Allow me to introduce you to the two Poisons of our time, with which are poisoning ourselves and also our children on a daily basis –
Uncontrolled
Salt/Sodium
Sugar
In our daily diet which we consume without any mindfulness.
This thread began cuz last week I diagnosed a 20 yr old with Hypertension.
On evaluation we could not find any of the routine organic culprit for hypertension in such a young person. Patient was a non-smoker, slightly overweight but not obese.
I found the culprit in their Diet.
I took a detailed history of the very day diet that this kid has been consuming on a daily basis, some common ingredients that we allow our children to consume unsuspectingly came about in the list – Readymade pasta, Namkeen, Sauce, Mayonnaise, Maggi, Cornflakes, chips, biscuits
The parents of the kid were having an extremely hard time believing that these little snacks in the diet of their child could have contributed to their Hypertension, so I spent the weekend clicking pictures and evaluating the salt & sugar components of a lot of these
I am sharing snapshots of some daily packaged foods consumed in our households where I have marked the salt & sugar contents.
Apart from sugar, maltodextrin, starch, corn extract etc also are sugars so they should not be ignored.
Same applies for salt, sodium benzoate is salt
While I was doing this –
I found a lot of popular well known brands not being compliant about mentioning salt/sodium intakes on their products.
I also found out that invariably almost all packaged foods that contain oil use Palm oil (the labels above show this)
I haven’t even touched stuff like chocolates, candy snacks, cola or biscuits as of yet
As a cardiologist this blows away my mind because this means I am looking at a Hypertension, Diabetes & Cardiovascular disease pandemic explosion in the next coming decade in Indian population.
Read the labels carefully.
As parents of kids and as individuals whose health as well as finance is directly impacted by the consequences of consumption of such high levels of sugar and salt intake it is imperative that we become more aware of what we are consuming.
Also, the Ministry of Health in India really needs to get down to being serious about – Sugar and Salt level daily intake limits and also limits according to age and diseases both in our routine diet & in our packaged foods.
The Ministry “MUST” ensure that – 1) Labels are not in fine print or reduced to a corner but very clear and directly visible.
2) That Salt & Sodium amount should be clearly mentioned
3) Content of all major sugars should be mentioned
4) The sham of sugar free labels while containing maltodextrin or honey extract or corn syrup needs to be checked.
As individuals it is imperative to have conversations around this so that we become mindful, to amplify this for our govts and corporate manufactures to act.
Building public opinion is what leads to change.
Also, I have quite literally said this too many times & on many forums to no avail, that medical bodies of India like @IMAIndiaOrg , CSI, IAP should be up in arms about making noise & bringing in needed regulations on this issue. But haven’t really seen much happening
Allow me to introduce you to the two Poisons of our time, with which are poisoning ourselves and also our children on a daily basis –
Uncontrolled
Salt/Sodium
Sugar
In our daily diet which we consume without any mindfulness.
This thread began cuz last week I diagnosed a 20 yr old with Hypertension.
On evaluation we could not find any of the routine organic culprit for hypertension in such a young person. Patient was a non-smoker, slightly overweight but not obese.
I found the culprit in their Diet.
I took a detailed history of the very day diet that this kid has been consuming on a daily basis, some common ingredients that we allow our children to consume unsuspectingly came about in the list – Readymade pasta, Namkeen, Sauce, Mayonnaise, Maggi, Cornflakes, chips, biscuits
The parents of the kid were having an extremely hard time believing that these little snacks in the diet of their child could have contributed to their Hypertension, so I spent the weekend clicking pictures and evaluating the salt & sugar components of a lot of these
I am sharing snapshots of some daily packaged foods consumed in our households where I have marked the salt & sugar contents.
Apart from sugar, maltodextrin, starch, corn extract etc also are sugars so they should not be ignored.
Same applies for salt, sodium benzoate is salt
While I was doing this –
I found a lot of popular well known brands not being compliant about mentioning salt/sodium intakes on their products.
I also found out that invariably almost all packaged foods that contain oil use Palm oil (the labels above show this)
I haven’t even touched stuff like chocolates, candy snacks, cola or biscuits as of yet
As a cardiologist this blows away my mind because this means I am looking at a Hypertension, Diabetes & Cardiovascular disease pandemic explosion in the next coming decade in Indian population.
Read the labels carefully.
As parents of kids and as individuals whose health as well as finance is directly impacted by the consequences of consumption of such high levels of sugar and salt intake it is imperative that we become more aware of what we are consuming.
Also, the Ministry of Health in India really needs to get down to being serious about – Sugar and Salt level daily intake limits and also limits according to age and diseases both in our routine diet & in our packaged foods.
The Ministry “MUST” ensure that – 1) Labels are not in fine print or reduced to a corner but very clear and directly visible.
2) That Salt & Sodium amount should be clearly mentioned
3) Content of all major sugars should be mentioned
4) The sham of sugar free labels while containing maltodextrin or honey extract or corn syrup needs to be checked.
As individuals it is imperative to have conversations around this so that we become mindful, to amplify this for our govts and corporate manufactures to act.
Building public opinion is what leads to change.
Also, I have quite literally said this too many times & on many forums to no avail, that medical bodies of India like @IMAIndiaOrg , CSI, IAP should be up in arms about making noise & bringing in needed regulations on this issue. But haven’t really seen much happening
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