Studies reveal that India will be at the helm of diabetes by 2050 if the abdominal and lower limb obesity and metabolic syndrome
are not taken care of. Alarmed by the reports, the Health Ministry of India has reduced
the cut-off for body mass index (BMI) to 23 kg/m2 to fight the battle against
obesity. If your BMI is over 23 kg/m2, then you are considered overweight. The
global standard for this is a BMI of 25 kg/m2. So, someone considered
healthy by most international standards, might be overweight in India! BMI
is the ratio of the body weight in kg versus height in m2.
The guidelines were released jointly by the Health
Ministry, the Diabetes Foundation of India, the All-India Institute of Medical
Science (AIIMS), Indian Council of Medical Research, the National
Institute of Nutrition and 20 other health organisations - Those with BMI of 25
kg/m2 will be clinically termed obese (as opposed to 30 kg/m2 at the
international level) and those with BMI of 32.5 kg/m2 will require bariatric surgery to eliminate excess flab.
Along with the BMI guidelines, they have also released
guidelines cut-offs for waist measurement at 90 cm for Indian men (as opposed
to 102 cm globally) and 80 cm for Indian women (as opposed to 88 cm at the
international level).
The study says one in every three Indians has high
triglyceride (bad cholesterol) levels and 30-70 per cent has low levels of HDL
(good cholesterol). For every 10 extra kilograms above the stipulated body
weight (measured according to height), life expectancy of a person reduces by
three years – the report said.
By the new obesity guidelines, every second person in Delhi
fulfils the criteria of obesity or has excess abdominal fat and nearly
one-fourth of the adolescent population in the capital has metabolic syndrome that heralds the onset of heart diseases and
diabetes. So, what are planning to do, to avoid obesity? Here are some
ways.
How to control over-eating
Are you tired of your binge eating habit? Do you find
yourself giving into temptation to gorge down delicious food and before you can
control it’s too late and the damage of consuming excessive calories is already done? Why do we find ourselves making the same mistake
over and over again and how can you salvage the situation and control
overeating in future?
The need to obsessively over eat is mostly triggered by
emotional factors. Either you are too sad, too happy, too tired or simply bored
when you get this intense urge to eat. Some studies even blame our ancestors
for our compulsive binging behaviour. According to them, our primal ancestors
were hunters and gatherers and went without food for long periods, so once they
found it they would eat everything they could get their hands on. The
latest research suggests that starving leads to overeating and is also
responsible for slowing down of metabolism. This leads to storing of
food in our bellies which is linked to heart diseases and acquiring diabetes type 2.
A binging outburst can set you back to a minimum of
1000 calories per meal and above your daily calorie intake. This means that you
could be potentially adding up to 1 kg each time you have 2 bags of
chips while just chilling in front of the TV!
Knowing your triggers can help you minimise the damage. The
logic behind cravings for high carbohydrates or sugar foods is that as they
spike insulin levels in the body and release endorphins, also known as the
pleasure hormone. This is the actual trigger that causes us to binge over and
over again. There is a healthier alternative to this addiction. There are
studies that have proved that exercise can also trigger the same
happy hormone. Besides the fact exercise is great for health and helps keeping
the lifestyle related disorders at bay.
The biggest downside to seeking solace in high sugar/carbohydrate food for emotional need is that over a period of time your body develops a
natural resistance towards them. So your body craves more quantities to get the
same desired effect. For e.g. If one slice of cake was enough to make you feel
good before with time you will need at least two slices to trigger the same
feeling. It’s a tricky situation to get dependent to relieve stress or
solve any other emotional conditions. Eventually it’s a mind over matter game.
If you can understand your action you can control your behaviour in time and
prevent causing damage to your health.
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