Growing menace of fast food consumption in India: time to act

Abstract

India’s impressive economic growth in previous decades and more inclusive growth recent years have not only resulted in steadily increasing income but it brought socio cultural transformation. In this process globalization and increasing urbanization contributed immensely. India with rich heritage of foods and recipes had the tradition of preparing foods by deep frying in fats. This situation is getting complicated by emerging fast food culture in all sections of society primarily due to their readily availability, easy to access, taste, marketing strategies and cafeteria culture. Therefore it becomes imperative to introspect about fast food consumption. There are enough scientific evidences in India to substantiate that fast food have become integral component of diet in all section of society. High consumption of fast food has been reported in school going children and this is quite substantial in college and university students - in spite of the fact that a significant proportion of population are aware about adverse consequences of fast food consumption. Children of pregnant and lactating women eating fast foods are more prone to obesity. High fat and high sugar diet leads to change in fetal brain reward pathway altering food preferences. Fast food consumption is rising in India across all income categories and this is contributing significantly to rising trend of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in this country. Regulation of marketing and nutritional labeling is not up to mark in India. Growing menace of fast food consumption needs to be restricted by adopting legal, service and education approaches for promoting healthy dietary practices.