Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

India's Supersize Kids

Investigating the obesity epidemic engulfing India's growing middle class. Anita Rani travels to Mumbai to meet some of India's overweight teenagers.

Anita Rani travels to Mumbai to investigate the obesity epidemic engulfing India's growing middle class. She meets some of India's overweight teenagers who can't stop bingeing on western fast foods, including 13-year-old Kaleb who weighs more than 15 stone.

She visits the clinics at the centre of a booming industry in weight loss surgery. Regulation of the fast food industry is much looser than in Western countries and wealthy Indians are susceptible to the lure of advertising and the promise of a western lifestyle. What is more, Indians are more genetically disposed to obesity and to the type 2 diabetes that all too often accompanies it.

And now that the international fast-food chains and their Indian imitators are opening up branches beyond the big cities in India, the obesity problem is set to explode into a national pandemic.

1 hour

Last on

Wed 21 Aug 201300:20

Article: India's Supersize Kids

Article: India's Supersize Kids

"Chubby kids in India are traditionally viewed as a sign of a family's wealth... It was only after doctors explained that he was close to eating himself to death that things changed."

Producer Andy Wells on the obesity epidemic in middle-class Mumbai

Credits

RoleContributor
ProducerAndy Wells
DirectorAndy Wells
Executive ProducerSam Bagnall
PresenterAnita Rani

Broadcasts

  • Tue 13 Aug 201321:00
  • Wed 21 Aug 201300:20

Making This World

Making This World

This World film-makers tell their behind the scenes stories about making the programme.