India is undergoing the fastest ultra-processed food (UPF) sales growth, and the resulting dietary transition is surging obesity and diabetes cases, leading to poor health, according to a new three-paper Series published in The Lancet on Wednesday.UPFs can be defined as food products mostly high in fat, sugar, and/or salt (HFSS), full of unwanted and harmful ingredients such as cosmetic additives like stablisers, emulsifiers, colorants, flavouring substances, etc.
These are strongly linked to an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, depression, and premature death, among others.
The papers, by 43 global authors, showed that retail sales of UPFs in India surged from $0.9 billion in 2006 to nearly $38 billion in 2019- a forty-fold rise.
Retail shop shelves are now dominated by pre-packaged food and beverage products such as namkeens, noodles, biscuits, sugar-sweetened beverages, chips, breakfast cereals, exposing children and youth through advertising.
As a result, obesity has doubled in India in both men (from 12 per cent to 23 per cent) and women (from nearly 15 per cent to 24 per cent), showed the study.
The Series called out the aggressive marketing and advertising campaigns, which the UPF companies use to drive consumptio