FSSAI wants additional tax on packaged food items, beverages

May 9, 2017

New Delhi, May 9: India’s food safety regulator Monday proposed a tax on all packaged foods with high fat, sugar and salt content. The regulator also proposed strict labelling norms for such products and a bar on advertising them on children’s television channels.

FSSAI The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), however, did not specify the quantum of tax that it wants imposed. FSSAI chief executive officer Pawan Kumar Agarwal did not respond to calls.

The FSSAI’s Monday notification is based on recommendations of an 11-member expert group the regulator had set up after a Delhi High Court order in June 2015.

FSSAI said such products are harmful for kids and can cause diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, adding that advertisements of such products should be banned on children’s television channels, and during shows targeted at children. The regulator has also suggested that celebrity endorsements of such foods should be ‘discouraged’ and promotions and advertisements of these food items on social media should be restricted.

“Imposing additional tax on the purchase of commodities such as pre-packaged foods with high salt and fat content, sugar sweetened beverages, etc, can be a pragmatic approach to reduce the rising burden of chronic diseases among Indian population. Imposing excise tax on unhealthy eating products can be an endeavour to bring about positive health effects among population. This exercise can be of great importance in supporting nutrition-related programmes by the means of profit generated from taxing unhealthy food products,” added the FSSAI notification.

Companies such as ITC Ltd, Dabur Ltd, Nestle India Ltd and Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd did not want to comment on the issue.

Packaged foods are among the top advertisers for television channels. “For certain products, kids channels are the primary source of revenue. But many responsible packaged food brands are already following the norm of not advertising unhealthy foods on kids channels. The impact won’t be more than 10% to a kids channel at best,” said Ashish Bhasin, chairman and chief executive, Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia.

Companies should disclose “total calories, amounts of carbohydrate, sugars, fat, protein, sodium, dietary fibre” and “trans fat added” on the labels, the FSSAI notification added.

The regulator has urged companies to voluntarily reformulate their food products to reduce fat, sugar and salt.

According to FSSAI, almost all processed foods come under the ambit of the proposed additional tax. The product list include: chips, samosa, vada, pakoras, deep fried Indian snacks, French fries, many types of sweet, fatty or salty snack products; ice cream, chocolates, candies (confectionery); burgers and hot dogs; poultry and fish nuggets‘ or sticks‘ (fingers‘); mass-manufactured breads, buns, cookies (biscuits); breakfast cereals; pastries, cakes, cake mixes; energy bars; preserves (jams), margarines; desserts; canned, bottled, dehydrated, packaged soups, noodles; sauces; meat, yeast extracts; soft, carbonated, cola, energy drinks; sugared, sweetened milk drinks, condensed milk, sweetened including fruit yoghurts; fruit and fruit nectar drinks; instant coffee, cocoa drinks; no-alcohol wine or beer; pre-prepared meat, fish, vegetable, cheese, pizza, pasta dishes; infant formulas, follow-on milks, other baby products; health, slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes.

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National Bone and Joint Day | Bone and joint problems in obese

Dr G K Sudhakar Reddy

August 4,2020

Being overweight or obese is now recognised as a serious cause of ill health and disability. There is a significant positive association between orthopaedic disorders and the level of obesity causing pain, deformity and difficulty in walking.

Excess body weight accumulation increases pressure on joints, particularly the hips, knees and ankles.

Here are a few type of arthritis:

Osteoarthritis

It is a condition of damage/ wear and tear of the joint lining or cartilage. Obesity triggers this by loading excessive weight on the weight bearing joints like the knee and the hip.

Knee Osteoarthritis

This is the most common arthritis especially in the Indian subcontinent.

While walking, an individual exerts 3 to 6 times pressure that of the body weight on the weight-bearing knee joint, which means in an obese with excess body weight, larger forces are exerted, which lead to higher risk of deterioration of cartilage.

In addition, there are excessive fat tissues that produce hormones and other factors that affect the joint cartilage metabolism and cause inflammation of the joints giving rise to joint pathology. Leptin is one of the hormones causing knee osteoarthritis.

Hip osteoarthritis

The force exerted across the hip is 3 times that of body weight. Hip osteoarthritis is caused by factors such as joint injury, increasing age and being overweight.

Hand osteoarthritis

The observation that obese individual has a higher risk in having hand osteoarthritis has led to a hypothesis that the metabolic effect produced by fat tissue is the underlying factor.

