Abstract India’s metabolic transition has followed a markedly different temporal pattern from that observed in high-income countries. Whereas the United States and much of Western Europe underwent nutritional and epidemiologic transitions during the 1940s–1960s, driven by early industrialization, mechanization of labor, and widespread availability of refined, energy-dense foods, India’s transition began several decades later, accelerating only in the 1980s–2000s alongside the Green Revolution’s dietary shifts, rapid urbanization, and market liberalization. Importantly, while the classical or western model of the epidemiological transition is being seen as virtually complete in contrast to that of the developing countries, whose epidemiological transition has been designated a quarter of a century ago as “contemporary” or “delayed” and therefore continues to evolve. However, once underway, India’s transition progressed at a substantially faster pace; obesity, diabetes, and hypertension rose steeply within one to two decades, far outstripping the gradual multidecadal rise historically seen in high-income settings. Large-scale agricultural intensification (the Green Revolution) improved calories and food security decades before the widespread lifestyle and food environment changes that favor obesity and metabolic disease appeared across the whole population.
Sunil Kumar Raina (Thu,) studied this question.