Thursday, November 30, 2006 Doctor: Chicken, white meat for Xmas for better health By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE holiday season makes for indulgence and a diabetologist warned it's best to stick to healthy eating habits to lessen the risk of diabetes -- healthy eating habits that can entail sticking to white meat and chicken instead of the fat-marbled sweet ham.
Dr. Roy Ferrer, diabetologist of the Davao Medical Center Diabetes Treatment Clinic, said Wednesday during the Club 888 press conference at the Marco Polo Hotel that people should always take care of their food intake everyday, but most especially during the holidays.
"I advise you to eat chicken meat, excluding the skin, and other white meat products like fish and also vegetables. You should not take foods that are rich in saturated fats because diabetes could not be obtain only by increasing sugar level but also by increase in cholesterol," Ferrer said.
Diabetes, he said, is the sixth killer disease in the country. Cardiovascular diseases remain on the top spot.
"Diabetes actually is also a silent killer disease, diabetes could lead to heart failure or heart attack, you could not feel the pain, suddenly you'll just fall because the veins in your heart are being blocked by cholesterol," Ferrer explained.
The preventive measures for diabetes is that, one should have an ideal body weight and correct eating habits.
"The increase of one's weight is the source of the problem. If one is overweight or obese, there is high probability to be high-blood," he said.
Ferrer added that women should have a waistline of less than 35 inches, while men should maintain a less than 40-inch waistline, otherwise he or she is already obese.
Ferrer said the number of diabetic patients who come to his clinic daily is increasing.
"I attend to five to 10 new patients daily, I even have an 18-year-old patient and his diabetes is already type 2," Ferrer said, adding that type 2 diabetes is normally the diabetes for adults.
Diabetes type 1 is the one most prevalent among children.
Ferrer said about 7,000,000 Filipinos have diabetes since 1995, according to the data that was based from the survey conducted by the Department of Health (DOH).
He also advised the public to indulge in physical activities.
"If one could not make it daily, it could be done thrice a week at least 30 minutes," he said.
