Nov. 07--NEW DELHI (THE STATESMAN/ANN) -- One out of every five adults in India is suffering from obesity, courtesy junk food, according to a study conducted among urban Indian adolescents by the National Diabetes Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation.
The experts, including doctors, nutritionists, NGOs and policy makers opined that junk food falling into two categories of snack food and fast food should be banned in schools and replaced by healthy options. "Though some food may be prepared with healthy ingredients like vegetables, they are still 'junk'.
For instance burgers contain meat and vegetables but the junk in it comes from the refined flour that is used to make the buns and the mayonnaise and butter that are added to the filling," said Soumya Misra, deputy programme manager of India's Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), also part of the food safety and toxins team.
Junk food is high in fat and sugar leading to obesity which is the cause of a number of health problems, ranging from diabetes to cardiac diseases. CSE director Sunita Narain and other participant doctors demanded that junk food be banned in schools as a first step to push the school authorities towards healthier and more nutritious options.
Experts were also unanimous on the suggestion that junk food should be taxed and advertisements for it should be banned during children's television shows.
meanwhile, most of the working mothers in India have unhealthy children with problems like obesity, while kids whose moms work part time are better off, a lifestyle study by Assocham Development Foundation said.
As many as 56 per cent of working women have children with problems such as overweight which may aggravate into lifestyle diseases like cardio-vascular disorder and fatty liver when they grow into adults, it said.
The problem was far less with the women who take up part time assignments. Only 28 per cent of these women have kids with unhealthy physical attributes. On the other hand, homemakers' kids are a lot healthier as they are less into junk foods like pizza, burgers, pasta and aerated drinks, the study done by Assocham Development Foundation said.
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