17 million obese children in India by 2025: International journal

MUMBAI: By 2025, India will have over 17 million obese children and stand second among 184 countries where the number of obese children are concerned, says a study

MUMBAI: By 2025, India will have over 17 million obese children and stand second among 184 countries where the number of obese children are concerned, says a study published in Paediatric Obesity, an international journal.

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On the backdrop of World Obesity Day on October 11, experts warned that early prevention was the need of the hour to avoid an entire generation from falling prey to heart ailments, hypertension and diabetic complications.

The study — Planning for the worst: estimates of obesity and comorbidities in school-age children in 2025 — authored by T. Lobstein and R. Jackson-Leach, aimed at assessing the scale of the problem with health planners and service providers.

The researchers, using data prepared by the Global Burden of Disease collaborative for 2000 and 2013, estimated that by 2025, some 268 million kids aged between five and 17 years, may be overweight, assuming that no policy interventions have proven effective at changing the current trend. China has the largest number of children who are obese.

Dr Ramen Goel, director, Centre for Bariatric and Metabolic surgery at Wockhardt Hospital, said, “Even obese children have malnutrition of a different kind. While the government is focusing on malnourishment, this here, is an equally important problem because it will lead to an entire generation suffering from complications in their early twenties.”

Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, chairman of Institute of Minimal Invasive Surgical Sciences and Research Center, Saifee Hospital, said, “Most schools sell fatty food in their canteens and nobody is talking about the implications.”