Published Feb 27, 2026 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 27, 2026 | 8:00 AM
Representational image. Credit: iStock
Synopsis: India’s young adults rank 60th globally for mental well-being, far behind older generations at 49th. A Sapien Labs study links this gap to ultra-processed food consumption, early smartphone exposure, and weakened resilience. With 44% of youth consuming UPFs regularly, experts urge policy reforms—warning labels, school food regulation, and higher GST—to protect India’s future mental health.
India’s young adults ranked 60th out of 84 countries for mental well-being. Their parents and grandparents, living in the same country, eating the same food, ranked 49th.
The gap between these two generations runs deeper than anyone expected, and a two-year study across 85 countries now points to what sits on the plate as a key part of the answer.
The Global Mind Project, run by Sapien Labs, surveyed more than half a million internet-enabled adults in 2024 and 2025. They measured the Mental Health Quotient, a score that maps how well a person functions emotionally and cognitively. India’s 18-to-34 age group scored 33.
Those above 55 scored 96. Globally, 41 percent of internet-enabled young adults now experience clinically significant challenges to their mind health, and they are nearly four times more likely than adults over 55 to report that they cannot function productively through an ordinary day.
Walk through any urban market in India today and count the stalls selling packaged biscuits, instant noodles, flavoured drinks, and ready-to-eat snacks. 44 percent of Indians aged 18 to 34 consume ultra-processed foods on most days of the week. Among Indians above 55, that figure sits at 11 percent.
The Lancet has documented India as one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for ultra-processed foods, with consumption rising over 15 years and concentrated overwhelmingly among the young.
Ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are not simply food with added sugar or salt. They carry a cocktail of chemical additives, emulsifiers, and flavour enhancers that has grown more complex decade by decade. Researchers now link this consumption not only to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, but to something harder to see: the erosion of emotional regulation, cognitive control, and mental resilience.
One study concluded that “UPF consumption was positively associated with the risk of incident depressive symptoms, suggesting that accounting for this non-nutritional aspect of the diet could be important for mental health promotion.”
After controlling for other variables, researchers estimate that UPFs contribute between 15 and 30 percent of the mental health burden in the populations studied.
The report also identifies early smartphone exposure, weakened family bonds, and reduced spirituality as contributors pulling young minds down.
India’s current 18-34 cohort received their first smartphone at an average age of 16.5, and for the generation that follows, that number has already fallen lower. Yet both the younger and older generations ranked 28th globally for family closeness, and spirituality still functions as a support across age groups. India’s social fabric has not torn. But it strains under the weight of what enters the body every day.
Dr Arun Gupta, Convenor of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi), says the report compels a rethink. “This report compels us to rethink ultra-processed foods not merely as a contributor to obesity, but as a potential driver of declining cognitive and emotional resilience in our younger populations.
When dietary patterns begin to erode attention, emotional control and mental well-being, the issue is no longer individual choice; it becomes a matter of national human capital. Protecting the food and nutritional environment of children and adolescents is, therefore, an investment in India’s intellectual and economic future.”
India’s Supreme Court has already moved on front-of-pack warning labels for foods that run high in fat, sugar, and salt. The Economic Survey of 2025-26 recommended restrictions on advertising these products to children and adolescents. NAPi now calls for reform of school food environments and higher GST on ultra-processed products, and urges policymakers to treat the Global Mind Health findings as a signal for structural reform.
None of this targets industry as an adversary. It targets a public health gap that widens each year action stalls. The data exists. The mechanism is documented. The cost of waiting grows daily.
