Cheeni Kum

When Sanjeev Tanksali speaks about his work the stress hes gone through very nearly seeps into your system I am basically a retired HR professional from the corporate world says the 63yearold Pune resident speaking to us over the phone on a weekday at 10 am which is very nearly late for his schedule Part of his job was to identify nonperformers in the firm and fire them In the last 10 years of my career I hired 2000 people and fired more than 500 Thats a tough job Not everyone accepts it gracefully They feel bad and curse you he says describing what he calls a thankless jobDiagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2000 the pressure of the job he says only resulted in the blood sugars shooting up The obvious counterresponse was to increase medicationWith no restrictions to his diet he says his then doctor would just advice him to not eat sugary bites but the language was never a strict no it was up to his wife to keep tabs on his meals So at home I would avoid sweets and sugar but at work Id go right ahead and eat itThe glutenfree and oil free snacksTehseen Mehdi Dudani learnt to cook at SHARAN PicNimesh DaveLife changed in December 2016 when a serendipitous conversation with a relative directed him to Freedom From Diabetes FFD a Punebased organisation that promised diabetes reversal without medication The only caveat Hed have to turn vegan and up his exerciseHe did The result I stopped my medication in six weeks It would have happened in four weeks but at that time there was a get together with friends and I ate certain things that I was not supposed to says TanksaliFirst recorded 3000 years ago by ancient Egyptians what we now know as diabetes mellitus is to put it simply a disease which prevents the body from making optimal use of the energy from the food it is fed The food we eat is broken down into glucose which the body needs for daily activity For glucose to reach the cells and do its job insulin which is secreted by the pancreas is needed However when the body doesnt respond to insulin Type 2 diabetes insulin resistance blood sugar rises Type 1 diabetes is when the pancreas dont produce insulin The latter is a rarer form The former however is what we are more familiar withTehseen Mehdi Dudani was diagnosed with diabetes in 2012You suffer what you eatFar too familiar perhaps After all India is called the diabetes capital of the world with five per cent of the population suffering from the condition Diabetes has long been considered an irreversible lifestyle disease that can only be managed with medicine Now however the conversation seems to be changing And moving towards how dietary changes may in fact help not just counter diabetes but also reverse itDr Nandita Shah founded SHARAN in 2005 As a doctor she noticed that in general medicines rarely cure In fact over the years most patients medications spiral upwards But the body always works to heal We have observed this a cold a fever or even an injury or fracture will heal if the conditions are made favourable The reason for so much illness is that today we eat and live in a way which is far from what nature intended Every animal is attracted to food best for its species by instinct In nature we too are attracted to fruits and vegetables and a chicken or goat walking by does not give us the urge to attack and kill We have been conditioned to eat them As far as dairy goes every animal produces milk only for its young And we are not cows Therefore every infant after consuming mothers milk instinctively rejects cows milk But later we are so conditioned that its difficult to give upAccording to Dr Shah the best food for us would be plantbased whole unrefined and unpackaged Dr Pramod Tripathi who founded FFD in 2013 after having worked at SHARAN says milk obtained from animals contains insulinlike growth factor IGF He explains because IGF is a molecule that is similar in structure to insulin when inside the body it attaches to the insulin receptors However because it doesnt function like insulin the body is not able to shift the sugar from the blood to the muscle or liver cells which is why blood sugar rises Rising levels of insulin which is a growth hormone cause gain in weight Quoting the Williams Textbook of Endocrinology Dr Tripathi says an obese person secretes four to five times more insulin than a normal person and that makes the body store more sugar more fat and more water making the person gain weightDr Pramod Tripthi and the FFD team recently published a paper in the International Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology on the effectiveness of a vegan diet and exercise in Type 2 diabetes reversalBack to the grassrootsDr Shahs philosophy of eating what nature intended us to means avoiding even seed oils and cold pressed coconut oil Nothing wrong with fats though Eat peanuts or sprinkle sesame seeds on your food Whole foods come with fibre which protects the bodyIts a diet thats worked for 43yearold Tehseen Mehdi Dudani Diagnosed with diabetes in mid2012 she also discovered a borderline cancerous cyst in her right ovary at the same time Dudani who works in the banking and financial sector says it was unfathomable Since my mom is a doctor I have been careful of my health throughout I have always exercised and was never overweight I was particular about what I eat and never ate junk food Only during birthdays get togethers etc I would even take a take dabba from homeDr Nandita ShahAfter the diagnosis she says she didnt know what to eat Her diabetologist told her to desist from white sugar white rice and potatoes Even one piece of idli shot up her sugar levels to 200 Her diet of one roti one small bowl of sabji there was quantity restriction never reversed the diabetes Dinner would be soup and salad and breakfast would be egg whites and one slice of toast 121 cup of milk with tea or coffee She joined the SHARAN programme in early 2014 and in 21 days she says her sugar levels were back to normal Cooking lessons at SHARAN taught her how to cook regular foods without oil from poha and upma to besan chilla Even vegetable gravies and sambhar and Thai green curryBoth SHARAN and FFD have doctors who consistently monitor the patients their blood sugar levels and adjust the medication accordingly Dudani says she didnt tell her family doctor when she joined the programme