Western diet cause of obesity

Aping the west blindly seems to be out of fashion. India, one of the many Asian countries who have adopted the western ways of life extensively, has now realised that everything western may not be very good after all. According to a latest report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the adoption of western lifestyles and diets has contributed to an increase in overweight children in developing countries. According to the report, India, which till now had problems with under nourished children, may now be looking at the other end of the scale. With the introduction of the western diet which includes a variety of high fat foods and red meats, urban children are becoming overweight even before they enter school. And the problem is not because of junk food consumed during childhood. Mothers are increasingly resorting to formula milk instead of breast milk to feed their babies. It is now widely accepted that breast milk is the best food for the baby. However, due to concern about body image, fewer Indian mothers are willing to breast feed their babies, which is resulting in an increase in health problems in the country. This is a primarily western trend, since Indian mothers have traditionally breast fed their babies. The report points out that in America, one-third of school going children are obese. These children, brought up on formula milk and junk foods are not able to regulate their weight properly. Apart from the obvious disadvantages of obesity, this problem spills over in other domains also. Adolescents, especially girls, in a bid to look thin, have become vulnerable to chronic dieting and bingeing. And this is not good news! Experts say that due to increased effects of the media and decreasing parental control, children are eating what they want to eat and not what their parents want them to eat. The experts opine that more education programmes should be implemented to encourage children to adopt better and healthier eating practices. More awareness campaigns about obesity should be conducted with emphasis on health risks associated with the same. Children and parents should ultimately realise that everything that is tasty may be not be as healthy!

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