Indus Vitals

One in ten children now live with obesity, warns UNICEF, with nearly one in five overweight in Pakistan KARACHI: Obesity has overtaken underweight as the most common form of malnutrition among children and adolescents worldwide, UNICEF warned in its newly released 2025 Child Nutrition Report, urging governments, civil society, and partners to urgently transform food environments and ensure children’s access to nutritious diets. With one in ten children worldwide now living with obesity — an estimated 188 million school-aged children and adolescents — the UN agency cautioned that the trend poses long-term risks to health, learning, and development, while threatening the social and economic future of communities and nations. The report, Feeding Profit: How Food Environments are Failing Children , presents data from more than 190 countries and marks a turning point in the global face of malnutrition. It finds that the prevalence of underweight among children aged 5 to 19 has decline...

IV Report KARACHI: Leading medical experts have raised serious concerns over the alarming rise in obesity in Pakistan, terming it the "mother of all non-communicable diseases" and linking it directly to life-threatening health conditions including heart disease, diabetes, infertility, and early mortality. Speaking at a health awareness event held at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on May 12, specialists stressed the urgent need for lifestyle changes to curb the rapidly growing obesity crisis across all age groups. The event, comprising expert lectures and a screening and awareness camp for KPC members and their families, revealed staggering statistics: 80% of the population reportedly has an unhealthy waist circumference , 35% of women , and 28% of children are classified as obese. “Obesity is not just a cosmetic concern or lifestyle choice—it is a disease,” emphasised Dr Asma Ahmed , a prominent endocrinologist from Aga Khan University Hospital. Citing survey data, Dr A...

IV Report KARACHI: Pakistan is grappling with a rising tide of heart disease cases among young adults, particularly those under 35. Medical experts sounded the alarm, citing alarming statistics on cardiac disease occurrences, at a World Heart Day event in Karachi. The root causes of this surge are threefold: a sedentary lifestyle, modern smoking forms, and obesity. Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) and Help International Welfare Trust (HIWT) jointly organised the symposium on September 30. Professor Dr Muhammad Nawaz Lashri, President of Pakistan Hypertension League (PHL) and head of DUHS' Cardiology Department, emphasised that cardiovascular diseases affect not only the heart but also the brain and kidneys. "These diseases are increasing day by day because we are not paying attention to our lifestyle." Chief Guest Professor Dr Muhammad Ishaque noted that Pakistanis suffer from heart diseases 10 years earlier than people in Western countries. Stressing the ...

By Our Correspondent KARACHI: Delivering a solo lecture at the Centre of Excellence, Hamdard University (HU), a senior professor of medicine from a private university reminded the audience that obesity was gaining the status of a disease in Pakistan, as the number of adults living with it has doubled in the period since 1990. Prof Dr Karim Kammeruddin of Baqai University during a talk titled “Obesity Dialogue” stated that 50 per cent of the country’s adult population happen to be obese, which could be attributed to wanting to eat to obtain taste and pleasure instead of gaining nutrition and energy. Dr Kammeruddin said South Asian people are generally vulnerable to obesity, particularly in urban population as they are getting addicted to fast foods such as burgers and cold drinks. “Burgers and carbonated drinks were also available, say, 20 years ago, but they used to be consumed in smaller portions back then,” he said.  He noted that eating to survive is fine, but Hedonic eati...