Areport published in BMJ Global Health has revealed that obesity and other conditions related to weight are costing India around 1 per cent of its gross domestic product annually. Overweight and obesity make up the most common lifestyle ailment in India and affect 17 per cent of the population. The current expense of $35 billion a year can go up to nearly $850 billion by 2060 if steps are not taken to curb this problem immediately. The estimates include both medical and non-medical expenses, such as the costs of seeking treatment for obesity-related health conditions and of travelling for the same, the price of caregiving and so on. Significantly, indirect expenditures, such as economic loss from premature mortality, missed days of work, and reduced productivity — these have not been counted by previous studies — have a greater impact on the GDP (61-88 per cent) than direct costs (12-39 per cent). While the Ayushman Bharat Yojana covers in-hospital secondary and tertiary care, there are no clearly-outlined mechanisms for paying for chronic outpatient care and medication, which comprise the bulk of the out-of-pocket expenses for obesity-related non-communicable diseases.

An important cause of this new epidemic is the aggressive marketing and the rising consumption of ultra-processed foods — usually high in salt, sugar and bad fats. The food industry continues to resist attempts to provide adequate information about unhealthy ingredients in spite of guidelines that require just that. Benign advisories will not work: the need is for regulation with teeth. While consumption patterns need to change, this cannot be the sole focus to tackle obesity. Workplaces may be losing money owing to obesity, but it is the modern work culture that promotes obesity. Research has shown that the young demography of corporate employees is most at risk of being obese. Factors such as stressful work culture, sedentary lifestyle, irregularities in sleep, untimely eating, increased preference for junk food and a high-fat diet to alleviate stress are some of the major reasons for obesity. Yet, this would not explain the burden of obesity in rural India, which is only marginally behind that of cities. Could this be attributed to the excessive reliance of the public distribution system on nutrient-deficient and carbohydrate-rich rice instead of local staples like millets? There is an urgent need to reimagine patterns of consumption, nutrition and lifestyle in order to fight obesity, which kills approximately 2.8 million people a year.