(01-06-06) Obesity spreading in India

Health experts sound alarms as Western-style work and eating habits gain in popularity
NEW DELHI - When K.K. Bhagat spotted his one-time classmate, he was not sure it was she. In the past 20 years, she had gained 70 pounds. He had put on 75.
"Oh my God, she used to be this beautiful girl; she used to be perfect. I wondered if she was the same girl," Bhagat said as the woman frowned. He paused before admitting the obvious: "I'm the same. I gained a lot of weight."
So have many other Indians. Gaining weight has become common in India, as the influx of Western-style fast food and long working hours have led to an increase in obesity. Now health experts are raising alarms in the country, saying that India, where millions have gone hungry, is growing fatter. The country also is in danger of becoming the diabetes capital of the world, the World Health Organization has warned.
About 55 percent of women and 45 percent of men in New Delhi are overweight or obese, according to a recent study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Widespread in women
About 76 percent of the capital's women are considered abdominally obese ? a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease.
"There are clear and hard facts in urban areas that things are as bad as they could be," said Anoop Misra, an obesity expert who worked on the recent study for the institute, the country's top medical school.
The trend has spawned an industry.
In recent years, gyms and "slimming centers" have multiplied in India's cities. New stores sell plus-size clothes and lingerie. Get-thin-quick plans are advertised, complete with dramatic before-and-after pictures.
A few doctors have even started performing surgeries to reduce the size of a patient's stomach. Bumper stickers on rickshaws shout "Lose weight ? Don't wait."
Land of contradictions
Having overweight people in a country still battling famine is yet another contradiction in this land of contradictions, where the rich are very rich and the poor very poor.
Even as city dwellers fight obesity, almost half of all children younger than 5 in India are malnourished, according to the World Bank.



In India, unlike in the United States, obesity has been a problem for the middle class and the newly rich. Not for long, Misra warned. It is spreading to urban slums; fast food is moving to some rural areas.
"It's only a matter of time until the villages are affected," Misra said.
Food always has been important here, and India has long had a culture of eating well and eating late.
On flights as short as 45 minutes, passengers are given a full meal.
Dinner is served at 11 p.m. or midnight. Snacks often are deep-fried. Desserts are extremely sweet, drowned in sugary syrup. At buffets, "skim" milk often has the consistency of cream.
"When you end up at parties, you end up eating anything," said Bhagat, 43, a college professor. "You never say no to your taste buds."
But until recently, most Indians ate home-cooked food and reasonable portions.
Then came Domino's, Pizza Hut and McDonald's with its Maharaja Mac, a Big Mac made with chicken, and McAloo Tikki, a veggie burger made with fried breaded potatoes and peas.
Indian restaurants increasingly served fast food as well to compete with the popular Western chains.
The country's fast-food industry is now growing 40 percent a year, according to the Worldwatch Institute, a research group in Washington.

By KIM BARKER
Chicago Tribune

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