Students leave college wiser, fatter

Updated on: Friday, July 01, 2011

All work and no play is making city students not only dull but fat. City teenagers going on 17 are carrying not only the heavy burden of parental expectations but extra kilos that they gain in their classrooms.

Doctors in the city report that intermediate students are becoming more prone to lifestyle health problems gaining as much as 10 to 12 kgs over the two years they spend in the college. So students chase better grades, spending long hours cramming in cramped classrooms, and walk out much heavier after two years of backbreaking studies. The absence of playgrounds and large campuses, places for recreation and athletics for these students or even the scope to indulge in any extra curricular activity is only fuelling the obesity trend.

Both boys and girls of this age group face their own unique set of problems. Boys, as young as 17 or 18 are suffering from obesity and diabetes or even arthritis, while girls find themselves plagued by Poly-Cystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD).

"Adolescent diabetes is on the rise. But what is alarming is the increase in the number of PCOD cases because of obesity. I see at least five to seven cases of PCOD among girls in their late teens, every month," said Dr Lalitha K, uro-gynaecologist, Yashoda Hospitals, adding that this trend has been on the rise in the last six to seven years.

"In college, all I wanted was to get an excellent rank and make it to a good engineering college and I only ended up being obese,'' said an IT professional, who studied in a private intermediate college in the city and is currently battling PCOD. "Intense competition in the most important years of their life makes them lead a blinkered existence as they exclude good fitness and health practice from their regimen," said Dr M V Rao from Apollo Hospital.

Far-from-ideal food habits are also another contributory factor. "These students may carry their lunch from home, but they binge on junk during their breaks. The high sodium, carbohydrates and cholestrol in this usually greasy fare adds to their weight gain, as it is coupled with a sedentary lifestyle without exercise," said Dr VSV Prasad, chief consultant paediatrician, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS).

But college authorities feel they cannot be blamed for the students' tendency towards obesity, and want to shoulder no responsibility for the students sitting down for 12-hour days. "I know students of this age who are affected by arthritis, but there is nothing we can do," says a source from a leading private college.

And once the all-important board exams are over, slimming centres in the city see a spurt in students trying to shed that weight. "We get many 18-year-olds who have just completed their class 12. They then desperately want to get back in shape for college and look at slimming down drastically in just a couple of months," said Sahana, a trainer at La Belle slimming centre.

Times of India

Students leave college wiser, fatter

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