Childhood obesity prevention in Indian culture
Traditionally in Indian culture parents feel obliged to feed the children and make sure that they don't go hungry. But they struggle to understand that it is easily overdone and children are fed more than necessary calories and are not necessarily the right mix and nutritious food. The potential guilt and clouded nature of love for children is leading or is going to lead to an epidemic of obesity and heart disease. With our own close relatives this is a very difficult topic to approach and talk about. The volumes of processed foods consumed is getting higher and higher constantly. Do you have any suggestions or techniques or ways to change this culture for the future. There is no quick solution to this but this has to be a generational shift in attitudes and expectations.
This is a very true and insightful observation Anil! A lot of hard data also exists on this from work done by Ranjan Yajnik (Pune) and Dr. Usha Sriram (Chennai) , which is why preventive efforts in cardiac prevention are never too early to start—In fact ideal time is in childhood! This is the time the foundation is being laid for either good health behaviors and preventive methods , or conversely in development of childhood obesity and associated risks.. On the other hand, there is a lot of good information (MASALA study) on the positive effects of ADULT CHILDREN on the health habits of their PARENTS. In other words, children are encouraging and influencing positive health behaviors in their South Asian parents