Stomach ailment cases up as mercury soars

With the onset of summer, the cases of stomach-related ailments are seeing a spurt in hospitals in the city. The patients have been complaining of stomach ache, diarrhoea, weakness and even fever.

In view of the rise in these ailments, specialists have advised people to consume only home-cooked, fresh meals. Gastroenetrologists and dieticians have asked people to say no to roadside food. “Prepare fresh vegetables every morning and carry them to your workplace in tiffin.

Carry your drinking water bottles. Never take cut fruit being sold in the open. It is the biggest source of infection. I will not even advise consuming sugarcane juice sold on carts and packaged juices. Coconut water, ‘lassi’, lemon water with mint leaves or any freshly prepared juice at home are good options to keep oneself hydrated,” says Monisha Sikka, a dietician.

Sikka says, “For summers, I always recommend my patients to soak ‘gond katira’ and basil seeds and make a drink for themselves. It gives a very cooling effect to the body. The seeds have high Omega-3 and fibre content.”

Meanwhile, teams of the Food Safety Department at the Civil Hospital in Jalandhar have intensified sampling as the summer season has set in. “We keep collecting food samples from various places throughout the year. Now that summer has started, we have taken samples of sherbet, ‘aloo tikkis’, ‘bhaturas’ and other prepared food available in the market. The samples have been sent for testing and we are awaiting reports,” said Dr Harjot Pal Singh from the department. He added, “We will soon start taking samples of watermelons. The fruit will be tested to check if injections were used to add colour or sugary syrup was added to it.”

Most parents say that their kids have got addicted to fast food. “My children do not eat brinjals, gourds, pumpkins and other seasonal vegetables. I cannot cook rajmah, paneer, sambhar-idli, stuffed parathas or other stuff daily. Pizzas, pastas, burgers and cheesy wraps are now just a phone call away because of the multitude home delivery options available to them.

It gets very difficult to convince them to eat light meals with us. The end result is a bloated stomach, cramps and ill-health, followed by a visit to a doctor,” rued Suman Gupta, who was accompanying her teenage child at a local hospital.

Punjab