New Delhi: With the children falling prey to unhealthy packaged food products due to the unavailability of the stringent front pack labeling (FoPL) norms, the risk of heart disease among them has increased in recent times due to intake of such food items having high contents of fat, salt and sugar.
Stressing on effective implementation of printing warnings on the front pack of all such packaged food items that cause harm to health, experts have opined that it would play a key role in reducing the cases of heart diseases among people of all age group, including children.
Citing studies that have established ultra-processed foods as the biggest risk factor for many cancers, heart diseases and deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, doctors urged that a safer food system should be the topmost concern.
There are several studies that have highlighted that the risk of heart diseases in India at a young age is even higher than in Western countries.
Explaining the ill-effect of junk foods on the heart, senior cardiologist Dr Rohit Goel said that heart diseases are caused due to blockage in the arteries and if necessary steps are not taken then by the year 2045, India will become the capital of child obesity and diabetes in the world.
"If things like fat get deposited on the inner walls of these arteries, they obstruct the flow of blood through the arteries. The beginning of such blockages starts at an early age and by the time that child becomes adult, heart problem increases significantly," said Goel, a heart specialist at Fortis Hospital in Gurugram.
Citing the example of Chile, experts said that the system of printing warning labels was on the front of food packets was started in Chile nine years ago and it delivered instant results. The country reported a significant reduction in consumption of all such packaged products which are high in fat, salt, or sugar, which resulted in a decrease in various diseases.