Tag: obesity

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Eat

Go back to the kitchen

In a city teeming with processed foods, lifestyle diseases and rising inflation, cooking should be made compulsory for every individual. Here’s why.
by Ritika Bhandari Parekh

It’s time to learn how to cook. Besides getting compliments over time, cooking what you eat will help you respect your body and palate like never before.

Look around the city and you’ll find an advertisement or two on weight loss at every corner. Obesity is one of the major lifestyle diseases on the rise in our country. Blame it on the easy availability of junk food, canned ingredients, the lack of time in our busy schedules, or simply the fear of the kitchen, which has made us prone to this disorder.

Vani HariVani Hari, a US food activist (in pic on left), famously known as ‘The Food Babe’ has a simple solution for maintaining equilibrium in a world of supermarket dinners. She suggests cooking at least 15 meals per week at home. She blogs about how to make better choices at the food section of the market and steer clear of GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) ingredients in your plate.

Everyone – man or woman – should cook

The shocking revelations on her blog related to major food companies like Subway and Starbucks makes one realise how tricky it is to make a healthy eating choice. Luckily, most Indian cities have the advantage of a vegetable market just around the corner and so we should equip ourselves with a few cooking skills. Parents should teach not only their daughter but also their sons how to cook some basic dishes from scratch. The skills will help them survive in the maze of canned foods and their longevity will be attributed to their cooking.

Today, not even milk is free from the grip of the sugar industry, reveals British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. He started the food revolution in the US and Britain to change the way people eat and improve the nation’s health.

Why cook at home?

In his 2010 TED talk Oliver says, “The power of food has a prime place in the house.” He reveals that most Americans have not seen their parents cook and are therefore, clueless as to how to cook besides reheating and thawing frozen food. For him, the culture of eating is passed on at the home.

As a culture, Indian cuisine varies from State to State and even in States, from region to region. So Maharastrian cuisine differs from Konkani with the slight hint of flavours. A Google search willHealthy Indian food reveal how Indians living abroad are trying to make the most of the desi ingredients available to them and recreate the magic of ‘ghar ka khaana’.

With cooking being relegated to the status of an art and Masterchef Australia introducing us to the world of gourmet home cooking, suffice it to say that cooking at home has achieved cult status like never before. People are realizing that home-cooked food is the key to a happy and healthy body. So the next time you are at the supermarket make a better choice and try to pick more real food – one which is not processed or loaded with chemicals.

Lastly, here’s a thought by author Michael Pollanto to sum up, “The most important thing you can do with your health is cook. Cooking is more powerful than any medication.”

(Pictures courtesy www.vedicodyssey.com, wellandgood.com, www.wiseshe.com)

Categories
Wellness

Fat. So?

Obesity causes serious disorders, and goes beyond weight issues alone. Here’s how you can get out of the fat trap.
by Dr Jayashree Todkar

Part II

In the previous part, I mentioned my patient Priyanka Gupta (name changed), a 28-year-old suffering from severe emotional and physical troubles due to her obese condition, which had further wrecked havoc with her menstrual cycle and caused acute hirsuitness. She hadn’t had a regular period in a decade, and she had had to wax her facial hair every alternate day. Besides, she had to keep her face covered once she stepped out of her house.

I recommended that she undergo bariatric surgery to correct her condition. She decided to do it after a couple of visits, and she recuperated from the operation for two days. After this, she got back to her routine. But about two months after the surgery, she called me excitedly and said, “Dr Todkar, today for the first time in 10 years, I got my period without taking any medicines!” Elated that her body was indeed coming back to normal, she went on to say that her facial hair growth had also reduced, and that she needed to wax just once a week. She is doing very well now; her earlier problems have all but disappeared.

A surprising disease

Several people who come to me for treatment are surprised to discover that they have diabetes, or pre-diabetic symptoms. Also, apart from the embarrassment of having excess weight, young obese people, especially, struggle with sexual disorders – there is little to no desire for sex, their sexual performance is low, and on the other end of the scale, there may be infertility, a few cancers, the development of opposite-sex characteristics, and so on. The disease can cause severe inferiority complexes, cause trouble in personal relationships, and it is a major cause of depression among the youth.

