#ht summit

[salmankhanholics]

So why was I floating with @BeingSalmanKhan in Bandra late at night? Answer on Nov 30: day 2, HT Leadership Summit pic.twitter.com/IKDE4H6UwO

— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) November 24, 2017

[drmuffi-blog]

This is me at a panel I moderated at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in December 2013 in Delhi. My co-panelists were nutritionist Dr Anjali Mukherjee and Dr Arya Sharma, who is a professor at University of Alberta, Canada. It was a wonderfully productive discussion. Our session was called 'Trimming the Nation', and obesity was at the centre of the talk.

I have spoken, several times on this blog, about obesity, its causes, its dangers and why we must caution against it.

At the panel, we took this discussion further. While I emphasised that the number of obesity cases in the country have doubled over the years, we spoke about how difficult it is to understand and prevent this lifestyle disease. While diet, exercise and lifestyle choices play a significant role in battling excess weight, finding a cure for it is still an uphill task. All three of us agreed that sticking to a traditional diet which is rich in nutrition is vital, as is monitoring children's diets from a very young age.

At the session, we also discussed matters such as body image issues, societal and peer pressure to stay a certain size, and the complications of understanding a difficult disease such as obesity.

As always, I emphasise on the basics - a nutrition-rich diet, a regular exercise regimen and cutting down on stress as much as you can.