When my father was operated on for removal of tumor in large intestine after he was detected with cancer in colon, the surgeons were aghast to find he had many layers of fat in areas around his stomach. After the surgery, the doctors inquired of my mother if the fat had been a recent occurrence on account of tumor.
She said ‘no’ and the docs expressed grave concern that unless he shed fat post-operative, he might find it difficult to recover.
Eventually, my father did shed lots of fat and recover remarkably to live another 17 years. He was 6-footer with good physique and he loved his food. I don’t remember he ever made distinction between low-calorie and high-calorie food.
He would frequently say any food that tasted okay was good by him. No wonder, in the process he gathered fats that found his body a ready home to reside safely.
When the time came to say goodbye to fat, my mother took care that he didn’t hurry in cutting it down. Among other things, she would give him just about enough fruits, vegetables and fish spread over several intakes in a day, though to be honest, there were no such things on hand as diet charts or expert opinion.
The care came from her everyday experience, tested over time, and so within 6 months after he had the last spell of chemotherapy the docs prescribed subsequent to removal of tumor, my father was shortly fit and looked forward to resume travel which they so much liked.
I was at that time staying away from them, posted as I was in north India. When they came visiting there, their first visit away after his recovery, I was pleasantly surprised to see him trim, and more lean than ever.
Fat there was little, shirts fitting loose, face a little gawky, and though looking a tad tired, he was eager to make most of his coming.
He still loved his food, but would barely touch anything without a nod from my mother. That didn’t mean she was very strict in what he would have, but nevertheless he understood he just couldn’t have whatever he liked anymore. For example, deep fries were not given to him, while red meat would be served no more than once a month.
Gradually, over time he became accustomed to less food in general, and after he touched 80, he was more or less reconciled to the fact that to eat less was not bad after all. But he would still not accept that youngsters of today felt it important to have controlled diet. For them, he must have thought, dieticians are an unnecessary evil.
As I look back to his time, I cannot help feeling that cutting on food was then never imagined in remotest of dreams. Indeed, in my childhood, one of the most heard dictums would be none else than ‘unless you have food, you won’t grow’.
Things have now changed like never before. Hassles on way to decent living are now noticeably on decline, which means more and more people lead sedentary lifestyle, more so in advanced countries.
If normal working doesn’t entail too much of physical labor, it becomes doubly difficult to motivate oneself to voluntarily do even the basic workouts like walking, jogging, stretching, etc.
Which is why, experts feel, there is an alarming rise in obesity among urban populace. And now, going by the findings of Dr. Allan H. Conney and his team of Rutgers University, we come across that excess fat might raise the risk of cancer.
Dr. Conney’s paper being too technical for me to understand, when I speak to my mother on this, she agrees readily. Her logic is simple. Which is that if you eat more than what you need to, yet do not allow your limbs to do much work, you’re in fact allowing your organs too much leeway to conspire against your health.
She would less than often say no to have food as you like, but she strongly suggests lot of exercising. She is 77 and still works hard. I have no reason to doubt her opinion.
Related reading:
- Obesity and Cancer: Questions and Answers
- Physical Activity and Cancer: Fact Sheet
- Fat Cells and Cancer Risk
- Drink and walk to live healthy
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