Over 450 Million Indians May Be Obese By 2050: Lancet Study

A new study published in The Lancet, one of the highly reliable medical science research magazines, has forewarned that around 60 percent of all adults in the world would be overweight or obese by 2050 if the governments are not taking preventive measures.

The study says across the world, there are now 2.11 billion adults aged 25 or above and 493 million children and young people aged five to 24 are overweight – a big and rapid jump in the recent years.

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If there are no proactive efforts, more than half of those aged 25 or above and about a third of all children and young people will be affected by the obesity pandemic by 2050, the report forecasts.

Notably, the research has predicted a particularly alarming rise, about 121%, in obesity among children and younger people. By 2050.

Terming the overweight an “unprecedented global epidemic,” the research paper’s lead author, Prof. Emmanuela Gakidos, stated that the development is a monumental societal tragedy.

While China is projected to be the country with the highest number of obese people, with around 402 million people, India followed with 180 million people obese population.

The US then comes with 172 million overweight people, while Brazil has 88 million. Other countries with relatively higher obese people are as follows: Russia (71 million), Mexico (58 million), Indonesia (52 million), and Egypt (41 million).

As India is projected to have 450 million obese people by 2050, the situation would probably be unimaginable if not addressed properly. The current figure of the overweight population in India is 180 million.

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In 1999, the number if overweight people were 929 million, which has now rose to 2.6 billion in 2021 across the world. The findings shows that the newer generations are gaining weight faster than previous ones and obesity is occurring earlier.

The health worker fears that the increased rate of obesity would bring about health-related challenges, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, and various cancer diseases.

One of the major reasons for obesity is the changing lifestyle, especially the sedentary routines, increased intake of processed food, which contain a high level of oil and salt.