Public health experts, consumer groups, lawyers, and patient groups on September 22 called on the Union government to check the rise in consumption of high fat, sugar, salt, and ultra-processed foods (UPF), warning that if the trend goes unchecked, India will not be able to halt the rise of obesity and diabetes.
New data obtained through the Poshan tracker revealed that 43 lakh children under the age of five years — or 6% of all children tracked — are obese or overweight, notes Arun Gupta, convenor of the think tank Nutrition Advocacy in Public interest (NAPi). He says one of the major underlying factors behind the increasing consumption of junk foods is triggered by the food industry’s pervasive advertising and promotional techniques to increase sales. NAPi recently released a report on the issue, titled, “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India-Policy, Politics and Reality”.
