Obesity is a result of imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. The only way to control this growing epidemic of obesity is by establishing scientific cut-off limits for harmful ingredients and FOPL on packaged products.
Childhood Obesity - Criteria - Causes - Complications, Treatment
Childhood obesity is one of the most serious health challenges in the developing countries and needs to be understood and tackled effectively.
Childhood obesity is one of the most serious health challenges in the developing countries and needs to be understood and tackled effectively.
‘Obesity is a result of imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Being overweight or obese is directly linked to life-threatening noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.’
Warning labels are critical to help consumers and parents understand how much empty calories and harmful nutrients are being consumed by children. "Food labels should provide clear guidance... Simple to understand labels with evidence based nutrition cut-off is a need of the hour and will go a long way to address the crisis of childhood obesity in the country," said Umesh Kapil, Professor, Clinical Epidemiology, Indian Institute of Biliary Sciences.
The experts also urged that India must rapidly adopt the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended limits and also introduce simple, smart and interpretative FOPL.
Traffic Light-coded Food Labels Encourage People to Control Total Calorie Intake
Using traffic light-coded food labels, which reveal the amount of fat, salt and sugar an item contains, helps people eat right and maintain healthy weight.
Using traffic light-coded food labels, which reveal the amount of fat, salt and sugar an item contains, helps people eat right and maintain healthy weight.
WHO has identified FOPL as "one of the policy tools that can support healthy diets, both in stimulating consumers to make informed healthier food choices and in driving manufacturers to reformulate products to avoid making unfavorable nutrient content disclosure."
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Front-of-Package Food Labels Encourage Healthier Eating: Study
Nutrition labels on front of food packaging can promote healthier food choices, reports a new study.
Nutrition labels on front of food packaging can promote healthier food choices, reports a new study.
There is growing evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic could potentially increase the risk of children becoming obese. School closures and lockdowns have already deprived millions of children of nutritional school meals, sports and adequate physical exercise.
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Food Labels on Infant and Toddler Products can be Hard to Navigate
Disconnects between the front labels and ingredient lists of packaging containing fruits and vegetables make it more difficult for parents to understand what kind of food they are buying for their children.
Disconnects between the front labels and ingredient lists of packaging containing fruits and vegetables make it more difficult for parents to understand what kind of food they are buying for their children.
The only way to control this growing epidemic of obesity is by establishing scientific cut-off limits for harmful ingredients and FOPL on packaged products, the experts suggested.
"Children are particularly at risk. As doctors, we want to assert that the onus should not be on children or their families alone to prevent or fight this condition. It is the collective duty of policymakers, the food industry and us as doctors to safeguard children and enable a nutritious food system for them," said Manoj Kumar Gupta, Dean, AIIMS Rishikesh.
Source-IANS
