Obesity in India – The Omnipresent Influence

Obesity is an epidemic of the 21st century, and is a major causative factor for many other metabolic disorders. According to a global estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2005 there were about 1.6 billion overweight persons aged 15 years and above and among them at least 400 million adults were obese. The revision of definition of obesity to adjust for the racial differences, by the WHO, has resulted in a higher prevalence of 1.7 billion people classified as overweight. The WHO further projects that by 2015, approximately 2–3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese. The obesity epidemic is not restricted to industrialized societies; this increase is often faster in developing countries than in the developed world. In India, obesity is emerging as an important health problem particularly in urban areas, paradoxically co-existing with undernutrition. In India, even childhood obesity is a latest epidemic with a very high magnitude. In this article the magnitude of obesity, other conditions and available management options has been reviewed.