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D. Murali

DO you think Indians respect their National Anthem? When this question was raised on NDTV.com, one of the respondents posted his view: "However sir, I am liking the song `Jis ki bibi moti uskaa bhi badaa kaam hai' more better than the national anthem." While one could let that debate rage on, a recent call from the World Health Organisation (WHO) can make jis ki bibi moti a bit worried. The international body is calling for taxes to combat obesity.

In a draft sent to member-states, the WHO has outlined its global strategy on diet, exercise and health. According to the WHO, wrong diet and physical inactivity are leading causes of illness and death. So, it recommends that governments adopt policies to combat obesity, heart disease, and other such diet-related health problems.

Now, if you ask what is obesity, there's a definition on WHO's Web site: Obesity is the increase in body weight beyond skeletal and physical standards as the result of excessive accumulation of fat in the body. Simply put, more than two times the ideal weight is considered obesity.

"The prevalence of overweight and obesity is commonly assessed by using body mass index (BMI), defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres (kg/m{+2}). A BMI over 25 kg/m{+2} is defined as overweight, and a BMI of over 30 kg/m{+2} as obese." Dangerously, "the distribution of BMI is shifting upwards in many populations." Also, the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes and hypertension rises steeply with increasing body fatness; these were "confined to older adults for most of the 20th century" but now affect obese children "even before puberty."

A fact-sheet on the site gives alarming facts and figures: Globally, there are more than 1 billion overweight adults, at least 300 million of them obese. Childhood obesity is already epidemic in some areas and on the rise in others; an estimated 17.6 million children under five are estimated to be overweight worldwide. Approximately one in two cases of diabetes, and one in five in the case of ischaemic heart disease are attributable to a BMI above 21 kg/m{+2}.

WHO's call to the governments is that they should limit unhealthy foods in school; look at how food is marketed to kids; encourage the use of less sodium, saturated and trans fats, or sugars in certain foods; review food pricing policies, taxes and agricultural subsidies to promote the consumption of "more healthful foods," according to the report.

There are also "healthy behaviours" that can enable one to "lose weight." A few tips from the WHO are: Eat more fruit and vegetables, as well as nuts and whole grains; engage in daily moderate physical activity for at least half an hour; cut the amount of fatty, sugary foods in the diet; move from saturated animal-based fats to unsaturated vegetable-oil based fats. Nothing that you don't know already, but one can add a regular stepping on to the weighing scale to the list of `dos'.

There are two sides to fatness. Not everybody would be eager to see fat go. There are businesses that grow fat when others grow fat by consuming the products sold. Tax policies aimed at tackling obesity may, therefore, reduce the sales of major food and drinks companies, who would rather up their antes than see all those precious BMIs of their customers vanish.

SayCheek@hotmail.com

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