It might shock him even more if he were to read this NY Times report on diabetes in India. In short, we ain't seen nothin' yet!
The International Diabetes Federation projects that the number of Indians with diabetes will soar to 123 million by 2040 as diets rich in carbohydrates and fat spread to less affluent rural areas.During my childhood, diabetes was referred to as a rich person's disease. Because, only those who were affluent could afford to eat the wrong foods and then sit and do nothing. The poor, on the other hand, barely had anything to eat and were constantly physically working in order to earn that meager food. Now, the country is immensely more prosperous than when I was a kid. Which means, yes, if the old habits continued, then the country is headed towards a diabetic explosion!
Dr. Yajnik said he believes Indians’ susceptibility to diabetes may have emerged as their diets changed with rising affluence — and that their bodies, attuned to scarcity, couldn’t handle an overload of food.The overload has been almost instantaneous, in the larger temporal context.
So, how is this overload beginning to show up even before the arrival of diabetes?
Since 1990, the percent of children and adults in India who are overweight or obese has almost tripled to 18.8 percent from 6.4 percent, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.Interesting coincidence, if you think about it. India opened up its economy to the world in 1991. Junk food was among other goods that came in.
One does not have to look fat or obese in order to have diabetes. They can be relatively thin too. But, there is a big symptom that typically juts out: The fat that collects around the abdomen. The spare tire.
In my boring regimented life, when people ask me for suggestions, I tell them it is a question of healthy calories in versus calories out. Mere reduction in intake won't help--the calories out depends on physical activity. Which is what a cousin in the extended family found out. After years of reducing his intake alone and getting frustrated that he still continued to gain weight, he took up running and exercising. Within months he lost quite some pounds. And he continued with that and built up the success. So successful that he was profiled in the newspaper a few months ago. "You should see him now," his mother gloated a few days ago.
Life is a procession of “frustrations and irritations”. The best we can do is to at least do our part to make sure that it is a short procession! So, get up and do twenty push-ups in order to reduce that abdominal fat that you have been fondly rubbing while reading through this post! ;)
2 comments:
Indians are also prone genetically to diabetes. That's a bigger problem than just the diet and exercise. If diabetes was simply a function of weight, without a doubt the diabetes capital of the world has to be the US.
Cheer up, about the opening of the economy. Yes, junk food came. Not that Indians needed your variety of junk food to grow fat - we have our own ghee and sugar excesses, remember. But also came fitness centres. There's a gym in every street corner in Bangalore. Hell, right opposite our modest home in a very middle class suburb of Kotturpuram, there's a gym. People of all shapes and sizes are to be seen trying to work away the fat. So there's hope after all.
I refuse to let your downbeat posts go unchallenged in this season of hope and cheer :)
Methinks that you are being defensive about the state of nutrition and diabetes and, therefore, hasty ...
"Scientists searched for genes that predisposed Indians to diabetes, but didn’t find them."
I urge you to read that entire NY Times report and--more importantly--distribute that widely.
The same article also talks about the gazillions that the US spends on healthcare because of obesity-related complications. In other words, if obesity were not such a crisis, the US would be spending way less on healthcare. Further, even in the post, I made clear that diabetic patients are not always obese. But, a typical sign is the big gut, even in the smaller built people.
The article talks about the junk food--everything from chips and soda to pizza and burgers to the Indian junk food--creating health problems in children. Economic growth and prosperity is a Faustian Bargain, and the devil always expects payment.
Kotturpuram is not middle class. I bet most people in the area are in the top 20 percent of India, perhaps even in the top 10 percent. The rungs below, in particular, fall victim to the massive propaganda of advertisements that convince them to eat and drink everything that is unhealthy. Unless one is strong-willed, of which there are very few, it is difficult to resist the endless stream of carefully created ads.
For this atheist, every day is a season of hope and cheer--but with eyes wide open.
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