A HEART SAVED

by Sudheer bose
(India)

Manu my school friend who was a healthy young boy at 18, gained a significant amount of weight in thirties. He normally ate five to six times a day, and he even woke up late at night and would go to the kitchen to open the fridge for some cold pizza (see nocturnal sleep related eating disorder and
night eating syndrome).

One morning he woke up with severe pain in his stomach. He was taken to the doctor and had a thorough check up. The doctor asked many questions, but most prominently, "How often you take meat?" Manu replied, "Three times a day seven days a week." The doctor followed up with, "How often do you eat vegetables?" The answer came, "Not often." "How much water do you drink?" "Very little," Manu responded. The doctor paused for a second, went through his medical report noted that Manu's "bad cholesterol" level was high, so high that it may even lead to an heart attack. He was given a diet and exercise chart to follow.

Manu started the exercises the very next morning. He could hardly walk ten to twenty meters, where the advised is more than three hundred meters. He switched to a diet with lots of wheat bread and green tea in the morning rather than pastries, ice cream, pizza, etc. In the afternoon he ate lots vegetables with a quarter plate of rice and three hundred to four hundred grams of meat (mutton, pork, beef, rabbit, chicken, and even mixed pizzas). At night he consumed lots of vegetable salads and porridges of oats. He had no snacks. After few days he started walking to a far more extent.

Keeping his diet and exercise intact for almost one month, he visited the physician for a follow up. He told his doctor, "I am able to breathe easily with no pain in my stomach. I am no longer constipated. I am very active and am following the diet." The doctor replied, "You had a compulsive overeating disorder and now, after blood analysis," he added, "You saved your Heart."

Please note: This story has been edited for clarity