Is Obesity becoming a Health Challenge for India?

In India, overweight and obesity prevalence has doubled over a twenty-year period, 2005 – 2015. The increase in overnutrition at state level is even more striking, with some states experiencing more than 100% increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity during the above period. Overnutrition is linked to increase in the health burden in the form of rise in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, heart strokes, certain type of cancers, etc. This article examines the recent trends in overnutrition and diabetes prevalence in India and analyses the effect of overnutrition on diabetes considering state level data. Diabetes has been rising in India, and our empirical analyses finds that overweight and obesity prevalence positively affects diabetes prevalence. In other words, the nutritional transition in India is leading to epidemiological transition.