New Delhi: With India facing an obesity crisis, the Centre has tasked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to come up with an ideal diet for Indians, and the body is expected to submit its recommendations shortly, two officials aware of the matter said.
The urgent directive follows alarming findings by Lancet, the British medical journal, that projected a surge in overweight and obese adults in India from 180 million in 2021 to 449 million by 2050, when a third of the country’s population will be obese.
This trajectory places India as the country with the second-highest global burden of obesity after the US and China. The imperative to address obesity stems from its health and economic implications, given that it significantly elevates the risk of diabetes, hypertension and heart conditions, which in turn takes up healthcare costs and reduces productivity.
As part of the plan, ICMR’s National Institute of Nutrition is focusing on “obesity-related health priority research” and “actively tracking the nutritional status of the population,” the first official said.
Pushback against obesity
The ICMR exercise is part of India’s pushback against obesity, which includes the Centre’s plan to roll out a nationwide screening programme for measuring obesity among schoolchildren. As reported by Mint earlier, schoolchildren will be measured for waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and Body Mass Index (BMI).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity is defined as an abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A government report reveals that unhealthy diets are responsible for 56.4% of the total disease burden in India.
“Obesity is increasing drastically. So, the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, and heart conditions. Unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles, and environmental factors are key contributors to the rising prevalence of obesity, which is a huge concern now. Therefore, the government has asked the ICMR to prepare an ideal ant-obesity diet plan which ICMR is supposed to submit shortly to the health ministry,” said the first official aware of the matter.
The ICMR’s National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) in Hyderabad is a public health nutrition research organization that focuses on “obesity-related health priority research”—weighing implementation versus policy-based approaches—and tracks the nutritional status of the population.
“Obesity is a national priority now and growing. Our Prime Minister has been regularly talking about tackling it. Multiple things are on thecards. The plan is to conduct obesity-related health priority research and deliberations are still on whether it should be an implementation-based research or policy-based research. We are also identifying and regularly tracking the nutrition status of the people. The National Family Health Survey (NHF-5) 2019-21 data reflects obesity among women has risen tremendously, the same as men,” the second official said.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data from 2019-21 highlights this shift, showing that 24% of Indian women and 23% of Indian men are now overweight or obese.
Disturbingly, 3.4% of children under five are also overweight.
Focus on undernutrition
“We are focusing on the problems of undernutrition. One thing that has always been neglected is that rural areas do not have obesity. Now, we are seeing the issues of non-communicable diseases and obesity in rural areas, too. Besides this, we are trying to track obesity in schools using some applications and advocating healthier options of food in schools,” the official said, adding that ICMR-NIN is promoting diet diversity and running an initiative to fix our food and create enabling food environments for adolescents.
Dr Amrish Mittal, Chairman and Head of Endocrinology and Diabetes at Max Healthcare, Saket, emphasized that obesity itself is a disease, not merely excess weight. “Obesity is a predecessor of all the other conditions,” he warned, explaining how rising obesity parallels increases in diabetes and blood pressure.
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“Obesity is largely due to lifestyle changes, a high intake of refined carbohydrates, and a lack of protein and fiber in Indian diets,” said Mittal and called for a public health strategy that makes healthy options like milk, vegetables, and fruits more affordable than processed and packaged foods. “The ideal healthy meals on a plate should contain half a portion of vegetables, one quarter protein, and the one quarter has to be high fibre cereals,” he advised.
Mittal also linked the worrying rise in sudden cardiac arrests among young adults to unhealthy diets and poor lifestyles.
Deeba Siddiqui, Senior Nutritionist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, stressed on the importance of limiting sugar, salt (to less than 5g/day), and ultra-processed foods.
“A healthy diet and physical activity can significantly cut the risk of coronary heart disease and hypertension, and prevent up to 80% of type 2 diabetes. Our diet should be 50% from fruits and vegetables,” she said, advising vegetarians to include flax and chia seeds for essential nutrients and underscoring the need for hydration and careful label reading.
Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson and ICMR remained unanswered.
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