While men’s testosterone levels may dip, women may struggle to conceive naturally, and even an IVF-assisted pregnancy may not carry for the full term. Several pregnant obese women develop gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and other factors that lead to miscarriages.

The cure

– Accept that obesity is a disease, and should be treated like one. Being in denial will only delay the treatment process.

– Understand that the disorders you are suffering from – PCOS, PCOD, respiratory problems, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea – may not be isolated incidents, but may be linked to obesity.

– Consult a good surgeon to explore options to improve metabolism, and this includes bariatric surgery. Do this before you make exercise and diet plans. Some obese people’s metabolism is better than others, so they lose weight in the gym while others don’t. Once your metabolism is corrected, all exercise and diet efforts will yield better results.

– Discipline and diet are key to good recovery and maintaining good health after treatment. Once your health begins to improve, other things fall into place one by one – your looks will improve, your self-confidence will rise, you will want to rebuild your social life, and your performance in all spheres will improve.

– Above all, don’t lose hope. Seek a scientific solution to the problem, and don’t feel victimised by your condition. There are fantastic solutions available to treat obesity, you just have to seek help before it is too late.

Dr Jayashree Todkar is visiting bariatric and laparoscopic surgeon, and Director of Obesity and Diabetes Care Center, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, Powai. She holds the distinction of being the first female bariatric surgeon in India.  

Categories
Wellness

Fat. So?

A two-part series that looks at what obesity is doing to young Mumbai, and how to get help in time.
by Dr Jayashree Todkar

Part I

Obesity is striking the young much more than it used to. Today, I am constantly counselling and treating men and women in the 20 to 30 age group, and they are wishing to be treated for a variety of disorders and diseases stemming from obesity or increased weight gain. This age group is the most ‘active’ age group – socially and sexually – but it also the age group that is increasingly sedentary in its lifestyle. Eating the wrong kind of food, little to no exercise, rising amounts of stress, not seeing a doctor for niggling ailments on time – all of these are contributing to the problem.

Obese people also do not link their condition with other things like infertility and diabetes, but there is enough evidence to show that obesity does cause hormonal imbalances, thereby leading to infertility and some cancers, both in men and women.

In women, especially, the incidence of Polycistic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is steadily going up, and several times, the reason is linked to obesity. We feel that obesity only manifests itself in weight gain, but the other physical and psychological impacts it has on the sufferer are complex and immense. For instance, several of my patients who suffer from PCOS take medications to get their menstrual periods on track. Once the medication is taken and the period arrives, they feel they have been cured. But stop the medication, and the problem resurfaces. A woman suffering like this has a harrowing time trying to conceive or take the pregnancy to term. Several times, pregnancy becomes impossible without IVF intervention.

The ovaries are amongst the first to show signs of hormonal distress. Irregular periods are a sign of a lack of healthy egg production; eggs are not fertilised naturally and hence, medications help to fertilise them artificially. I have seen young women show symptoms like highly irregular periods, scanty periods (where the period ends in a day), pre-diabetic conditions and worse, developing sexual characteristics of the opposite sex, such as hirsuitism. In young men, these characteristics could be a large enlargement of breasts (commonly referred to as ‘man boobs’) and deposition of fat around the penis. Men also experience decreased levels of testosterone.

Priyanka Gupta (name changed) called my clinic a few months ago, wanting to meet me but hesitating to come to my clinic. I agreed to meet her at a hotel. When she arrived, her face was entirely draped by a scarf. When she took the scarf off, I had tears in my eyes – her face was very hairy and she needed to wax it every alternate day. She was 28 years old, and her condition had primarily beaten her self-confidence, she couldn’t control her weight, and she hadn’t had a period in 10 years without popping pills. A month after undergoing treatment with me, she called to say that she had had her first period in 10 years without taking medication. Also, her facial hair growth had reduced quite a lot.

Next: How was Priyanka cured? Do you think your health problems could be linked to obesity? Find out in the concluding part of this series, tomorrow.

Dr Jayashree Todkar is visiting bariatric and laparoscopic surgeon, and Director of Obesity and Diabetes Care Centre, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, Powai. She holds the distinction of being the first female bariatric surgeon in India.   

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