The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Teatime to dinner is binge time for many

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Teatime to dinner is binge time for many

Staff Reporter

— Photo: M. Vedhan

Oily foods can induce ‘gastric asthma’.

BANGALORE: It is official. Metros in the country have raised eating to a mindless activity and worryingly, it is women and children who are being hooked into junk food, a survey of Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai by AC Nielsen reveals.

The survey sample comprised 1,000 people aged between five and 40 through the five metros.

The study, “Understanding snacking amongst women and kids”, released in time for the festive season when unhealthy snacking is, perhaps, at its peak, surveyed 1,000 respondents — 200 each from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

It covered homemakers, working women (mothers) in the age group of 28 to 40, and children in the age group of five to 12, belonging to middle and upper income households.

It found that 95 per cent of women and 88 per cent of children in Bangalore consume unhealthy snacks.

The pioneering pan-India study covered their daily intake of various foods at regular intervals and found that it was the pre-dinner period — the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. bracket — when people binge the most.

The study established that as the day progresses to mid-morning, teatime, pre-dinner and post-dinner periods, snacking gains momentum, peaking in the pre-dinner period.

A wide variety of unhealthy snacks get consumed across cities in this segment of the day.

This includes pakodas, noodles, burger/pizza and chaat. All this in addition to biscuits, namkeens and chips or potato wafers.

Several leading nutritionists and dieticians across the country have welcomed the study. Sheela Krishnaswamy, Managing Partner and Founder, NICHE, Bangalore, said: “A long gap between meals is not advised as this can lead to hyperacidity.

When one is hungry between two major meals, the tendency to eat unhealthy food is high. Continuous intake of unhealthy foods such as fried food, high fat foods and high sugar foods will lead to health problems.”

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