Punjabis are UNHEALTHIEST !!
Bitter BUT True..
You are at HIGH RISK !
India ranks a higher position than any other country with a higher number of people with High Blood Pressure. If we throw light within Indian states, it is Punjab that tops the list. The cultural and traditional food of Punjab is enriched with trans-fatty acids and these acids increase the possibility of death due to a heart attack by 28%. Could you imagine, all our lives we have been degenerating our health unknowingly? Punjab, being the largest producer and consumer of ‘Vanaspati oil’ (a vegetable oil excessively rich in trans-fat), must take severe steps to limit its consumption.
Moreover, people in Punjab used to be fit because of the physical assertion they received in the agricultural field. But with the advancement in the technology and everything being mechanized, physical labour of people has lowered while eating habit has increased. Definitely, the tremendous change in our lifestyles has affected the health of all generations throughout the country, which has reached an alarming state now.
Dr. Anjali Borhade, President of Disha Foundation has claimed in a report that,
“High blood pressure often has no warning signs or symptoms, and many people do not realize they have it. Left untreated, hypertension can cause disability or death.”
Time to say good bye to Trans-Fats. For God’s sake, do it !
Our health experts call upon the people of India especially of Punjab to maintain a healthy lifestyle while diet being the key. Replacement of trans-fats by healthier fats is the need of the hour. In addition, just keeping the diet healthy doesn’t solve all the problems, physical workout too holds equal importance here. Ghee and oil are not our enemies, but trans-fats are.
In a conference held at Chandigarh, the Joint Commissioner of Food and Drug Safety, Dr. Anoop Kumar, stated,
“The cardinal solution for preventing needless deaths and safeguarding health of present and future generation is the removal of industrially produced trans-fatty acids from the food supply”.
Health experts suggest that the first step to eliminate trans-fats should be spreading more awareness among the people about its ill effects. Secondly, the manufacturer of these acids should be targeted and production of trans-fats should be reduced.
Consume Healthy Food
Eliminating trans-fats from our diet does not mean zero consumption of ‘Ghee.’ Instead, pure Ghee is a very healthy dairy product which should be consumed but in a limited percentage. Dr. Eram Rao, Associate Professor, Delhi University, while emphasizing the benefits of pure ghee also states that,
“But fat should only be 20 percent in your diet. Which can be translated to 3 spoons a day of different types – one spoon makhan, one spoon desi oil (sesame, coconut etc) and one spoon vegetable oil (sunflower, peanut etc).”
Be an avid food lover but also stay fitter and healthier ever than before. Let us make our present and future generation more aware, healthier and diseases free.
Even excess of honey is bad. Yes, despite the savoury taste that food of Punjab offers, we must not neglect our health. A health expert’s report states that people in Punjab are heavily inflicted by cardiovascular diseases due to over-consumption of trans-fatty acids. Punjab accounts for the highest number of deaths due to hypertension. Hypertension is the world’s leading killer, rapidly spreading like cancer but no one cares to pay attention to it. The increasing number of people with these diseases in Punjab signals that the greasy food that we love eating is actually deteriorating our health.
Did you know, these trans-fatty acids reduces the good Cholesterol level in our body and increases bad cholesterol instead? Keeping the issue in mind, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) did a commendable job by regulating the amount of trans-fats in all oil and fats by not more than 2% by January 2022.
