> Traditional Indian food is often very rich, with liberal use of oil and ghee. Deep-fried snacks like pakora, samosa and aloo tikki are widely popular. Indian sweets like jalebi, laddu and gulab jamun are staggeringly calorific. With rising incomes, a far wider section of society is able to eat plentifully.

While these are commonly found in some major cities in India, all of the items you mentioned are limited to specific regions of the country and few are traditionally Indian. I'm not trying to be pedantic, but I think it's important to keep in mind the timeline of these foods in India when considering recent trends in health.

I'll grant you that I oversimplified, but I think the broader point stands - the obesity problem in India isn't caused by the importation of Western fast-food culture, but is largely homegrown.

"Traditional" is a debatable term, but India has a far longer history of using sugar than the west. Jaggery and molasses are praised as health foods in Ayurveda, which isn't exactly helpful when you're dealing with a diabetes epidemic.

To clarify, what I meant by "traditionally" was "originally", and I realize these are not always the same thing.

I agree with this including your broader point. The process of refining sugar was apparently developed in India, which (in hindsight) didn't set a great precedent.

However, I would emphasize that Western fast food culture is partially responsible for the problems today. The combination of glorifying Western (usually American, courtesy of media and entertainment) values along with the availability of these items inherently brings many of the advances and dangers from these countries to India. Most would agree that there is a fast-food "problem" among various communities in the US, and anecdotally, it seems like related problems are emerging in certain communities in India as well. Granted, India also has a rich history of more traditional fast, cheap, and easily available street food, which seems to be the closest competitor to Western fast food. It is likely that both have contributed to the current condition, though I wonder if the promotion of Western fast food has contributed to a rise in Indian street food consumption as well.

Thank you for the links, this was really eye opening for me.