'Food pollution' and cardiac health

Speaking at a special event on "Heart Diseases and their Management" the other day, chief executive of Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Professor Dr Bilal Zakrya Khan, made some important observations on the subject that merit serious governmental attention. Heart diseases, he said, are increasing among young college students in Pakistan due to a profound lack of awareness and preventive measures, pointing out that America had achieved a 50 percent reduction in heart attacks through adoption of a preventive strategy and modern healthcare methods.
He identified 'food pollution' as a major cause of increasing incidence of the problem, particularly its most common type, coronary heart disease. Other contributing factors include smoking, unhealthy lifestyles and lack of exercise. The reference to 'food pollution', apparently, alludes to increasing use of saturated fats. During the past few decades lifestyles, especially in urban areas, have undergone a significant change. But the idea of good food, especially when it comes to using fats that raise cholesterol levels in blood has remained more or less the same.
In the predominantly agrarian culture of the not so distant past 'ghee' (melted butter) was regarded as a health tonic, which was not as harmful as its common replacement: the shelf stable but cholesterol-rich hydrogenated oil. Besides, work-related exercise was strenuous enough to help counter any negative effects. City dwellers too had much more active daily routines. A vast majority in urban areas now lives a sedentary life while schools place less and less emphasis on physical training. Yet, the habit of eating foods cooked in thick layers of saturated fats has stayed.
Provincial governments, which now manage both health and education sectors, have a responsibility to check this trend. They must create better awareness about the need to adopt healthier lifestyles. That should start at the school-level with young people getting vital information through curriculum about healthy eating and staying fit along with regular physical training activities. Also helpful would be periodic awareness raising media campaigns about risks 'food pollution' poses. As for another aggravating factor, it has been a while since the government imposed a ban on smoking in public places, yet implementation remains largely ineffective. The ban ought to be fully enforced. Preventive healthcare must get the priority it deserves. Money should not act as a constraint, given that money spent on preventive measures is money saved on hospitals and other treatment facilities.