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Sunday, November 22, 2015

From stretching stomachs to cutting them off -1

You can eat to live or live to eat, the choice is yours. There are many aspects to the latter way of living. When we eat more than our share, we are contributing to the hunger of people who go without food around the world. Then we are making our organs overwork to digest and store the excess food as fat in the body. And every body knows obesity can lead to many chronic diseases.

If we look at the changing social scenario over the years, it is clear that food obsession is definitely on the increase. And the dinner time is getting more and more delayed. At one end of the spectrum, there are people who have their dinner before sunset and at the other end the dinner table is set only after 10 pm.  Sleeping soon after the dinner also leads to diseases.

Stomach has elasticity

Our stomach is elastic in nature. The more we eat, the more it gets stretched. And when we do that as a habit, the size of the stomach increases and then unless we eat the same amount, we feel hungry. This property of stomach also makes it possible to gradually decrease the amount of food consumed and you can come back to a stage when the stomach feels full with the ideal quantity of food you need. But this can’t be achieved overnight.

How are people increasing the size of their stomach? Let’s start from the tea and coffee that is consumed daily. I saw that our tea cups at home hold 125 ml of tea/coffee. 


When we go to have coffee at the Star Bucks, I am amazed at the quantity of coffee people drink. We buy one medium sized cup of coffee and between my husband and me, we find it difficult to finish that. And I see people around having large cups!



                              See multinational's trick to make you consume more and more.

Now this increase in size has invaded homes too. Look at the coffee cup sizes you see in TV programmes. You keep watching that and next time you go the market, you get those huge cups as you think it is the ‘in thing’ now.





During parties and get togethers, when I see the amount of appetizers being gobbled, I really wonder from where the space is created for the huge amount of food that is consumed during the ‘main course’.

                                          
                                          Appetizers- usually one wants to taste all varieties 

Effect on the body

Over time, all these foods that one has consumed shows up in the body as bulging abdomen and obesity. 




Self image is also very important in the social circle. So they start looking for methods to regain the body shape. And most of us want quick fix. But the truth is that only gradual and consistent reduction will be long lasting.

The remedy?

As mentioned earlier, one has to gradually keep reducing the amount of food eaten per meal .Those above forty (or at least fifty) should start eating only salads or fruits (whichever they prefer) for dinner, preferably before sun set. Habit of drinking warm water should be developed, and never reach for that water bottle in the refrigerator!

Exercising is also very crucial for weight reduction. One can choose from yoga, walking, running or aerobics. Determination and persistence are required to achieve the weight reduction, and you are sure to succeed!


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