Mammoth sugar-free cake to bring awareness

 New Delhi: Doctors at a private hospital in the national capital on Wednesday cut a 100-kg sugar-free cake on the occasion of World Diabetes Day to create awareness about the life-threatening disease.

"It took us two years to conduct a research on how to prepare such a big sugar-free cake. Most of the bakeries prepare sugar-free cakes weighing a maximum of 1 kg. 

Sugar holds the bread and cream together," Dr Gagan Nagpal of Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute said. Ingredients for the cake came from Germany. It was the first 100-kg sugar-free cake to be prepared in India, he claimed. 

"We are appealing to people to make necessary lifestyle changes as a measure to prevent diabetes," Dr Nagpal said. 

At present, India represents 49 per cent of the world's diabetes burden, with an estimated 72 million cases detected in 2017, a figure expected to almost double to 134 million by 2025, he said. 

"This presents a serious public health challenge to the country. But the major concern is that most of the people are not even aware about the symptoms of the disease or do not even know if they are diabetic," Dr Nagpal said. 

Dr Saket Kant, senior consultant (endocrinology), said, “Diabetes in India is reaching epidemic proportions and is a leading cause of kidney failure, amputation, heart disease, stroke and blindness. 

"Type-2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, but there are also other types such as Type-1 diabetes, gestational diabetes (during pregnancy), pancreatic diabetes and others," he said.