70 per cent of teachers in Delhi schools are obese: survey

“We found that 68.5 per cent of teachers in some schools in Delhi are obese and overweight,” Anoop Misra,Director,Diabetes Foundation of India,claimed.

“All these teachers had too much of fat,especially in the waist,” he said.

The survey was conducted during a period of two-and-half-years time in 10 schools,including Tagore International School,DPS chains of schools,Saint Paul School,Kendriya Vidyalaya and Sarvodaya schools. A total of 400 teachers were part of the survey.

“We used the waist circumference measurement and body mass index (BMI) to estimate body fat. The BMI formula is a useful because in most people it correlates highly with body fat,” he said.

“A high-risk waistline is 35 inches or higher for women,and 40 inches or higher for men. BMI values less than 18.5 are considered underweight and values from 18.5 to 24.9 are normal. Overweight is defined as a body mass index of 25 to less than 30 and obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 or greater,” Piyali Shah,Chief Project Officer at DFI said.

She said the problem was found with both groups –teachers who exercise and the others who did not. “Those who did not exercise said that they were exhausted at the end of the day and felt going up and coming down the school staircase was enough for them.

“…and the rest who exercised either could not resist eating junk food or followed wrong pattern of cooking,” Shah said.