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Poor nutritional parameters, ranging from high cholesterol and triglyceride level in the blood to widespread smoking and alcohol consumption in men, expose the citizens of urban Karnataka to multiple health risks, according to one of India’s biggest urban nutrition survey.

The total cholesterol level among urban men and women in Karnataka is the second highest in the country, says the survey carried out by the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), one of the constituent laboratories of the ICMR.

Karnataka is among the four states with the worst LDL cholesterol levels (bad cholesterol) among the 16 states and Union territories surveyed by the NIN team.

While people living in urban Kerala have the worst LDL levels in their blood, it is followed by the three other affluent states, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, where a large number of population carry an alarming level of LDL cholestrol.

This is not all. Urban men and women in Karnataka have the worst triglyceride levels — an indicator of several diseases including heart complications — overtaking Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Diabetes is on the higher side in Karnataka and the state comes at the third position in the number of urban male smokers.

The overall data collected from 1.72 lakh people from more than 52,000 households in 16 states show that almost one-third to one-half of the men and women in urban India are overweight and are suffering from obesity-related problems.

One in every three men and women in the cities are suffering from hypertension and one in every three men and women are suffering from hyperlipidemia.

In addition, one in every five men is a smoker, while one in every three men drink alcohol regularly, adding to a long-list of risk factors.

The pressure of urban life reflects on babies, too. A majority of urban mothers in Karnataka give complementary food to the babies before six months.

Nearly 97% of urban mothers in Karnataka start complementary feeding before six months, ignoring the medical advice against early introduction of complementary feeding before the age of six months as it can lead to an increased risk of infections like diarrhoea, which further contributes to weight loss and malnutrition.

“Urban mothers starting supplementary food before 6 months is not a healthy habit,” Avula Laxmaiah, head of the division of community studies at NIN and lead author of the paper, said.