but when she went back with her reports the doctor was surprised And then he said well keep on doing what you are doing since its working My HbA1c report the test that tells you your average level of blood sugar over the past 2 to 3 months was normal It was not in the diabetic range not even in the prediabetic range I lost 10 kg in 35 weeks which was a happy side effect she says Further my stress levels came down the mind was calmer and I was happierSanjeev TanksaliMore in the tribeJuhubased Dr Deepak Dalal a practicing endocrinologist since 1980 says reversal happens with medicine as well We have seen reversal from table and insulin for many years Those taking medicine and insulin consistently reversed to normal state without medicine and insulin And we have records of the casesTwo years ago having seen a patients transformation through FFD he attended a Pune camp as a patient I wanted to see what was happening I went there out of curiosity I am a strong promoter of lifestyle Its a wholistic management a complete management that includes a vegan diet which is big by itself in western literature and even in India We at his clinic also promote veganism to our patients who might be interested I have been vegan for about two years The other thing that FFD promotes is exercising meditation and pranayam he says adding I am not a proponent of Dr Tripathi I am just saying what I saw at the campDr Jason Fung NephrologistDiabetes reversal programmes are now being conducted in various forms across the country At Bengalurus Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusadhana Samsthana for instance a threemonth yogalifestyle programme has been conducted for the last 10 years Dr Amit Singh says a combination of yoga asanas with special concentration on bhujangasana vakrasana ardha matsyendrasana along with a controlled diet are specified There are no restrictions on meat or milk here but yes the emphasis is on a lowcarb lowsugar dietDr Anil Bhoraskar secretary of the scientific section at the Diabetes Association of India and retired chair of International Diabetes Federation southeast Asia says that they too have trained doctors across the country on the virtues of healthy eating To reverse diabetes we advocate that dietary fat should account for 8 per cent of the total calorie intake per day For instance if you are consuming 1600 calories you are allowed a total of two teaspoons of vegetable oil This has resulted in the reversal of diabetes in 25 to 30 per cent of those enrolled in our programmesAvoid fats with high Omega 6 he says These lead to heart disease diabetes and hypertension These are corn and sunflower oil which are promoted by the food industry Fats from rice mustard coconut and homemade ghee are high in Omega 3 Even olive oil Even here you should not exceed your daily intake of two teaspoons Its also important to keep a low carb diet Changes need to be made in our dietary practice Break up the calories 400 for breakfast of which 50 per cent should be protein Have a smaller lunch with 300 calories low carbs and low starch Dinner should have 250 calories This should be heavy in salads fruits and very little cereal Their diabetes reversal programme has been on for four yearsHe warns People should remember that reversal of diabetes and bringing the blood sugar to normal doesnt mean that you have got rid of the diabetic gene Theres no lifelong protection against it Many people do this for a year or two and then go back to old habitsThe piling numbersIn Canada nephrologist Dr Jason Fung advocates intermittent fasting IF and a lowcarb diet for Type 2 diabetes reversal In fact he says over the last six years he has seen a reversal in 2000 patients If you dont eat then your blood sugars will fall as your body burns it for energy If you do this regularly then youll lose weight As you lose weight the Type 2 Diabetes recedes he says adding that those doing IF for diabetes reversal will have to see longer periods of fasting Why then are more doctors not recommending lifestyle changes to their patients instead of medication Most doctors are simply not trained in nutrition and believe that drugs will cure everything even a dietary disease he addsDr Tripathi says in 2013 over 200 patients joined his programs By 2015 that number jumped to 18000 a year Dr Shah estimates that SHARAN has between 50000 and 60000 on its mailing list This would have been the number of people who have potentially benefitted from usIf the proof is in the lowcarb lowsugar pudding then why are more people not adopting a better lifestyle Dr Shah has an answer to that Most people dont want to change their diet People generally wait till they are desperate and then make changes When they are really desperate they are willing to change anything No milk no carbs No sugar Is life even worth it minus themTanksali who works with a Pune firm as a consultant focusing on recruitment HR policies and CSR laughs I was a big fan of curd Giving up milk and buttermilk was not a problem but I used to tell people that I could eat curd rice for all meals Today I see a 360ordm change in myself Theres more positivity I lost 18 kg in two years Your efficiency level and productivity improves The ability to come up with outofbox solutions also heightens says the man who once ate 33 puran polis at a wedding Today he is an avid runner with even the Ladakh half marathon under his beltA new endingA recent study published in The Lancet Diabetes amp Endocrinology journal stated that by 2030 98 million people in India may have Type 2 diabetes A WHO study put Indias Type 2 diabetic population at 692 million in 2015 Alarmingly the study stated that the amount of insulin needed to meet the worlds Type 2 diabetes demand would rise by more than 20 per cent in the same time possibly causing a shortage on the supply endBut before diabetes can be reversed there needs to be a cultural change Dr Bhoraskar says Changing lifestyle is also about changing culture Nobody will like it if you go to a wedding and are offered just nimbu paani and cucumber This requires longterm work and convincing peopleWhat diabetes doesDiabetesrelated complications include damage to large and small blood vessels which can lead to heart attack and stroke and problems with the kidneys eyes feet and nervesCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates