News
 International
   Global Views
   Asia-Pacific
   America
   Europe
   Middle East & Africa
 National
 Embassy News
 Arts & Living
 Business
 Travel & Hotel
 Medical Tourism New
 Taekwondo
 Media
 Letters to Editor
 Photo Gallery
 News Media Link
 TV Schedule Link
 News English
 Life
 Hospitals & Clinics
 Flea Market
 Moving & Packaging
 Religious Service
 Korean Classes
 Korean Weather
 Housing
 Real Estate
 Home Stay
 Room Mate
 Job
 English Teaching
 Translation/Writing
 Job Offered/Wanted
 Business
 Hotel Lounge
 Foreign Exchanges
 Korean Stock
 Business Center
 PR & Ads
 Entertainment
 Arts & Performances
 Restaurants & Bars
 Tour & Travel
 Shopping Guide
 Community
 Foreign Missions
 Community Groups
 PenPal/Friendship
 Volunteers
 Foreign Workers
 Useful Services
 ST Banner Exchange
  Asia-Pacific
Rubbish Rubbish Food and Embrace Healthy Lifestyle
Special Contribution
By Shobha Shukla
Rubbish Rubbish Food and Embrace Healthy Lifestyle

Diabetes is a major health challenge, particularly in a developing country like India. Yet, we seem to be closing our eyes to this silent killer. Increasingly, younger people, including children, are developing diabetes, with the potential to cause serious complications that can derail lives and overwhelm health care budgets.

With India being at the threshold of an outbreak of obesity, insulin resistance syndrome and type-2 diabetes in children and adolescents, it is of immediate importance that we focus on the primary prevention of obesity and inculcation of healthy diet/ life style practices be started from infancy. Children/adolescents (especially those residing in urban areas) are at an increased risk for development of early onset of type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, more so due to nutritional westernization and sedentary life styles.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Dr Martin Silink, president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). He lamented that schools were not encouraging sports and that computers were overtaking the play fields. He wished that people would go back to the sensible living of yesteryears and make the children rubbish the junk food and their sedentary life style. They need to walk/ cycle/ run/ play, rather sit for long hours before the television/ computers. Otherwise diabetes and other non communicable diseases will subvert the gains of economic development in India. He also advocated the concept of ¡®health screening¡¯ of children at the school level. Singapore is already doing this and so is Japan, which is witnessing an unprecedented increase of type-2 diabetes in children.

The aim of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is to alleviate human suffering related to diabetes by focusing on prevention and care right from womb to adulthood. The ultimate aim is to encourage governments, policy makers and funding bodies worldwide to prioritize prevention and care. If appropriate public health action is not taken, disability and premature deaths from heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic heart disease will grow by more than 21% in Southeast Asia over the next 10 years.

The theme of the World Diabetes Day (WDD) for 2009-2013 is "Diabetes education and prevention." The World Diabetes Day (WDD) campaign is led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and its member associations. The WDD campaign calls on all those responsible for diabetes care to understand diabetes and take control. For people with diabetes, this is a message about empowerment through education. For governments, it is a call to implement effective strategies and policies for the prevention and management of diabetes to safeguard the health of their citizens with and at risk of diabetes. For healthcare professionals, it is a call to improve knowledge so that evidence-based recommendations are put into practice. For the general public, it is a call to understand the serious impact of diabetes and know, where possible, how to avoid or delay diabetes and its complications.

The World Diabetes Day (WDD) campaign slogan for 2009 is "Understand Diabetes and Take Control." Diabetes is difficult. The disease imposes life-long demands on the 250 million people now living with diabetes and their families. People with diabetes must deliver 95% of their own care, so it is of paramount importance that they receive ongoing, high-quality diabetes education that is tailored to their needs and delivered by skilled health professionals. In addition, IDF estimates that over 300 million people worldwide are at risk for type 2 diabetes.Type 2 diabetes can be prevented in the many cases by helping and encouraging those at risk to maintain a healthy weight and take regular exercise.

