Golgappas & Chaat Responsible for Women Being Fat & Suffer from High BP: Says an All-Men Panel at ICMR
Women should eat less golgappas and chaat. It is because they are fond of golgappas and chaat, which they consume more than men, they suffer from high BP - Dr YP Munjal
A panel comprising only men at the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) made a sexist comment and said that women suffer from high blood pressure because they eat more ‘golgappas’ and ‘chaat’ than men. The comment was made by Dr YP Munjal of Association of Physicians of India, who was part of the all-men panel on ‘Hypertension, The Silent Killer’. It was moderated by Dr Balram Bhargava, the newly appointed Director General (DG) of ICMR.
As reported in DNA, Dr Munjal said with a smirk, “Women should eat less golgappas and chaat. It is because they are fond of golgappas and chaat, which they consume more than men, they suffer from high BP." The so-called doctor did not cite any scientific evidence to back his claim. The audience comprising both male and female kept quiet. None of the six public health experts on the panel found the comment problematic. The various organisations had gathered at ICMR on May Measurement Month to build awareness around the issue of hypertension.
Following the comment, Twitterati found this statement and claim bizarre. One twitter handle tweeted asking ICMR to stop targeting street food vendors.
Another tweeted that she suffered from high BP because of such unscientific ‘manels’.
Anant Bhan, a public health specialist told DNA, “These comments are unfortunate and reflect sexism. I hope the organisations involved will provide a clarification.” This foot-in-mouth comment is a second instance in two weeks made by public health officials. Last week, Union Health Ministry tweeted a graphic lifted off a foreign artist’s Instagram account and labelled it as its own. The image was an outline of a fat woman’s body. The caption said that a woman is fat because she wants non-vegetarian food, including eggs. The Ministry deleted the tweet, without an explanation, following an outrage on social media.
Raised blood pressure attributes to the leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality in India. Hypertension attributes to 10.8% of all deaths in India. To raise awareness about Hypertension, the ICMR, along with the International Society of Hypertension, PHFI, Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC), Association of Physicians of India and over 50 partner institutions across the country have collaborated and are engaging in a month long global campaign – May Measurement Month 2018 to raise awareness and educate communities on steps to prevent hypertension. Well, it seems like the health officials should be more vigilant before making such obnoxious claims that are not backed by any scientific claims.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2018 09:21 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).