed by other obesity management specialists.

Tracing the contours of the issue, Dr Suneet Khanna, a specialist in obesity management and child health, points out the difference between fat, over-weight, obese and morbid obesity or grossly over-weight. "Only a specialist would be able to decide whether the individual can settle with a change in diet, coupled with exercise or whether the condition would require a gastric bypass surgery," he points out. Further, people could put on weight due to other medical conditions triggered by the thyroid or pituitary gland, to give an example.

But for the non-medical condition, Dr Khanna has a set of simple techniques coupled with a regimen of a 30-minute walk, three days a week. "While there are no obesity statistics in India, UNICEF and WHO had in 1999 done a study in North India, which found that one in every three men in the middle and elite segments and one in two women were obese," he says.

He is just as unaccommodating as his colleagues, when it comes to "quick-fix" methods to cut fat. "Chinese teas, OTCs and the so-called heat machines or fat-disintegrators, used in fitness centres have a slim chance of tackling obesity. Nine out of 10 people on slimming drugs go back to their original weight if they do not back it up with a lifestyle change," he adds.

Dr Wangnoo points out that in the US, a concentrated effort targeting school children had been undertaken to modify their lifestyle. "The programme was over 10 years and it was found that by getting children to reduce their body weight, the incidence of diabetes was brought down by 70 per cent." He feels that parents, not the government, should take on the responsibility of getting children to eat healthy, indulge in physical activity and live better.

He even suggests that fast-food restaurants be mandated to mention the fat-content of the food they sell, like a statutory warning one sees on cigarettes and other tobacco-products. Similar brain storming in the US had come up with ideas starting from warnings to levying a fat-tax on fast-food items like burgers, soft drinks and French-fries, and the like. And in a country where consumers are trigger-happy in terms of litigations, food companies are already "tweaking their fat content" — be it Mcdonalds or Kraft Foods.

With obesity being a largely urban problem, Dr Khanna feels that there is a slow consciousness developing among consumers for healthy eating and hence one is seeing more salad bars in fast food retail.

Saru Bhartia, nutritionist to the `weight management programme' in Sitaram Bhartia Hospital, New Delhi, points out that on a routine basis - one should have a balance of protein (milk, pulses, soya or non-veg); carbohydrates (rice, chapattis, cereal and potato) and fluids.

Dr Anupam Sibal, Medical Director and Senior Consultant Paediatrician, Indraprastha Apollo, points out an interesting paradox: "As kids, we had more parks and out-door activity and less addiction to television. For children these days, there is more entertainment on the Internet or television, no outdoor spaces to play and parks are ornamental and playing in them is disallowed. Schools are oriented towards academics and out-door activity does not get priority."

He is of the opinion that one needs to start talking of healthy food "if you want to avert a generation of fat people". The onus is on parents to work it out with children that a whole week's healthy meals are balanced with weekly family outings to a fast food restaurant. "You can't be radical with children or teenagers. But they can be educated on the importance of a good diet and healthy living," he observes.

Doctors and nutritionists opine that a balanced diet and physical activity would help keep in check obesity-related problems and prevent them from becoming major health problems. So it's time to sit up and take the first step towards a healthy lifestyle and let it be through a simple, brisk walk.

Picture by G.R.N. Somashekar

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