India Urged to Introduce Nutrition Education and Restrict HFSS Food Marketing to Combat Childhood Obesity

To tackle growing obesity among children, India needs to introduce skill-based nutrition education within the school timetable for Grades 1-12, prohibit all direct and indirect marketing of high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) foods to children under the age of 18 and make existing initiatives such as sugar boards, oil boards and other nutrition literacy activities across all schools mandatory, said a latest ICMR-UNICEF report. The report, jointly prepared by Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institution of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), UNICEF, India, and The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), also recommends that the government should mandate the development and annual implementation of a standardized health and nutrition report card for all students to assess and monitor key indicators related to nutritional status, dietary practices, physical activity, fitness, growth and overall health. The ‘Nutrition Environment Assessment Toolkit for Schools’ (NEAT-S) and its report, ‘Strengthening Evidence on school nutrition environments in India: insights from feasibility assessment of the adapted NEAT-S Tool,' which was released this week by The Let's Fix Our Food (LFOF) Consortium, led by ICMR-NIN, suggest that all schools should ensure a minimum of 60 minutes of daily structured physical activity for students, including those in Grades 11–12, through mandatory integration within the school schedule.