Perhaps the most discussed subject on online parenting forums, Google searches, WhatsApp groups and offline conversations is children’s food and health. In the post-Covid era, parents have become hyper-anxious about children succumbing to infections such as the flu, viral fever, gastroenteritis, among other ailments. Fear of contracting common childhood ailments apart, a new, bigger worry is invading their mindspace.
Recent studies report that the number of school children diagnosed with diabetes and pre-diabetes is rising at an alarming rate. A 2023 study of the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health at PGIMER, Chandigarh, indicates that 15.35 percent of Indian schoolchildren are in a pre-diabetic condition, and nearly 1 percent already have diabetes which is very unusual for children. That translates into almost 40 million children countrywide being diagnosed pre-diabetic and 2.6 million diabetic. This is because of sustained increase in sugar consumption by children. In middle class households, sugar accounts for approximately 13 percent of daily calorie intake of children aged 4-10, and 15 percent for children aged 11-18. This far exceeds the World Health Organisation’s recommended cap of 5 percent.
This alarming incidence of childhood diabetes has prompted the country’s foremost national school-leaving exam boards — the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) — to issue circulars to their over 33,000 affiliated schools to establish ‘sugar boards’ to reduce the sugar consumption of children. In detailed circulars to affiliated schools, these exam boards have instructed institutional managements/educators to educate students about the health risks associated with high sugar intake and to promote healthy dietary habits. In our cover story this month, we provide parents curated advice from well-known diabetologists and nutritionists on ways and means to identify refined sugar hidden in everyday foods by deciphering food labels, switching to healthier alternatives, and building lifelong healthy habits in children.
There’s a lot else in this Monsoon issue of PW. Check out our informative Adolescence story in which well-known pediatrician Dr. Snigdha Samanta shares valuable guidelines to educate teenage children about appropriate meal portions, and Special Essay in which Prof. Samantha Vlcek advises parents on strategies to help anxious children prepare for school after the summer vacation. These stories apart, this issue has a wealth of expert advice for parents to prepare healthy, confident and happy children to transform also-ran India into Viksit Bharat.
Also Read: Letter from Managing Editor May 2025
