Tricks for a healthy lifestyle

Warwick University, together with the Lasan Restaurant based in Birmingham, have brought out a healthy eating recipe book entitled “Spice for Life”.

Representing Warwick on this project is Professor Sudhesh Kumar from Warwick Medical School. Professor Kumar has been involved in research in the areas of obesity and diabetes, and this experience has partially served as motivation for the book: “Since we do a lot of research in aspects of food and human health I thought it would be a good idea to encapsulate all that in something practical, because we are often criticised because we do research that usually doesn’t make any difference” professor Kumar told the Boar.

The book that makes laboratory research practically relevant offers recipes from the South Asian cuisine, and includes dishes such as Chicken Tikka, Tandoori Salmon or Orange Chocolate Shirkhand. It is distributed free of charge in GP surgeries across Warwickshire and is also [available online](http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/newsandevents/intnews2/spiceforlife/spice_for_life.pdf).

The principles underlying the recipe collection are simple and reflect the core elements of a healthy lifestyle: “If we all took a few simple steps to reduce portion sizes, eat a little less salt, sugar and fat (oil) and made it a point to be a bit more physically active this will go a long way in containing this obesity epidemic. What all of us have to do now is to change our habits so that we incorporate these healthy principles into our daily routine,” professor Kumar commented.

With more than 30,000 deaths a year being caused by obesity in England, and over £500 million being spent by the NHS on this affection alone, professor Kumar’s advice seems to offer an easy prevention for what in time might become a serious problem. Obesity itself seems to be of an increasingly higher relevance in the modern era, especially due to changing work patterns, which now primarily include sedentary activities that leave hardly any room for physical activity.

In particular, the student lifestyle is not always as healthy as it should be, and statistics show that, on average, people are more likely to put on weight when at university. “It’s important to balance hard work at university with physical activity” professor Kumar added, students should therefore “make sure that they use the sports centre and get physically active, because the human body is meant for activity.” Healthy food is also a major part of the picture: “What’s interesting is that even on campus many restaurants have started offering healthy options”, thus providing students with all the motivation they need to make this positive change.

Research on obesity at Warwick spreads across many departments and disciplines. Within Warwick Medical School, scientists are currently focusing both on the complications of the disease, as well also on different processes, such as the means by which the brain perceives and deals with different sensations such as satiety. The latter are meant to serve as a starting point for the development of new treatments.