Diabetes, heart, kidney diseases claim 2,200 lives daily in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Over 2,200 people die every day in Pakistan due to diabetes, heart, kidney and other incurable diseases, an expert says.

The number of deaths caused daily in Pakistan due to diabetes alone has reached nearly 1,100. Among the causes of these deaths, a large part is due to spicy and junk food and sweet drinks. Addressing a symposium on unhealthy food in Murree, Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) Secretary General Sanaullah Ghuman said that a 5-ml drink contains 25 teaspoons of sugar while beverages account for 13% of diabetes cases in Pakistan.

He said, “Our unbalanced eating habits have also increased the burden on the national treasury. Because to fight diseases, we spend a lot of foreign exchange and import medicines or raw materials from abroad. We can serve the country even by changing our eating habits. According to WHO standards, a normal person should not take more than five to seven teaspoons of sugar and five grams of salt a day, while in contrast, an average Pakistani is consuming 80 gram sugar daily from drinks and other sources. While the minimum amount of salt consumed is ten grams in Pakistan.”

He maintained, “A normal person needs six to seven kilograms of fat in the form of ghee and butter in a year. While a Pakistani consumes 27 kilograms annually, due to which the prevalence of heart and kidney diseases, diabetes has reached dangerous levels. And they are becoming a cause of hundreds of deaths every day.”