India¡¯s former union health minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, voiced similar concerns. He was emphatic that the aim of policies on health promotion should be to stimulate health awareness and to promote conditions which favored positive health. He was of the opinion that food labeling should become mandatory in India, wherein all packaged food have to contain information about weight, and the nutritive/caloric value of the ingredients used. He emphasized that the threat from junk food should be taken seriously and that schools should ensure that no junk food—from pizzas to ¡®samosas¡¯ - is sold in school canteens, to create a facilitating environment for the students. He also underlined the importance of teaching Yoga compulsorily to school children, as it had proven beneficial effects on one¡¯s physical and mental health.

Health initiatives taken at the family and community level will have the potential to snowball into a major health movement, which is indeed the need of the hour.

The role of parents, community, schools and teachers in contributing to the health of a nation is of paramount importance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General¡¯s Awardee (2005) Professor (Dr) Rama Kant who heads the Diabetic-Foot Care clinic in Department of Surgery, CSM Medical University, Lucknow, is of the opinion that the role of family and community will determine which way we want to proceed: the sweet path leading to bitter results or a healthy lifestyle. According to him, glucose monitoring in type-1 diabetes (a metabolic disorder in which the body produces insufficient insulin), requires constant family support. Type-2 diabetes is linked to obesity which in turn is linked to modern lifestyle changes. Parents are overworked and find it convenient to let their children feed on fast foods from an early age. High burden of school work, craze for the internet and lack of appropriate play areas in schools and around homes makes it difficult for them to remain active. Keeping this in mind, Prof Rama Kant is currently running the diabetes education project called ¡®MARG¡¯ (path), in many schools of Lucknow, with a view to prevent obesity and diabetes through healthy eating and active living.

According to Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, the regional director of WHO¡¯s South East Asian Regional Office (SEARO), one should not live to eat but eat to live. His simple mantra to avoid diabetes is to eat a proper diet (¡®no gulabjamuns, please¡¯ he said jokingly) and do regular exercise. He quoted himself as an example of bringing down his blood sugar levels simply by leading a disciplined life. He wanted the media to play a major role in advocating awareness about the benefits of a balanced diet and wished that the ¡®anti cola drive¡¯ should not lose its fizz and should be carried forward.

So the message is loud and clear. The prevention programme for diabetes and other non communicable diseases should start from the time of conception of the child in the womb. The pregnant mother should take all precautions to avoid gestational diabetes by managing her diet and physical activity. Once the child is born, proper food habits and tastes need to be developed in her/him right from infancy. Parents have to realize that feeding the toddler on coca colas and burgers is not a fashion statement. Rather, it is a diseased statement.

Television viewing and playing games on the internet should be drastically controlled, as this not only curtails the much needed physical activity, but also exposes young minds to the negative impact of junk food advertisements.

The proverbial seven to eight hours of sleep everyday are also very important. Recent studies have shown that insufficient sleep may trigger insulin resistance and reduced glucose tolerance.

So, when the unhealthy aspects of modern life styles are combined with reduced sleep duration, this might contribute to the increased risk of many overweight and sedentary individuals developing diabetes.

Only when we are healthy in mind and body, can we truly be called progressive as a nation.



