MADURAI: (In this website, we are today publishing the same article written by me in our print magazine in January 2022 after an interview for our ‘Cover Point’ with renowned cardiologist and heart care expert in Tamil Nadu Dr.A.Mathavan in Madurai).
If there are certain dishes that enjoy almost anytime demand, it is ‘Parotta’. The parotta-salna combination is highly popular from street shops to stare hotels in Tamil Nadu, especially in places like Madurai and southern districts of Tamil Nadu. From a recipe point of view, it is tasty. But, if your see it from your ‘heart’, it is risky and not that good for heart health. A word of caution for parotta lovers is coming from a top heart expert to exercise some moderation while eating this multi-layered mouth-lingering dish called parotta.
“See, we all know that parotta is made of ‘Maida’ flour. It is delicious and popular, but there are some hard facts that must be borne in mind when we eat parotta. Eating it in moderation is OK. But if you keep parotta as a daily dish and make it a main part of your palate, then you are inviting heart problems,” Dr.A.Mathavan, senior interventional cardiologist and founder of Dr.Madhavan’s Heart Centre in Madurai, cautions the parotta lovers.
DON’T INVITE DIABETES:
The medical message from Dr.A.Mathavan comes with basic reasons in the interest of general public. For parotta, the basic ingredient is ‘maida’ flour or atta which is reaided after taking away the fibre. Polishing away fibre is not good for health because fibre is essential to keep sugar levels under control and hence he explains the link between parotta and heart.
“Wheat is a cereal. We polish and take away fibre. We are bleaching it and adding alloxan to soften the parotta. As a result of that, it affects pancreas thereby making us prone to diabetes and from there starts the heart problems. I will not say that parotta is totally bad, I say it is worse. We are inviting diabetes through parotta. More depositing of fats and cholesterol takes place in the body,” he says.
LESS SALT, LONG LIFE IS THE MESSAGE:
Dr.A.Mathavan is a top heart doctor in demand in southern districts of Tamil Nadu starting from Madurai because of his vast experience of more than 35 years in heartcare, he had a long innings at Apollo Hospital in Chennai and Madurai, and later at Velammal Hospital in Madurai and also at Hannah Joseph Hospital in Madurai, before he started the Dr.Madhavan’s Heart Centre in Madurai.
The threat and invasion of junk food into kitchens and eateries is a serious point to ponder, he says and points out the increasing heart attacks, strokes etc due to lifestyle changes and urbanization.
“If I see 10 master health checkup cases, 3 or 4 persons are diagnized with some heart functioning changes that are asymptomatic, 3 or 4 are having hig blood pressure and high urea creatin level which is early stage of kidney failure,” Dr.A.Mathavan, who is a certified fellow of World Heart Federation, had cautioned.
He says that eating too much of rice must be cut down, and there must be five colours of fruits and vegetables in daily intake….restrict white polished rice, have ‘keerai’ regularly and most importantly cigarette smoking should be stopped immediately by men.
So, for those people who are thronging the ‘Parotta’ shops or ordering for parotta when they go to hotels, they may have to think twice and be on a limit by taking the advice of this well-known cardiologist from Madurai.
