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The number of undernourished people in India has declined by 60 million in over a decade, according to a UN report which said that there were less stunted children but more obese adults in the country. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, released on Monday, estimated that almost 690 million people globally were undernourished (or hungry) in 2019, up by 10 million from 2018. The report -- considered the most authoritative global study tracking progress towards ending hunger and malnutrition -- said that the number of undernourished people in India declined from 249.4 million in 200406 to 189.2 million in 201719. In percentage terms, the prevalence of undernourishment in the total population in India declined from 21.7 per cent in 2004-06 to 14 per cent in 2017-19, it said. The two subregions showing reductions in undernourishment -- eastern and southern Asia -- are dominated by the two largest economies of the continent -- China and India....

Yes, high calorie and junk food are among the leading causes of obesity; but a new study has presented yet another key reason behind obesity in children. Gut bacteria and its interactions with immune cells and metabolic organs, including fat tissue is found to play a key role in childhood obesity, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity Reviews. Not only the gut, but the mother's health, diet, exercise level, antibiotic use, among others can also pose as a risk factor in a child getting obese. "The medical community used to think that obesity was a result of consuming too many calories. However, a series of studies over the past decade has confirmed that the microbes living in our gut are not only associated with obesity but also are one of the causes," said lead author Hariom Yadav, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist. Obesity is increasing at a 2.3 per cent rate e...

Preschoolers, who are receiving government food aid, are reaching healthier body mass index and contributing to a steady decline in obesity rates, recent findings suggest. As part of a recent U.S. study, the researchers noted that according to a report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates dropped to about 14 per cent in 2016 (down from 16 per cent in 2010). The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, USA Today reported. The findings of the study come as a welcome result for the health experts, following an upward trend of obesity in young children during 2000 and 2010. According to the team of researchers, all racial and ethnic groups recorded a noteworthy decline in obesity. "It gives us more hope that this is a real change," said Heidi Blanck, head of the obesity prevention division at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Read Complete Article

According to a recent study, those with inadequate access to food are likely to suffer from obesity . Food insecurity, by definition, is the inability to acquire adequate food due to a lack of resources. As part of the study, researchers assessed the link between food -related hardships and obesity. The study was published in the Journal of Community Health . Results showed that the individuals who lived in food desert (geographic areas where residents do not have access to supermarkets or grocery stores) are at an elevated risk for obesity. Together, these findings suggest that people who either do not have enough to eat or live in areas without access to stores that sell affordable nutritious foods are at greater risk for obesity. "The lack of access to food can be a major stressor on individuals, and our study finds that  experiencing food hardships is particularly consequential for the health of women," said Jackson, one of the lead researchers. ...

Business Standard : Researchers have found that obesity and food restrictions are associated with less food enjoyment. Led by the University of Granada (UGR), the study has been published in the journal, Food Quality and Preference. For this work, 552 adolescents between 11 and 17 years old from several high schools in Granada, have had their emotional reactions analysed during the visualisation of images of sweet foods. Thus, the researchers observed that those adolescents who reported different types of dietary restrictions (different types of diet, dieting very often, skipping breakfast, eating less frequently, etc.), along with those who were obese and those who had unhealthy behaviours unrelated to food (such as smoking or having insufficient sleep), felt less pleasure, attraction and desire to eat the highly palatable foods they were looking at (images of sweets, doughnuts, ice-creams, chocolate crepes, etc.). As explained by Laura Miccoli, main author of the s...

If you are obese and blaming your genes for it then you should start exercising as a new study suggests that working out can reduce the influence of genes on obese women over the age of 70. The study, published in the journal Menopause, revealed that genetic associations on body mass index (BMI) were strongest in sedentary postmenopausal women and weakest in women who reported high levels of recreational physical activity. "Our sample, which included older women, is the first to show that in the 70 to 79-year-old age group, exercise can mitigate the genetic effects of obesity ," said lead author Heather Ochs-Balcom, Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions. "The message here is that your genetic risk for obesity is not wholly deterministic. The choices we make in our life play a large role in our health," Ochs-Balcom added. For the study, the researchers studied 8,206 women who participa...