OBESITY IS THE MOTHER OF ALL DISEASES

Ozempic has become a buzzword these days. But if Vikrant Shrotriya, managing director, Novo Nordisk India Pvt Ltd, had his way, obesity would get all the attention, medical or otherwise. In an engaging conversation with THE WEEK's Chief Associate Editor and Director Riyad Mathew, Shrotriya talks about the need to tackle obesity and how GLP-1 drugs can be a game-changer. Excerpts:

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Riyad Mathew/ What are the main issues facing India today? I want to first hear the challenges and then the solutions.

Vikrant Shrotriya/ The challenge is economic prosperity. And along with that, you have a directly proportional channel, which comes up to obesity, diabetes and associated mental disorders. I always say that everything is a metabolic disorder.

We are sitting here for the last one hour, and it is said that it is almost equivalent to smoking. We have calorie surplus, and we have less and less physical activity. I do not know the Indian data, but a normal American eats 3,500 calories. I am very sure that in India, too, most of us end up taking [too many] calories. [The data is] disturbing, at least for an emerging economy like India—100 million diabetics, 250 million obese, 350 [million] overweight.... I can tell you we are blessed with quite a lot of mind [intellect], but when it comes to our body, at least we call it thin fat Indian. If you put a 67kg person next to me, you will find that I will have more fat, specifically abdominal fat. That's the mother of all diseases. We just discussed the interplay of many of the diseases, but I would say that [most] problems have [something] to do [with obesity], whether it is depression, anxiety, respiratory disorder, heart. It is a big problem.

Mathew/ You said obesity is a big problem. When I was studying in the United States, it was a very obese nation. But I read a recent report that obesity in the United States is on the decline. So what is your solution for a country like India?