You are what you eat

Fashion, Entertainment giving out messages that highlight that onus is entirely about appearances.

KARACHI: How is one supposed to react if Jane Fonda, the emblem of health and fitness had her ribs removed to attain a smaller waist? While this was two decades ago, a few months ago French model, Isabella Caro, succumbed to anorexia at age 28 and across the border, Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor rose to super stardom as she reduced to a size zero.

What kind of messages is the fashion and entertainment industry giving out about well being if the onus is entirely upon appearances?

Globally, the fashion fraternity faced a rather embarrassing moment when one of its prime players, Karl Lagerfield infamously stated, “No one wants to see round women.” Closer to home a famous stylist is looking like a 16-year-old with a few nips and tucks. An established brand in fashion photography often accused for creating camps in the fledging model industry have asked their models to drop a size or two and in a similar vein one has noticed ramp models grow exorbitantly in certain ‘areas’.

It was interesting and heartening to note that Vogue editor Anna Wintour, designer Michael Kors and model Natalia Vadianova headed a conference titled “Health matters: weight and wellness in the world of fashion”.

Since fashion has become such a buzz word in the country, the desperation to become thin has chartered new territories where all and sundry are perennially on some diet. While many try to whip up their own weight loss schemes, there is a segment that takes the intelligent option of going to a nutritionist — even though many argue that this too has become the latest fad.

Dr Nilofer Safdar, a Fulbright scholar currently pursuing her PhD in Public Health and Nutrition from the University of Massachusetts says, “A good nutritionist is one who does not have fixed formulas for weight loss. Each person and body type is unique and must be catered to with individualised diet patterns.”

But all nutritionist across the board agree that there is no magic wand or a quick fix solution and practice has dictated that weight loss requires exercise as well as changing food patterns, and genes play a pivotal role as well.

Dr Ayesha Khan is one for example, has gained popularity for her simple and effective plans that focus on eating every few hours with snacks in between. These plans keep the general human psyche and eating habits in mind yet are individualistic to suit each client. “My focus is always on the client and their personal goals and health targets. Not every client will lose 2 kilogrammes (kgs) per week (which is the average weight loss for my plans). For some who are obese such a goal is in fact demotivating, they need to lose more weight per week to keep on track,” says Khan.

“Losing weight is 20 per cent the result of a meal plan and 80 per cent one’s effort, will power and motivation towards achieving a certain result,” says Dr Afaq Ali Iqbal, a weight management consultant who specialises in paying attention to all aspects of human well being, particularly cognitive behaviour.

The common complaint with diets and nutritionists is that their clients do not lose weight ‘forever’ and as soon as they are off the plan they begin to gain. The problem here is that there is no going ‘off’. And there is no such thing as no exercise as without any physical movement the body atrophies. “The problem with Pakistan is the lack of physical activity,” stresses Dr Safdar whose research has shown that women in South Asia have a low physical activity level despite the house work that they do. “A consistent level of energy needs to be maintained for an activity to be called an exercise.”

While it is not desirable to obsess about one’s body by getting fixated on images of models, an educated and balanced approach to attaining physical well being in a nexus between the following: eat what is right for ‘you’, suits your personal life style, work ethic, food idiosyncrasies and incorporate physical activity. After all you are what you eat.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2011.