The best option for a patient is to accept the fact that he/she is diabetic, which is a chronic ailment that can be controlled to some extent but never cured, Dr B. Gupta and Dr Umesh Kansara of the Safdarjung Hospital told Express Newsline on Thursday.

``After a while patients are likely to discover the rumours of new remedies and want to try them out, for example, consuming extra portions of chana and karela. But they are just add-ons and cannot be a substitute for the pills specifically meant for a diabetic,'' points out Dr Gupta, who heads the department of medicine at the hospital. ``There is no need to cook separately for the patient,'' he adds. ``On the other hand, the patient should live and eat like a normal person and shouldn't be subjected to cumbersome regimes and rituals''.

According to Dr Gupta, diabetic patients are known to resort to such extremes as undergoing prolonged fasting in the hope of shedding some weight, which is not at all advisable. ``Nor do they realise that a 100 packets of glucose biscuits add up to 400 calories, or that a couple of samosas and gulab jamuns or a helping of chaat are equivalent to a hearty meal in terms of calories,'' adds Dr Kansra, who is in charge at the hospital's diabetes clinic.

What they need to do, agree the two, is ``control their diet and keep partaking of the prescribed medicine to keep the blood's sugar level in control''. The doctors also advised patients against opting for special atas which are marketed as being good for the diabetics. ``People should stop looking for quick remedies for these are not cures for diabetes,'' they reasserted.

In support of their general theories on the subject, the two doctors city the fact that the hospital, which incidentally hosted a nurses' workshop on diabetic health care organised by Becton Dickinson, was approached by a large number of diabetics hailing from the low income group despite the fact that the incidence of this malady was marginal in the country's rural areas.

The primary reason for that, the doctors summed up, is the drastic change in lifestyles which migrants to the cities undergo thanks to the relatively high monthly incomes of around Rs 3000. The doctors warned that the disease was in effect, the first non-communicable epidemic sweeping this country. In a decade from now in fact, they said, WHO estimates India to be home to 20 crore diabetics, representing a quarter of the world's diabetic population in the world. The only way to be slightly less susceptible to the disease, the doctors concluded, was to stick to the Indian dietary habits in the face of the `cola and burger' invasion which the West, it's birth-place, too has begun to reject.