Need to focus on healthy diet, mental health: Eco survey

New Delhi: If India has to reap the gains of its demographic dividend, the government and the public at large need to accord healthy eating and mental health the attention they deserve, the Economic Survey 2023-2024 tabled in Parliament on Monday has said.

The survey, a consolidated report on the state of the economy in the previous year, further acknowledged that mental health is a less seen and discussed issue yet it is a principally impactful driver of individual and national development.

There is a need to bring about a paradigm shift and utilise a bottom-up, whole-of-community approach in addressing the topic of mental health, said the report. It is critical that its population’s health parameters transition towards a balanced and diverse diet, the report emphasised. In its latest Dietary Guidelines for Indians which was published in April 2024, the ICMR estimates that 56.4 per cent of the country’s total disease burden is due to unhealthy diets.

The report observes the upsurge in the consumption of highly processed foods laden with sugars and fat, coupled with reduced physical activity and limited access to diverse foods, exacerbates micronutrient deficiencies and causes overweight/obesity problems, the survey document said.

Estimates show that India’s adult obesity rate has more than tripled, and the annual rise in children’s obesity is the steepest in the world, only behind Vietnam and Namibia, according to the World Obesity Federation.

The National Family Health Survey, 2019-2021 presents a very penetrating portrait of the health status of India’s population.

At the All-India level, the data shows that the incidence of obesity, as per NFHS5, is significantly higher in urban India than in rural India (29.8 percent vs. 19.3 percent for men and 33.2 percent vs. 19.7 percent for women). Combined with an ageing population in some states, obesity presents a concerning situation. Preventive measures must be taken to enable citizens to have a healthier lifestyle, the survey report says. The NFHS-5 Survey overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic.