By IANS
New Delhi : Get ready for some more do’s and don’ts from Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. An ardent crusader against tobacco use, alcohol and junk food, the minister is now planning to launch a healthy lifestyle website soon/
“I will be soon launching a healthy lifestyle website. It will be in different languages. It will tell people what to eat, what should be their ideal weight. It will propagate yoga and discuss ways to reduce diseases like hypertension,” Ramadoss told IANS.
One can access the site – www.healthy-india.org – on the health ministry’s website. But Ramadoss is not happy with the final product. He wants it to be interactive.
“I have asked them to work more on it. It should be interactive and the information on its pages should be updated every day. It’s being worked out,” he said.
Emphasising the need for the website, the minister said it is critical for people to know about how they should avoid lifestyle diseases, which have become a major cause of worry.
In its opening page, the site talks about the need for such a website to inculcate a healthy way of life and lists the reasons for rise in heart and diabetes cases in India.
“Chronic diseases were the reason for 53 percent of all the deaths in 2005, of these 29 percent were due to cardiovascular diseases,” it says.
It is estimated that by 2020, cardiovascular diseases will be the largest cause of disability and death, as a proportion of all deaths in India.
“India already has the largest number of people with diabetes in the world. India is the diabetes capital of the world. The occurrence of diabetes in urban Indians is second highest in the world; approximately 12 percent of the adults develop diabetes,” the website says.
The website talks in detail about the harmful effects of tobacco use – a subject Ramadoss champions. It was because of him that all tobacco packets now display pictorial warnings and for which the World Health Organisation (WHO) honoured him.
“The largest number of tobacco related deaths is also due to heart attacks. Tobacco kills more people than accidents and AIDS put together. In India, tobacco contributes to 56.4 percent and 44.9 percent of cancers in men and women, respectively,” the website says.
“Through this website we target the major causes of a majority of the diseases in India and work towards scientifically preventing them,” it explains.
The opening page says: “Your health is in your hands” and shows through pictures how to achieve it – eating fresh vegetables, doing yoga, exercises and staying tobacco free.
So to live a long, healthy and beautiful life – eat healthy food, including milk, nuts, whole grains – it says on the page, and advocates homemade spices and food.
The website also talks about how schools can help in inculcating healthy lifestyles from childhood and how employers can look after the health of their employees, thereby increasing productivity.
It also lays emphasis on hygiene. “Hygiene is an essential component of healthy living, integral to achieving health and preventing disease,” it says.
The website, created by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), an autonomous body, could also be used to calculate one’s Body Mass Index (BMI) and calorie.