A recent study done by America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed a startling metric: 78% of people who have been hospitalised, needed a ventilator, or died from Covid-19 in the US were overweight or obese.
The US is one of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19. It’s also a country with staggering obesity rates. According to CDC, 42% of US population was obese in 2018. Around two-thirds of the US population is overweight.
Obesity is defined as a BMI (body mass index) of over 30. Being overweight is having a BMI over 25. Your BMI can be derived by dividing your weight in kilos by the square of your height in metres (more easily, google BMI calculators and enter your weight and height). As an illustration, a person of BMI 30 with a 5’8” height would weigh 90kg. A BMI 25, 5’8” person would weigh 75kg.
BMI isn’t a perfect measure, but is still a useful, simple and universally accepted benchmark. Excess weight has always been associated with medical risks, such as cardiac disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, joint issues and stroke. Now, we can add Covid-19 to the list as well. However, while we recommended global lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing, we’ve not had the guts to publicly acknowledge what also needs to be done – people need to lose some weight to be safe from Covid-19.
We might say obesity is an American problem. Indians don’t have this issue to that magnitude. Sure, our population isn’t 42% obese (yet). In fact, we even have hunger and malnutrition in the poorer segments of the population. However, in the middle class and affluent population, there’s a growing obesity epidemic.
Indian data is limited. There’s a 2015 ICMR-INDIAB study, done across four states where 25-40% of urban population was found to be overweight (BMI>25), even as numbers for rural areas were better (4-20%). The study did not look at the BMI>30 (or equivalent of the obese category in the US). While we don’t have accurate numbers for India, we do know that a fair chunk of our urban population is overweight, and obesity rates are also climbing. Cardiac disease and diabetes data for India suggest the same as well.
The corona pandemic has given us yet another reason to pay attention to our health, particularly through diet and exercise. Your best defence against Covid-19 is your own immunity system. If you don’t take care of your health, diseases are going to hit you more frequently and harder.
Diet wise, there’s a growing awareness amongst Indians to eat better. However, there’re still tremendous misconceptions about what’s ‘healthy food’. I’ve myself been guilty of this misunderstanding, believing that if a food is deemed ‘healthy’, it’s OK to eat as much as you want of it.
Indians believe many high calorie foods are super healthy. Ghee, jaggery, honey, pure milk (which means full cream milk), white butter, fresh fruit juice, full fat paneer come in that category. Indians think they are ‘good’ for health. They may well have some nutritive value. However, they’re full of calories and thus they can easily lead to weight gain. That’s neither healthy nor good for an overweight person.
One of the cornerstones for weight loss is to eat in a caloric deficit, or consume less calories than you burn. In that sense, no food is healthy beyond a point. Portion control is vital, though never emphasised in our diet. Just because a food is part of our traditional culture doesn’t mean it’s good for us. Calories are neither patriotic nor culturally sensitive. Jalebis and paranthas and pakoras may well hold deep emotional value for us. However, inside us, they are all going to get converted to fat, just as burgers, pizzas and doughnuts will. Stop.
Many of our food traditions come from our roots as a farming population. Our forefathers did heavy manual labour all day. We sit at home watching web series or answering emails on our laptops, calling it ‘work’. We can’t be eating the same things.
One of the reasons the US has an obesity problem is food companies there have heavily marketed unhealthy foods. The same is happening here now. There’s no doubt – unhealthy foods taste amazing. However, they cause weight gain, which makes you vulnerable to various diseases, including the nasty one that shut down the world.
Eat a low calorie diet comprising vegetables (not cooked in buttery, oily gravies please), whole grains, proteins and small amounts of fat. Don’t eat anything that comes out of a packet kept for months.
The other important aspect is exercise. The government has promoted a Fit India initiative, with the slogan ‘Fitness ka dose, aadha ghanta roz’ implying a 30 minute exercise routine daily. Most of us can spare 30 minutes to move our bodies. Human bodies are meant to move, not scroll touchscreens and sit on a couch all day.
If you don’t exercise, your body will get damaged. Walk, take stairs, run. Even yoga is good, but exercise must have one component – getting your heart rate up. It’s good for you and your immune system.
Indians have tons of misconceptions about health, as seen in the many ill-informed WhatsApp forwards floating around about diet and fitness. Our diet is delicious, but needs a refresh to healthier lower calorie alternatives to suit modern lifestyles. A healthy you not only benefits you, but saves the country billions in healthcare costs. And yes, just like washing hands and wearing masks, getting fit will also save you from Covid-19.