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Rahul a 20-year-old IT consultant who just got out of college is like every other youngster in his early 20s. He starts his day with some instant noodles for breakfast (if he has the time) and hurries off to the office. Lunch usually consists of a fast-food takeaway with a side-order of fries and a large beverage and dinner is usually a large pizza shared with buddies with beer or a Chinese takeaway at his favourite joint. While everything seemed fine at first, Rahul noticed that he was beginning to put on weight and was always fatigued. A trip to the doctor revealed that his blood pressure was off the charts and he had borderline type 2 diabetes.
Rahul’s story is not very different from the thousands of other youngsters in urban or semi-urban areas in this country. Their food habits are completely dependent on the processed food, beverage and alcohol companies. A recent Lancet study, reveals how these three industries, collectively called the ‘unhealthy commodities’ industry is causing an increase in the number of lifestyle or non-communicable diseases (NCDs) across the world. The term NCD refers to non-infectious and non-communicable diseases. They include heart diseases, stroke, cancer, diabetes, asthma, COPD, chronic kidney disease and many more. The latest estimates suggest that NCDs killed a staggering 34.5 million people in 2010 accounting for 65% of the all deaths worldwide. It’s believed by 2030, NCDs will kill about 50 million people every year.
The study, led by Rob Moodie from the University of Melbourne, Australia found that the ‘unhealthy commodity’ industries use strategies similar to the tobacco industry to undermine public health policies. These companies use strategies where younger people especially in the 10-25 age bracket are targeted with ads and promotions. Think about the sheer number of unhealthy products – soft drinks, instant noodles and pastas, burgers and pizzas, bhujias and mixtures – that we see on television or read about each day. Unsurprisingly, the industry doesn’t feel that comparing products like beverages to alcohol and tobacco products is fair.
The Indian Beverage Association however told the TOI, ‘Comparing the food and beverage industry to alcohol and tobacco is without merit, and distracts us from the important task at hand — reducing incidence of non-communicable diseases, such as obesity. Only by bringing together experts from many disciplines can we truly have an impact in addressing this serious public health challenge’.
The study also found another interesting correlation between sales of tobacco, alcohol, processed food and soft drinks in any one particular market. Places where tobacco markets have the most sales are also huge markets for alcohol and processed food products.
‘Saturation of markets in high income countries has caused the industries to rapidly penetrate emerging global markets, as the tobacco industry has done. Almost all growth in the foreseeable future in profits and sales of these unhealthy commodities will be in low-income and middle-income countries (where consumption is currently low),’ the study adds.
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‘Unhealthy commodities’ industries in India
If you live in an urban or semi-urban area you simply can’t ignore the proliferation and almost tentacle-like grip that these industries have on most public places. Fast food joints are almost omnipresent in every mall and to target younger customers they’ve have started creating products which are cheaper and affordable for youngsters with pocket money. The same goes for the beverage industry which usually has the country’s top film stars and cricketers endorsing their products. What this does is create an image for impressionable viewers who feel they simply have to consume the aforementioned product. And the result is that India is facing a unique healthcare challenge where some of the population is burdened by both developed world and developing world diseases.
There’s also an increase in type II diabetes among children and heart diseases affecting kids as young as 15. The only way to stop this is to send out strong public health messages undermining the effect that the processed food and beverage industries have on young minds or to altogether ban advertisements for these products similar to the blanket ban there is on tobacco and alcohol products. Because to be fair, the processed food and beverage industries are causing as much damage as the tobacco and alcohol ones.
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