The study conducted on school children has found that students in the private schools of Delhi are the most obese of all compared to those in Mumbai, Agra, Allahabad, Dehradun, Jaipur, Lucknow and others.
It’s another dubious record for the city but one that Mumbai cannot afford to celebrate. The city has the second highest number of overweight/ obese school children according to a study conducted by the National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation (N-DOC) and Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Diabetes Foundation (India). It found that 30.4% children in private schools and 7.9% children in government schools were obese.
The study conducted on school children has found that students in the private schools of Delhi are the most obese of all compared to those in Mumbai, Agra, Allahabad, Dehradun, Jaipur, Lucknow and others. The obesity levels were significantly higher in private schools as compared to public schools.
Another worrying factor is that obesity is increasing among school children (14 to 18 years). Over a three year period, it has increased significantly from 9.8 to 11.7%. The prevalence of obesity in private schools has increased significantly from 11.6% to 17% over the last three years.
During this period obesity among male students too has increased significantly from 8.9% to 11.5% while overweight increased from 23.2% to 25.2%.
The main reasons for this are imbalanced diets, a sedentary lifestyle and high consumption of colas and junk food. As per the study the dietary fat intake among obese children is almost four times the recommended quantity.
About 68% students had a sedentary lifestyle and were more involved in indoor games than getting into physical activities while 47% played for less than one hour. More than 10% of adolescents and young adults had abnormal lipid profiles.
According to Dr Anoop Misra, chairman, National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation (N-DOC) and Director, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, Diabetes Foundation (India) over 10% school going children in India have abdominal obesity, 7-10% suffer from hypertension and 15-16% have high cholesterol levels.
“These are indications that the child is moving towards diabetes, hence, must be checked in time," Misra said.
The study also found that one out of three children eats out once or more in a week; 35% children drink colas; 23% children eat burgers and 36.4 % children eat pizzas. Their weekly sweetened carbonated beverages intake is 540 ml (211 kcal) while it should be not more than 77ml (30 kcal).
“There has been a rise in Cola consumption over the years. Colas lead to increase in about 2kg weight over six months,” Misra said.
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