Obesity round the corner?

FOOD: High-cal packaged foods pose a health risk you need to watch out for.

Cooking is a luxury that this time-starved generation has less and less time for. No surprise, then, that the latest AC Nielsen numbers indicate a 25-per cent increase in the sales of packaged food over the past one year, making it among the fastest growing FMCG categories. Good news for the FMCG companies. But not necessarily for you.

The AC Nielsen Life Choices study, conducted over a group of 84 women in 21 markets in the region, throws up some interesting findings, with one common trait "" all of them buy food and drinks outside their homes at least five times a week.

While all want to "eat healthy" in a bid to prevent weight-gain, the increase in out-of-home eating has resulted in weight gain in most cases.

"The overall awareness doesn't translate into a corresponding 'healthy' choice when they are under time pressure with lives too busy to make the most healthy food choices for themselves and their families," says Sarang Panchal, executive director, AC Nielsen South Asia (customised research).

Most women cannot decide which would be high or low in calories, he adds. The lack of assessment of the relative calorific value of foods and drinks would be putting us on the long term path to obesity, he warns.

The solution? Calorific information disclosure.