Ultra-Processed Foods and Health Risks: India’s Changing Diet Story in 2025
-by Jaya Pathak
India is going through this massive food change right now. The country that basically invented amazing regional cuisines is now just eating packaged stuff constantly. The numbers are kind of shocking honestly. Back in 2006 we spent like 0.9 billion on ultra-processed foods. By 2019 it was 38 billion. Forty times increase! And obesity just doubled in the same period. This is not just Delhi and Mumbai either. It is everywhere. Villages are getting this stuff too. The whole country is shifting basically.
How Much Things Actually Changed
People are eating processed foods. The sales of packaged food per person is increasing day by day and interestingly, it has almost doubled in last 6 years.
What is wild is what people actually buy. Sweet biscuits are 43 percent of the ultra-processed market. Then noodles, chips, sugary drinks, cereals. All that industrial engineered stuff. Tons of salt everywhere. Sugar. Processed oils. Weird additives you cannot even pronounce. Emulsifiers and stabilizers and artificial flavourings and all that stuff basically.
The problem with this food is it removes everything good. Takes out vitamins. Takes out minerals. Fiber is gone. What is left is basically just calories with nothing else. But they make it taste incredible so you keep eating it even though your body is not getting anything useful from it. That is actually the whole strategy. Make it taste so good you cannot stop even though it is nutritionally empty.
Why This Is Actually Happening
Three things are driving this basically. First is cities. More and more people live in cities now. About 35 percent of India lives in cities and by 2047 it will be 50 percent. When you live in a city you just do not have time to cook. You do not have kitchen space. You are working all day. So processed food just makes sense. Fast. Easy. You do not have to plan. Just grab it and eat. It solves real problems that people have.
Second thing is money. When people earn more money, they buy different stuff. People with salaries and regular jobs eat way more processed food than other people do. Between 2019 and 2021 if you were an urban professional you were spending like 50 percent of your food money on packaged stuff and eating out. Half of everything basically going to processed things. When you have money to spend processed food is convenient.
Third thing is marketing and stores. Companies advertise this stuff constantly. Celebrities promoting it. Billboards everywhere. Social media. They make it seem normal and cool and modern. Like traditional home cooking is old fashioned. Then they put stores everywhere. Food delivery apps. Supermarkets on every corner. They made it super easy to buy processed stuff. Meanwhile finding fresh vegetables is actually harder now in cities sometimes. Convenience stores are everywhere but good vegetable markets are rare.
The Health Side Is Getting Bad
So the health stuff is serious. One in ten had diabetes. One in seven had prediabetes. One in four had belly fat issues. And these numbers keep going up every year.
Obesity and gets is also rising. Exports even claim that it will go up to 9.1% every year until 2035.
But obesity is not even the main problem. And it is not just calories either. The additives themselves are bad. The way they process it causes inflammation in your body. Your body does not even recognize it as food basically. That is kind of messed up.
The Weird Problem India Has
India has a weird problem. We have people who are fat and malnourished as well. Around 15% of Indians have pre diabetes. People are having vitamin problems and dealing with anaemia everywhere. At the same time, people are getting obese.
There is someone who eat a lot of packaged foods specially noodles or sugary drinks then the chances are quite likely that you can gain too much calories. Packaged foods lack vitamins and minerals, which your body needs. Real food has variety. You eat different vegetables and lentils and grains and different proteins. That covers everything your body needs. But processed food gives you calories and nothing else. It is like getting energy but staying hungry for nutrition basically. It is really weird.
Rules And Government Are Not Doing Enough
The government rules are kind of not working honestly. There are no warning labels on the front of packages that tell you something has crazy amounts of salt or sugar. Companies can say things are healthy while hiding the bad parts. Like a noodle package says high protein but does not mention it has enough sodium for a week. People have no way to know what they are actually eating.
The regulations basically just let companies do whatever they want. There is barely any control on marketing to kids. So, companies advertise sugary cereal and soda to children constantly. Entertainment partnerships. They literally get kids addicted to this stuff while they are young and that is legal basically.
What Actually Needs to Happen
India is at a crossroads right now basically. This diet change is happening. But it is not too late. There are still people who remember how to cook traditional food. There are still communities with real food traditions. Unlike rich countries where this took decades India might be able to change direction if we actually do something.
But it needs to happen at lots of levels. Government needs real regulations. People should develop healthy food habits. Schools need better food. Communities need to remember how to cook. All that together might work.
If nothing changes India ends up like rich countries with sick people everywhere. If something changes maybe India has a different story. The past is done. The future depends on right now basically. That is the whole thing.
FAQs
- Which of these foods are worst?
Sugar drinks are probably the worst because it is pure sugar and nothing else. After that instant noodles and salty snacks. Cereals with added sugar. Packaged baked stuff. Processed meats. All bad but some worse than others basically.
- Why did everyone stop eating traditional food?
Young people in cities do not know how to cook anymore. They grew up different. Life is too busy. Marketing made processed seem cool and traditional food seem old. Over time people just stopped learning to cook and now traditional food is disappearing in cities.
- Can people just eat healthy if they try?
Not really without systemic changes. Yeah, individual choice matters but you cannot fight a system designed to make you eat bad stuff. When processed is cheaper and easier and everywhere and heavily advertised and healthy food is expensive and hard to find telling people to just choose better is kind of pointless. The system has to change.
- What actually works to fix this?
Other countries use warning labels. Marketing restrictions to kids. Making sugary drinks expensive. Making healthy food cheaper. Changing what schools serve. That stuff actually works better than hoping people make good choices. You have to change the environment.
