Dr. P K Sasidharan
“Through our inaction, we have tragically crowned India as the capital of all diseases.”
There are umpteen number of social media influencers giving ‘health tips’ only to misguide people and to make them eat only the wrong foods.
Someone would say millets and jackfruit are ideal for diabetes, another would recommend oats for cholesterol, yet another would ask them to avoid eggs for cholesterol control, some would tell them to avoid chicken for piles – or to avoid pulses or potatoes if there is dyspepsia etc.
Now the star is dry fruits and nuts which almost every other person is using very frequently to build up stamina and glowing skin. This is besides the numerous health products to eat or to apply on the skin or hair.
“Celebrities, through their popular ads, are the harbingers of death, they help selling junk foods, fast foods, and so-called health drinks that mislead people and ultimately end up killing them in the long run.”
Traditional doctors talk only about restrictions and end up having no proteins in the diet or people are made to eat the wrong proteins in diet.
Modern medicine doctors even do not talk about diet to their patients, they think that it is a waste of time and leave that very crucial job to dieticians.
In fact, all doctors are supposed to prescribe individualised, scientifically balanced diet, food being the primary medicine, and advise them on proper lifestyle irrespective of their diseases.
This is done after assessing their health status and dietary inadequacies and the wrongs in lifestyle practices.
Dieticians are there for arranging, organising or dispensing the prescribed diet, in a hospital setting, individualised diet based on doctors’ prescriptions, in a custom-made manner to make it most appropriate for patient’s health status.
If doctors are not prescribing proper food habits and lifestyle changes to their patients, they are literally mismanaging their patients.
Sooner we realise this, it is better for themselves and the society.
The traditional medical and religious practices, have deprived people of the most essential nutrients in diet, including proteins and they end up eating excess carbohydrates or excess of one or more items.
We need to reform our health systems with doctors, who can guide them scientifically, and working in the community setting.
“Despite India’s wealth, millions of its citizens are trapped in the vicious cycle of wrong food habits, malnutrition, and undernutrition.”
To add to the wrongs in diet and lifestyle which manufactures non- communicable diseases, there is poor waste management and unsafe tap water which give infections. Absence of physical activities is universally very common and we talk only about health clubs and gyms – rather than making footpaths, cycle paths and public spaces.
AN APPEAL: “Public health in India has become a neglected orphan, and through our negligence, we have turned our nation into the capital of all diseases.”
It is nurturing a haven for selling more and more health drinks and medicines, building more hospitals, more medical colleges and to sell all unscientific and unscrupulous practices in the name of health care
But there is no one to guide people scientifically- since we have eliminated the sensible GP doctors in the mad race for specialisation.
CALL TO ACTION: “We must urgently reform our health systems, empowering doctors to guide communities, scientifically and effectively.”
