If you eat fast food everyday, you are consuming unhealthy food. The daily diet of people in india is not samosa and jalebi, it is daal, roti sabzi in north india and sambar,idli or dosa in south india. There are lots of foods which are more rich, but are party foods.
In america the staple food includes beef( red meat - atherogenic). Children in schools eat burgers and fries (loaded with fat) everyday. Most pizzas are loaded with calories and cholesterol. It is what you eat everyday that affects your health, not what you eat occasionally.
I am not saying indians have self will to eat healthy food. It is just that the foods have more vegetables and fiber. If they start consuming westen diets everyday they will also have the same problems. Other easter foods- thai, jap, chinese are also healthy because of more vegetables and also sea food.
Healthcare in india needs a tremendous facelift.
There is a need for infrastructure building. This does not include hospitals alone. There is almost no health insurance, which impedes rural health care. It is only now that health insurance policies are being offered, but are still confined to cities.
India produces a large number of doctors every year. But they cannot go to rural areas because of lack of incentive. Most of them are highly skilled and qualified. After years of hard work, everyone wants to earn a decent living. People in rural areas do not and many times cannot pay enough for their health care. So urban areas are supersaturated with doctors causing tremendous competition while rural areas have almost none. Health insurance in the US is a major cause of good health services.
Who can pay $ 200,000 for a coronary bypass surg. But insurance takes care of such issues.
I feel if there is a viable health insurance in India, which is also availed by the people on a big scale, it will provide a lot of incentive for doctors, hospitals and health care providers. The market of healthcare in India is unparalled. No other country barring China has so many patients. Just like telecom, which has boomed beyond proportions, health care can be a big money spinner, provided some legal changes are made. As of now, every inch of the country is connected by telecom(mobile phones) and services are offered at throw away prices, health care is waiting for legislation. There is no dearth of business corporations.
One legal change would be to provide tax incentives to insurance companies to provide health insurance policies in the rural sector.
Numerous economic policy changes have led to good results and the results on the Indian economy is for everyone to see.
