Obesity is real, and it is growing. It seems everyone is talking about it nowadays. We, as a community, are not immune to this. In India, studies are now showing a rate of around 25% in urban populations, in adults and teens. And with this, the rates of diabetes and high blood pressure are also rising. What are the risk factors in our culture? How can we reverse this trend?

‘Desi’ risk factors include the following:

1. Eating a lot of carbohydrates. Large servings of rice are especially the culprit.
2. Deep frying of foods, use of ghee.
3. Sugar in tea/coffee, and of course desserts.
4. Adopting the worst of Western dietary habits into our lifestyle – drinking juice and soda instead of water; eating pizza, chips etc.
5. Showing our love through food. We feed our children, our guests, and the more they eat, the happier we feel. This is ingrained in us.
6. Stressing on the academic endeavors of our children (which is good!) but giving less emphasis on physical fitness at times due to this.

What can we do to address these issues?

1. Be aware that a portion size is the size of a person’s fist, especially with rice and carbs. Eat more lentils/vegetables/fruit if you or your child is still hungry. Roti is better than rice. And when someone says they are done, don’t insist that they eat more.
2. Spray with oil and bake in the oven. Grill, or sauté on a pan instead of frying. Use vegetable oils such as canola or olive oil in small amounts for the best ratio of good fats.
3. Reduce the amount of sugar intake wherever possible. 1 tsp is enough for a cup of tea, and milk and yogurt taste fine without sugar.
4. Instead of incorporating pizza, mac and cheese, soda and juice from the West, eat an Indian diet as far as possible. Change to lowfat or nonfat milk or yogurt (even for kids over 2 years), and drink water. Once in a while a treat is fine, but indulge once a week or less.
5. Show love in other ways. Go on outings, do activities together…..
6. Our children are smart, academia is important, but keep a balance and make sure that even at high school level when life gets crazy there is some physical activity. Limit TV/computer/’screen’ time to 2 hours per day. Kids need 30-60 minutes of exercise a day, and we could all use some too (20-30 minutes per day for adults).

By improving our ways and setting an example we will do the next generation a favor! Remember – kids learn a lot from watching what we do as role models, more so than from what we say.

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