Television and food make up a child’s world. Picture by Biju Boro

Meet Mitali. A six-year-old girl who studies in a posh public school in Guwahati and weighs 50 kg. Her mother however, insists she doesn’t eat anything at all. “She is fond of colas and chips. And she prefers the pizzas and chowmein available in the school cafeteria to home-cooked meals,” says her mother Jaya. “My daughter knows all the fast food joints in the city and also all the different varieties of exotic ice-creams and milk shakes,” she adds with an unmistakable tinge of pride in her voice.

The doctors are not surprised. “It is common for parents to encourage their children to eat high-calorie food, equating ‘fat’ with ‘healthy’. This leads to adolescent obesity which is spreading like a epidemic,” says Uma Kaimal Saikia, assistant professor, endocrinology, Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Fat makes adolescents particularly vulnerable to disease. Indians suffer from syndrome X, or the insulin resistance syndrome, making them genetically prone to high levels of insulin and “central adiposity”. Enter diabetes mellitus, hypertension and high cholesterol levels — diseases that just a generation ago didn’t call on you before you were 40.

The average child does not get enough exercise either. “My 8-year-old son keeps watching TV all the time. And when he’s not watching TV, he’s hooked to the Internet and video games. My kid is a whizkid. He knows everything about computers,” says Dipa Barua. “It doesn’t matter if he is slightly overweight. He looks chubby and cute,” she adds.

According to Saikia, nowadays, more and more children are falling prey to type II diabetes, especially in the urban areas. The main reason is changing lifestyle as these children exercise less and the level of juvenile obesity increases. Hip is not healthy. From obesity to diabetes to depression, the urban kids are susceptible to a range of diseases that were earlier the bane of adults. The implications are graver because of a slew of studies show that many adult ailments have their roots in adolescence.

Medicine specialist Brajendra Lahkar says, “Obesity related problems may lead to syndrome X, a constellation of problems like hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol levels.”

He adds, “We get a lot of patients with heart attacks in the early 30s. Parents wonder why they are obese. They can’t burn calories because of their sedentary lifestyle. This, in turn, leads to early development of diabetes.”

A lot of these young patients have chronic gastritis too. Lahkar cites the example of a 12-year-old girl in the city who was diagnosed with gastric ulcer after undergoing endoscopy. “She came with melina (passage of black stool). We explored her dietary habits which revealed that she had a lot of spicy food and had long gaps between meals,” he adds.

“Most of the fast-food joints also do not maintain the minimum hygiene. This also leads to lot of parasitic diseases in the intestine and oral diseases like tooth problems. Therefore, storage and handling of food is very important,” adds Lahkar.

There have been studies linking obesity during childhood and adolescence to menstrual and reproductive problems later on in life. “The scientific explanation behind this is that fat is converted to oestrogen and to androgens leading to an excess of these hormones. Polycystic ovaries, irregular menstruation and sub-fertility may be encountered,” says gynaecologist Ephia Yasmin.

The link between adult obesity and reproductive problems is firmly established but the link between childhood obesity and reproductive problems have not been fully established. “But a few studies have pointed towards this link and it merits caution against childhood obesity,” adds Yasmin.

Childhood depression, unlike adult depression, is difficult to recognise, and there are many childhood psychiatric disorders, which need to be diagnosed early and treated.

“Parents and teachers should to be able to identify these symptoms early as children face enormous strain due to academic stress, peer pressure and changing lifestyles,” said Dipali Dutta, former head of the department, psychiatry, GMCH.

The eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, is showing up in very young children. The average age of those developing the ailment has dropped in the last two years from 14 years to 12 years, and high achieving, sensitive girls are the most susceptible.

Jnanendra Nath Sarma of the department of paediatrics, GMCH says, “These cases are usually seen more among the middle class. It is mainly because of growing pressure, both about appearance and also to perform in a whole lot of areas, such as school and so on.” He adds that developing anorexia at a younger age can affect brain and bone development, as well as the person’s height. This generation also does not bite or chew food. Dentist Ripan Das says, “They only have soft, carbohydrate-rich food which does nothing good for their teeth.”

Nearly 70 per cent of the children suffer not only from caries but also bleeding gums, bad breath and dental calculus — problems caused by deposition of food in their teeth. “We also get a lot of cases of irregular growth of teeth due to the lack of exercise of the jaw,” adds Das.

Experts feel that there is a need to streamline the education system. Sarma says, “The pre-school teaching needs a drastic change. Courses on child rearing should be organised for would-be mothers. Parents should read good books on child rearing and not rely only on doctors and medicines.”

In fact, many public schools in Guwahati are trying to attune themselves to the changing lifestyles of their students. Girija Gopalakrishnan, principal of Delhi Public School said, “We had a comprehensive medical check-up and survey conducted by the lifestyle department of Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad. Obese and underweight children were identified and parents were asked to fill up questionnaires about the lifestyle of their children.”

“We also see to it that our cafeteria serves very little junk food. We serve no soft drinks or coffee to children and we also do a close monitoring of the tiffin boxes of the children. Our menu includes a lot of vegetables, soup and nutritious food,” added Gopalakrishnan.

Sanskriti Gurukul, which is a day boarding school, provides breakfast, lunch and evening snacks. “We serve nutritious and vegetarian food. Our typical menu is Indian or continental style food, though once in a while we serve pizza. Colas are banned in our school,” said a spokesperson of the school.

“We have a relaxed atmosphere in the school. We have no burden of schoolbags, homework and evaluation tests till class V. We have regular guest speakers to talk on moral values. Yoga is compulsory and we have meditation before classes start,” he added.