New Delhi: In a move to promote healthier eating and tackle the growing obesity crisis, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, will soon install “Sugar and Oil” information boards across its canteens and cafeterias. These boards will show details like the sugar, oil, and calorie content of the food items being served, enabling patients, staff, and visitors to make better food choices, reports India TV.
Dr Rima Dada, Professor at AIIMS Delhi and official spokesperson, said the initiative is timely and necessary. “This is an important step. Obesity is rising fast—not just among adults, but also among children. We’re now seeing diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure in children, which used to be common mainly in older people,” she said.
She added that the plan aligns with the hospital’s push for better nutrition, a goal previously emphasized by AIIMS Director Dr M Srinivas. The new boards aim to make people more aware of what they are eating and encourage healthier options within the hospital.
In a similar move, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has directed all its affiliated schools to put up ‘oil boards’ on their campuses. These boards are meant to visually explain the health risks of consuming too much oil, especially among children.
Referring to recent studies, the CBSE circular pointed out: “As per NFHS-5 (2019–21), more than one in five adults in urban India are overweight or obese.” It also cited the Lancet Global Burden of Disease 2021 study, published in 2025, which estimates that the number of overweight and obese adults in India could increase from 18 crore in 2021 to nearly 45 crore by 2050—making India the second-most affected country globally.
The CBSE circular noted that poor eating habits and lack of physical activity are among the key reasons for rising childhood obesity. These efforts follow a proposal made by the Union Health Ministry in June, which called on government departments and public institutions to prominently display the sugar and oil content in commonly available food items like pizzas, burgers, samosas, vada pav, and kachoris.
With medical institutions, schools, and government departments working together, the initiative marks a united nationwide push to promote better nutrition and raise awareness about lifestyle diseases across all age groups.
