High sugar and trans-fats in Indian foods are turning the world’s second most populous country diabetic, while child malnutrition in the region is slowly retreating, the Wall Street Journal said, citing the 2016 Global Nutrition Report. The study found that diabetes, a deficiency that inhibits the body to effectively use insulin, affects 9.5 percent of India’s population, putting it ahead of the U.K. and the U.S., and on par with China. Furthermore, 2 percent of deaths in all age groups in India are a result of diabetes, the WHO said.
Stunting, or low height for age due to poor nutrition, affects 38.7 percent of children under five in India, down from 47.9 percent recorded a year earlier. The study called the finding “highly significant given that India is home to more than one-third of the world’s stunting children.”