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Fighting obesity
- By Raghav Ramful
- Published 27th June, 2008
- Society
- Unrated
He used to complain about chest pains and discomfort most of the time. He did not survive a heart attack when he reached 42. Jean Marie, my 13-year-old neighbour, was many a time teased by his classmates for his huge appetite and round frame. But no one could ever guess that his frequent complaints of headaches were not mere tantrums but the first symptoms of high blood pressure.
Obesity has been tagged as a global epidemic. But few people realise that it does not start and end at being overweight. In reality, obesity affects each and every organ and function of the body. Right from cholesterol deposits, hormonal imbalances to intestinal problems, obesity interferes with the smooth running of your body and affects your life in general.
America has been battling obesity for the last 25 years. Mauritius, till now considered to be a healthy nation, is gradually sinking into the gutters of bad food habits with changes in lifestyle. “Aliments like diabetes and hypertension are striking children due to obesity”, remarked Rani Balloo, president of Diabetes Parent Support Group. It has been noticed that there is a sharp increase in the incidence of obesity in children.
According to nutritionist Anju Poorun, the problem originated as the need to satiate the taste buds by creating more and more processed foods which through the process of refining, lost out on all the vital nourishing components good for the body. The good portion of the food was thus thrown away and only the highly refined products hit the shelves in the supermarkets.
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closer look at the daily eating habits of most people, says Poorun, reveals that products such as bread, fizzy drinks, snacks including biscuits, pizza, pasta, macaroni and French fries are consumed in large quantities compared to green vegetables, fresh fruits and juices. Such consumption pattern, she adds, is severely deficient in vitamins and minerals, and has a very high glycemic count that upsets the insulin balance in the body.
Metabolic syndrome
She underlines that may people still consume large quantities of rice, potatoes, pulses which are not sufficient to supply all the essential nutrients to the body. These foods collectively lead to metabolic syndrome responsible for obesity and other health problems. However, according to Poorun, both can be corrected by right diet and lifestyle.
It goes without saying that a big-sized person is fat, but what is important to know is that the real danger lies not in the gross size but in the actual amount of fat in the body versus the muscle mass. The bad news here, says Poorun, is that most Mauritians, especially of Asian origin have a very low muscle mass vis-à-vis their fat content which makes them very prone to obesity in relation to other ethnic groups.
“Obesity is the symptom of an imbalance in the body, a large-sized person is not necessarily obese if a large part of that size is muscle,” says Henry, fitness trainer at Asenko Gym in Moka. Besides being afflicted by diabetes, joint problems, sleep disorders, cardiovascular illness, skin and breathing problems and gynaecological aliments, a bulky man will face problems in going through treatments.
Obesity has been tagged as a global epidemic. But few people realise that it does not start and end at being overweight. In reality, obesity affects each and every organ and function of the body. Right from cholesterol deposits, hormonal imbalances to intestinal problems, obesity interferes with the smooth running of your body and affects your life in general.
America has been battling obesity for the last 25 years. Mauritius, till now considered to be a healthy nation, is gradually sinking into the gutters of bad food habits with changes in lifestyle. “Aliments like diabetes and hypertension are striking children due to obesity”, remarked Rani Balloo, president of Diabetes Parent Support Group. It has been noticed that there is a sharp increase in the incidence of obesity in children.
According to nutritionist Anju Poorun, the problem originated as the need to satiate the taste buds by creating more and more processed foods which through the process of refining, lost out on all the vital nourishing components good for the body. The good portion of the food was thus thrown away and only the highly refined products hit the shelves in the supermarkets.
A
Metabolic syndrome
She underlines that may people still consume large quantities of rice, potatoes, pulses which are not sufficient to supply all the essential nutrients to the body. These foods collectively lead to metabolic syndrome responsible for obesity and other health problems. However, according to Poorun, both can be corrected by right diet and lifestyle.
It goes without saying that a big-sized person is fat, but what is important to know is that the real danger lies not in the gross size but in the actual amount of fat in the body versus the muscle mass. The bad news here, says Poorun, is that most Mauritians, especially of Asian origin have a very low muscle mass vis-à-vis their fat content which makes them very prone to obesity in relation to other ethnic groups.
“Obesity is the symptom of an imbalance in the body, a large-sized person is not necessarily obese if a large part of that size is muscle,” says Henry, fitness trainer at Asenko Gym in Moka. Besides being afflicted by diabetes, joint problems, sleep disorders, cardiovascular illness, skin and breathing problems and gynaecological aliments, a bulky man will face problems in going through treatments.