Related Articles
    Ending Tobacco Smoking Is Bedrock for ...
    Asia Pacific Has over 6.7 Million New TB Cases
    Will Shorter, Safer and More Effective TB ...
    Whither Women's Reproductive Health in Asia ...
    Build the World We Want: Healthy Future for All
    New TB Treatment Breakthroughs Must Reach the ...
    How Will Children Living with HIV Grow Up ...
    Writing Is on the Wall: Pictorial Health ...
    Failing on the Basics: Are We Able to Break ...
    A Bouquet of Novel Compounds: New Treatment ...
    One Size Does Not Fit All: Expanding the ...
    Tale of Two Pandemics: Follow the Science and ...
    Governments Must Adopt a Strong Political ...
    What Is the Ring?
    Disability Is Not Limited to the Body, It Is ...
    Accelerating Progress on Sexual & Reproductive ...
    Stop This Shaming of Menstruation
    Complacency Breeds Failure: Consolidate ...
    For Age Is Opportunity No Less Than Youth ...
    New Study Pegs the Number of TB Cases in India ...
    Self-stigma: Let Us Do More Than Just "Ttalk ...
    We Cannot Eliminate TB If We Leave Children ...
    MDR-TB Treatment Rgimen: Short Indeed Is ...
    A Plain Face Can Take the Sheen Out of Deadly ...
    Strike at the Root of the Problem to Kill TB
    Antibiotic Use Is Driving Antibiotic Resistance
    Big Push for Transgender and Hijra Welfare
    Where There Is a Will There Is a Way: Teeja ...
    Lung Cancer: Difficult to Diagnose, Difficult ...
    Long Road to Justice: Human Rights of Female ...
    Medical Malpractices: Is There Light at the ...
    Overcoming Roadblocks in Translating ...
    Management of Respiratory Diseases beyond ...
    Gender Justice to Be at the Heart of ...
    Connecting the Dots: Tobacco Use, Diabetes, ...
    It Is Time To Control Asthma
    Call for No More New HIV Infected Children
    Smoking Goes Electronic
    Break the Silence around Cancer
    How Can You Treat Your Illness Unless You Take ...
    Asthma Medicines Still Unaffordable for Many
    New Technique to Prevent Diabetic Lower-Limb ...
    Cycle Beads: The Bead String for Family ...
    Beware: All Forms of Tobacco Are Harmful!
    Mother's Milk Is the Best Nutrition for the ...
    Where Is The TB Quilt, Nay Mask?
    Hello, This Is Nature¡¯s Call From Garbage ...
    Tuberculosis: Ugly Scar on Beautiful Childhood
    Towards A More Enabling Environment for ...
    What¡¯s Cooking in Kitchen: Peace or Conflict?
    Feed Your Child Well: Prevent Pneumonia
    Costly Medicines Mean Debt or Death for People ...
    AIDS Epidemic at a Critical Juncture in ...
    Watch Your Tongue Mr. Minister!
    Free Trade Agreements: A Threat To People's ...
    In The Pursuit Of Healthy Happiness
    Empowering Rural Women
    Say Yes To Life: Say No To Tobacco
    Homophobia Is A Human Rights Issue
    Viva La Woman Power
    Of Music and Divinity
    Wake Up Call on Childhood Obesity after Years ...
    A New Hope of Life for Our Ailing Education ...
    Reminiscences of Egypt
    Do Not Break the Nucleus
    Whispers of Sanity in the Frenzy of Madness
    Tobacco Cessation Can Piggy-back Ride on ...
    In The Spirit Of Freedom (from Tobacco)
    World Conference on Tobacco or Health to ...
    Requiem for Purity
    Rhapsody 2008 -- a Symphony of Different ...
    'Diabetes Doctor Is at Your Doorstep' in ...
    Activists Decry India's Deferment of Pictorial ...
    South-East Asian Diabetes Summit to Open Up in ...
    Special on Universal Children's Day
    The Wrath Of God
    World Food Scarcity and the Challenges of ...
    Victim of Terrorism -- the Common Man
    Teachers' Day: The Sacrificial Goat
    Hiroshima Day: Let Us Worship Peace and Shun ...
    Whither the Innocence of Childhood?
    Food for Thought -- on World Food Day
    Love Is the Missing Link in War-on-Terror
    Irom Sharmila: The Iron Lady
    India Poised And Shining
    Is It Just Another Day in Life of Indian Woman?
    He Has His Cake and Eats It Too
    To Be Young, to Be Married, and to Be in India
    The Mad Mad World of Ads

Other Articles by Shobha Shukla
    Whither Women's Reproductive Health in Asia ...
    Build the World We Want: Healthy Future for ...
    New TB Treatment Breakthroughs Must Reach ...
    A Bouquet of Novel Compounds: New Treatment ...
    One Size Does Not Fit All: Expanding the ...


Ms. Shobha Shukla has been teaching Physics at India's noted Loreto Convent, and has been writing for The Hindustan Times and Women's Era in the past. She serves as Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS). She can be contacted at shobha1shukla@yahoo.co.in)

 

back

 

 

 

The Seoul Times, Shinheung-ro 36ga-gil 24-4, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea 04337 (ZC)
Office: 82-10-6606-6188 Email:seoultimes@gmail.com
Copyrights 2000 The Seoul Times Company  ST Banner Exchange