Indians and Triglycerides – Heart Risk Part 2
There is another heart risk factor just like cholesterol called Triglycerides. As long as I was in India I was never tested for high triglycerides. I guess it’s not the norm there to test it. But according to doctors here it’s important to have it checked too as it is significant like HDL and LDL cholesterol.
I was an avid juice drinker some time back. I have this juicer at home and I used to juice all kinds of vegetables and fruits. Like any other juice I love carrot juice and I used to drink it a lot.
My triglyceride levels just shot up a few years back and one of the main questions my doctor asked was about my eating habits. I told her that I was a vegetarian and I consume lots of vegetables and fruits and also different kinds of juices. I also told her that as a south Indian I eat a lot of rice. She didn’t have much to think about. She told me to totally cut down on Juicing and reduce my rice intake. I told her that’s pretty much what I eat. So she asked me to start eating lots of greens and not veggies like carrot, beet etc... which has a lot of sugar in it.
Unfortunately sugar and triglycerides go hand and hand. She told me that I was eating sugar in excess (not as a sweet) in the form of rice, carrots, fruits etc... She told me that everything we eat has to be in moderation and not to excessively eat one particular thing. After that incident, it didn’t surprise me that there is a high incidence of diabetes and Heart problems in India especially for south Indians.
2 comments:
Thanks for warning us. Yes, one thing I really like in the US is the yearly physical. We (atleast I) never used to go to doctor in India unless something was wrong. But here I make it a point to go every year.. mostly because of insurance. Also, we weren't very nutrition conscious there (as there is no requirement for products to have a label).
Our vegetarian diet is perfect if taken the right way but unfortunately we land up eating more carbs (rice). Now when I think back, I feel bad for those who eat heaps of rice.
I think the high risk might be because of genetics as well. Our life styles have changed. It is not like how it was when my grand parents were like us. We are surely more aware (Thanks to the media) of health risks. Unfortunately us, south indians (at least from what I know) have not been able to change our eating habits when it comes to reducing rice intake. I know of people that have tried brown rice (including myself) for a while but have not been able to stick with it.
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