The prevalence of obesity increased significantly from 12.8% in rural to 14.6% in urban (p<0.01), whereas underweight decreased from 13.6% to 4.6% (p<0.001). There was a significantly higher risk of being overweight and obese in urban than rural, after adjusting for age, gender. Urban Males had significantly higher increase in prevalence and risk of being overweight and obese.

Original Source

Weight loss is no more a simple calculation of calories consumed and burnt. Studies show exposure to certain toxins in the environment can make it difficult for one to shed extra pounds. What are these toxins? How do they affect body?

In an article that forms part of the PLoS Medicine series on Big Food, Andrew Cheyne and colleagues compare soda companies' corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns - which are designed to bolster the image and popularity of their products and to prevent regulation - with the tobacco industry's CSR campaigning.

Original Source

Global food systems are not meeting the world's dietary needs. About one billion people are hungry, while two billion people are overweight. India, for example, is experiencing rises in both: since 1995 an additional 65 million people are malnourished, and one in five adults is now overweight. This coexistence of food insecurity and obesity may seem like a paradox, but over- and undernutrition reflect two facets of malnutrition. Underlying both is a common factor: food systems are not driven to deliver optimal human diets but to maximize profits.

The first-ever lab study of junk foods in India by Centre for Science and Environment published in Down To Earth exposes dubious claims by fast food giants.

A new crop of weight-loss drugs is expected to reach the clinics this year and the next, but will their side effects be hard to swallow?.

The obesity epidemic that is prevailing in most countries of the world is generally attributed to the increased amount of opportunities to be in positive energy balance in a context of modernity. This obviously refers not only to sedentariness and unhealthy eating that may dominate life habits of many individuals but also to unsuspected non-caloric factors which produce discrete allostatic changes in the body. In this paper, the focus is put on the impact of some of these factors with the preoccupation to document the allostatic burden of weight loss.