India’s obesity crisis: Modi says to cut down on cooking oil, experts urge wider reforms

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to address his country’s growing obesity epidemic by calling on citizens to reduce the use of cooking oils commonly found in unhealthy food. However, analysts say it will take a much broader approach – targeting not only diet but also sedentary lifestyles and inadequate sports infrastructure – to avert a public health crisis. “You should decide that you will use 10 per cent less oil every month. By making small changes in our eating habits, we can build a healthier and disease-free future,” Modi said on Sunday during his monthly radio programme, Mann ki Baat, that focuses on topics of national importance. A day later, Modi nominated 10 celebrities from different walks of life – including industrialist Anand Mahindra, chief minister of Indian administered Kashmir Omar Abdullah and singer Shreya Ghoshal – to help spread awareness about the issue. The liberal consumption of cooking oils commonly found in Indian cuisine can, over time, result in obesity and potentially lead to issues including diabetes and heart and lung diseases, health experts agree. However, they argue India’s obesity issues have been compounded by increasingly sedentary lifestyles and more frequent consumption of calorie-dense foods since the pandemic, when mandatory lockdowns kept large segments of the population confined to their homes. According to a study on worldwide health trends published in The Lancet Medical Journal last year, 70 per cent of India’s urban population is classified as either obese or overweight. A 2023 study published in the same journal found that about 40 per cent of Indian women and 12 per cent of Indian men suffer from abdominal obesity. Around 30 per cent of schoolchildren are obese and about 10 per cent of them will develop diabetes by the time they become adults, according to Sudhir Kalan, chairman of the National Digital Healthcare Task Force and chairman of the Institute of Minimal Access, Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. India has one of the world’s youngest populations, with around 65 per cent of citizens below the age of 35, but obesity can undermine the advantages of this demographic dividend, Kalan said. “If this population becomes unhealthy, you can imagine the burden that the government will have to bear,” he added. Higher obesity levels can lead to a plethora of diseases ranging from migraines to cardiac disorders to infertility among women, Kalan said. Multi-pronged approach While cutting back on cooking oil – as Modi highlighted – is important, experts say authorities must adopt a multipronged approach to tackle obesity. Unhealthy lifestyles and diets, once limited to wealthier urbanites, have been making inroads into smaller towns and rural areas, Kalan said. “The golden rule in medicine is prevention is better than cure. If we focus on schools and start monitoring obesity levels, then we can save ourselves from a lot of problems that we may have to otherwise face.” He called for screening programmes at schools and awareness campaigns for parents, who often overemphasise academic performance while neglecting physical fitness. “Why can’t we give higher grades to children for their physical fitness to encourage them?” he asked. Kalan cited Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar’s recent call for India to evolve into a “sports-playing nation from a sport-loving nation”, noting that people currently prefer watching games on television rather than participating in them. Hemant Kenkre, a sports commentator, said that bringing about such a transformation would require a major effort to counter increasingly sedentary lifestyles in which people eat more processed food and reach for their smartphones instead of going outdoors. Kenkre said that most Indian parents prioritise academic success for their children, viewing it as a pathway to secure employment. However, he noted that a small but growing number of ambitious parents are now moving their children from remote areas to urban centres with better facilities to train in sports like cricket, which has a massive following in the country, if they recognise potential in them. “You need to build infrastructure in rural areas,” he said, noting this could help India develop a multi-sport culture similar to developed nations in regions like Europe. Balanced diets needed From inadequate playgrounds to unhealthy diets, there are many factors driving India’s obesity crisis, said Amir Ullah Khan, an independent health expert. But the central issue that needs attention is early childhood nutrition and balanced diets backed by active monitoring. The cost of fruits and vegetables has been rising steadily while wage levels have stagnated for large segments of the population, Khan said. This has led nutritious items to be replaced by more starchy, unhealthy alternatives. Poor diets are widespread across South Asia, where more than 10 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty – surviving on US$2.15 or less a day – and 44 per cent live below the lower-middle-income poverty line, according to a report last year by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Nearly half of the more than 2 billion people globally who cannot afford a healthy diet reside in South Asia, where micronutrient-rich foods are costly, while cereals, fats and oils, sugar and salty snacks are relatively cheap, the report said.

India’s obesity crisis: Modi says to cut down on cooking oil, experts urge wider reforms

The prime minister calls it a small change for better health, but experts say bigger action is needed to prevent a crisis