Indian actress Mallika Sherawat is partnering with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—a U.S. nonprofit with 12,000 doctor members—to urge people across India to “Go Vegan for Someone You Love.”
The campaign, which began in February, shows Sherawat sharing the message on billboards in Bhopal, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.
Sherawat, who is currently starring in the web series Booo… Sabki Phategi, says, “A vegan diet prevents and reverses disease.” Clinical research conducted by the Physicians Committee shows that a plant-based diet is a powerful tool for preventing, managing, and even reversing both heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
What’s more, the need is huge. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in India. In 2016, there were an estimated 62.5 million years of life lost prematurely due to cardiovascular disease.
In terms of scale, more than 72 million people in India have diabetes and another 42 million have undiagnosed diabetes, according to the International Diabetes Federation. By 2045, those numbers are expected to reach 134 million and 77 million, respectively. Diabetes prevalence is 16.6 percent in Hyderabad, 9.3 percent in Mumbai, 10.3 percent in New Delhi, and 10.5 percent in Pune.
“Research shows that people of Indian origin are predisposed to insulin resistance and diabetes,” says Ashwani Garg, M.D., an integrative family medicine doctor at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Illinois. “But I have seen patients lose weight and prevent and reverse diabetes with an oil-free, whole-food, plant-based Indian diet.”
Physicians Committee Kickstart India specialist Zeeshan Ali, Ph.D., and James Loomis, M.D., director of the Barnard Medical Center, visited 10 medical schools across India in July and August 2018 to teach students how to use the power of a plant-based diet to help patients fight chronic disease.
Over the past six years, Dr. Ali has led several free public events in cities across India. “I hope people across India take Mallika Sherawat’s message to heart and go vegan so they can live long healthy lives.
More at PCRM.
