New Delhi, 28 January/ Ekta Purohit
According to study done by AIIMS in adolescent school-going children age group between 14-16 years in Delhi, one in four children was obese or overweight. An Public lecture and Panel Discussion was organized by AIIMS, on the “Childhood Obesity: the increasing challenge, implications and prevention”.
Prominent health experts of the country demanded pictorial and health warnings on junk food packets in order to provide information on the health issues caused by it. The demand was made by a panel of experts from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), AIIMS, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and National Institute of Nutrition.
Dr. Vandana Jain, Associate Proffesor, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology said that there should be pictorial warning on the products which are of high calories and causes obesity. She said the chubby and healthy are not same.
AIIMS in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have conducted a study to look at the prevalence of fatty liver in overweight adolescents aged 10 to 15 years.
The study included 220 overweight children, who visited AIIMS’ Paediatric Department with obesity and other related problems. Their parents were also enrolled in the study.
AIIMS conducted blood tests, ultrasounds and other tests and 62.5 per cent of the children were found to have fatty liver and 65 per cent of the mothers had fatty liver while among the fathers, 69 per cent have fatty liver.
Fifty per cent of the children had mild fatty liver while the parents had moderate to severe fatty liver.
Twenty per cent children had hypertension and 60 per cent suffered from deranged lipid profile. 10 per cent children also had impaired fasting glucose and insulin resistance was prevalent in 33 per cent which means their chances of developing Type II diabetes are high.
BMI(Body mass index) is the way to check the obesity in a body. It can be calculated by height and weight according to age. There should be several steps and precautions to control obesity i.e exclusive breast feeding in infants for first six months of life helps prevent future obesity, avoiding of unhealthy snacks can take healthy snacks made at home in childhood, at least 60 minutes of active exercise per day where child should play sports said Dr.Vandana.
Obesity is emerging as a major problem in school-going children.