Osteoporosis

It is a progressive bone condition of decrease in bone mass and density (Bone Mineral Density or BMD) which can lead to an increased risk of fracture. Recent research suggests that obesity may accelerate bone loss. It is the amount of muscle mass which is seen in an active person, which accounts for bone strengthening effects and not due to the fat seen in a heavy person.

Low back pain

Low back pain from degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine is one of the most disabling conditions in the community and overweight and obesity have the strongest association with seeking care for low back pain.

Managing Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis

Life style changes

If one is overweight, try to lose weight by doing more physical activity and eating a healthier diet. Regular exercise keeps you active and mobile and builds up muscle, thereby strengthening the joints and can improve symptoms.

Pain Killers

Painkillers help with pain and stiffness for short term. They don’t affect the arthritis itself and won’t repair the damage to your joint. Creams and gels can be applied directly onto painful joints.

Nutritional Supplements

Glucosamine and chondroitin are nutritional supplements. Animal studies have found that glucosamine can both delay the breakdown of and repair damaged cartilage. However, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of glucosamine in humans and one can expect only a mild-to-moderate reduction in pain

Joint injections

If pain from osteoarthritis is severe joint steroid injections are injected into the joints that can reduces swelling and pain. The injections can start working within a day or so and may improve pain for several weeks or months.

Hyaluronic acid injections, which help to lubricate your knee joint also give short term relief. In early stages. Stem cell treatment or cartilage regeneration procedures are being tried in young people with small defects, however it is still experimental and lacks long term evidence.

Surgery

May be recommended if you have severe pain or mobility problems.

Arthroscopy

If one has frequent painful locking/stiffening episodes especially in the knee joint, an operation to wash out loose fragments of bone and other tissue as joint can be performed by a minimally invasive key hole procedure called Arthroscopy.

Arthrodesis

If hip or knee replacement is not suitable, especially in young people who do heavy manual work, one can consider an operation known as an arthrodesis, which fuses your joint in a permanent position. This means that your joint will be stronger and much less painful, although you will no longer be able to move it.

Osteotomy

In young, active people in whom a knee joint replacement would fail due to excessive use one can consider an operation called an osteotomy. This involves adding or removing a small section of bone either above or below your knee joint. This helps realign your knee so your weight is no longer focused on the damaged part of your knee. An osteotomy can relieve your symptoms of osteoarthritis, although you may still need knee replacement surgery eventually as you grow old

Joint replacement surgery

Joint replacement therapy is most commonly carried out to replace hip and knee joints. It involves replacing a damaged, worn or diseased joint with an artificial joint made of special plastics and metal.

For most people, a replacement hip or knee will last for at least 20 years, especially if it is cared for properly and not put under too much strain.

Dr G K Sudhakar Reddy is a Sr Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Citizens Speciality Hospitals, Hyderabad

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Excess smartphone use linked to mental distress, suicidality

Agencies

February 11,2020

Using smartphone for long hours every day may do you more harm than you can probably think of. Researchers have found that spending a lot of time with the device and on social media may lead to mental distress and suicidality among adolescents.

The findings, published in the journal CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) contains guidance for physicians, parents and teachers on how to help teenagers manage smartphone and social media use for a healthy balance between sleep, academic work, social activity, interpersonal relationships and online activity.

"Physicians, teachers and families need to work together with youth to decrease possible harmful effects of smartphones and social media on their relationships, sense of self, sleep, academic performance, and emotional well-being," said lead author of the study Elia Abi-Jaoude from Toronto Western Hospital in Canada.

This review of evidence, led by the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), focuses on smartphone use and does not consider online gaming.

"For adolescents today, who have not known a world without social media, digital interactions are the norm, and the potential benefits of online access to productive mental health information -- including media literacy, creativity, self-expression, sense of belonging and civic engagement -- as well as low barriers to resources such as crisis lines and Internet-based talking therapies cannot be discounted," the authors wrote.

The researchers recommend that doctors should ask teenagers to reduce social media use rather than eradicate it completely and encourage parents to be part of the conversations.

Parents should discuss appropriate smartphone use with teenagers to determine together how to reduce risks and set boundaries.

A recent poll from the US indicates that 54 per cent of teenagers think they spend too much time on their smartphones and about half said they were cutting back on usage.

"Encouragingly, youth are increasingly recognising the negative impact of social media on their lives and starting to take steps to mitigate it," the authors wrote.

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