A recent conversation with a doctor friend made me realised that I have unknowingly made a transition from being an 'accidental chef' to an 'incidental chef', or putting it another way, from being a doctor-trained chef to being a 'chef-trained' doctor.  Or to be more precise, from a doctor turned civil servant turned consultant turned entrepreneur turned CEO turned doctor-trained chef  turned CEO-trained & Chef-trained doctor., although the reality is really that I am just an ordinary untrained home cook thrusted into the role of a chef, but people seem to like to label me as the doctor turned accidental chef.

he story of the many adventures in my colourful and eventful career is best told through the blog post I wrote about how the successes I found in the many adventures in my career would not have been possible without my wife >>> 'Behind every successful man is a long-suffering wife'

For those of you who do not know me and have not read my other stories. Here are some related blog posts that would fill you in :
>> Doctor turned Accidental Chef - How it all began.
>> The birth of The Bento People
>> How & Why I became a Food & Health Coach
>> Why & How advocating healthy eating became my purpose, mission and passion

The Incidental Chef or The 'Chef-trained' Doctor.
The past couple of years, up till recently, I had been working full-time as a chef and that my training as a doctor had been useful whenever I needed to create new healthier dishes for the restaurant, so it was appropriate then to call me the accidental chef  or the 'doctor-trained' chef .

But I now no longer work as a chef full-time. Now, on top of still being fully involved in and responsible for maintaining and creating the menu for the restaurant, I spend the rest of my time as a doctor and my focus is to encourage, educate, enable people change their lives, maintain their wellness & regain their health through lifestyle & dietary modifications. Although I did not have the chance to go to culinary school or have any proper training as a chef, I have had to learn on my own and learn on the job when I was accidentally thrusted into the role as a chef a couple of years ago and this experience I had as a full-time chef has now come in very useful in my work with my patients on lifestyle and diet modification plans. I find I am better able to appreciate the need & challenge to winning over patients' ingrained palates as much as the need to winning over their minds and hearts when getting them to make the necessary changes to their dietary habits to regain their health. My experience working in the kitchen and in creating dishes and recipes is now also put to use whenever I need to help give practical advice to my patients on how to change their eating habits. 

These last few years working in the food business has not only amplified my awareness and knowledge of the power of food to destroy or heal our bodies but also seeded in me a passion and a mission to tell & teach more people about that and also to help them maintain their wellness or regain their health through food. Realising that I can do that a lot more, and a lot more effectively as a doctor than as a chef led me to cutting down the time I now spend working as a chef so as to be able to spend more time as a doctor, whether it is as a doctor teaching at the :Lifestyle Medicine training and consultancy company  (see >>> Engines of Health website) or as a doctor working in my clinic ( see >> my clinic website ) 

A doctor friend recently quipped that I am no longer the accidental chef that I have been the past few years but should be more accurately renamed the incidental chef or the 'chef-trained' doctor instead and I realised she was right. My work as a chef is now incidental to my work as a doctor, food & health coach and teacher, I now mainly cook and create new dishes with specific goals of wanting to help convince and convert my customers, coachees and even patients to switch to specific healthier ingredients in their diet.

When I first became a full-time chef, I was constantly grumbling to God, asking God why with all my years of training and experience as a doctor and corporate leader that I had to waste all that to work as a full-time chef, constantly wondering if I was making a huge mistake. But now, my experience as a full-time chef has allowed and led me to become a better doctor, coach and teacher to help people improve their lifestyle & diet to better prevent or manage their chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and other conditions where food has a clear significant role. things I would never had imagined doing or to be able to do before. So regardless of whether people see or call me a doctor, chef, teacher, doctor turned chef or chef-trained doctor, it does not really matter to me. What matters to me more is that this journey has reinforced my faith that regardless of what new unexpected twists or adventures that life throws up, no journeys ever wasted. God's ways are higher than our ways, indeed. 

Delighted with the privilege to be able to contribute a feature article in the Diabetes Lifestyle magazine Sept-Dec 2016 edition. The complete article in text is attached for your reading pleasure if you are keen to do so.

Delighted, honoured and privileged to be afforded the opportunity to reach out and encourage people, especially those with diabetes or worried about diabetes, that they have a very powerful weapon in their armoury in this war against diabetes - their lifestyle, especially what what they eat.

The advancement of medicine is a double-edged thing, First the good part, Medical science advancement has led to some diseases that were previously not treatable becoming treatable or even curable. . The bad part? People have now come to expect and dependent on advancement in medical science to come to their rescue whenever their bodies break down instead of preventing the 'breakdown' through their lifestyle and especially their diet.

Diabetes in particular is largely a disease of lifestyle for most people and lifestyle changes, especially diet, should be the first stop and mainstay of 'treatment' or management of diabetes. My heartbeat is to wake people up to that reality, as many people as I can reach, and I am not just glad but am most grateful to Diabetes Lifestyle magazine for the feature article, affording a platform to share this message that is so close to my heart. THANK YOU.

See the full article in text below the attached image for your reading pleasure.

When Food Meets Medicine
Feature article in Diabetes Lifestyle magazine Sept-Dec 2016 edition.

The contributor 
Dr Chan Tat Hon is a practising medical doctor; he is also a chef, speaker, coach and teacher in food and health, especially about the science and significant role of food in conditions such as diabetes. Here, Dr Chan shares about his accidental journey with food.
 
When Food Meets Medicine
Some people call me the food doctor, whilst others call me the food coach or the accidental chef. Many friends simply think I am just food ‘obsessed’, with almost every aspect of my life and work revolving around food. On top of being a medical doctor, I am a chef in a restaurant I started some years back, and I am also a food coach and a teacher in a food and health school I founded. For the rest of the time, I can usually be found speaking at seminars, events, churches or companies, telling and teaching people about the significant role that food plays in health and especially chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases.

My food ‘obsession’ does not stop when I get off work. I am the family’s cook, always trying to create interesting healthy and tasty new recipes to delight my wife and two teenage kids. It all happened by accident. My ‘obsession’ with food and health came about accidentally.

Up till as recent as a few years ago, my relationship with food was perhaps no different from that of most Singaporeans. I love food, and I enjoy hunting for good food in Singapore and in other countries that I visit for work or holiday.

Then a couple of years back, I accidentally became a full-time chef when the chef whom I hired for the restaurant that I started quit on me just two days before its opening. I had to stand in as the chef and had only expected the arrangement to last a couple of weeks – but the weeks soon became months.

Initially, I was very unhappy about being a chef full-time. But over time, I began to see that it offered me a unique platform through which I could encourage people about healthy eating, in ways that I was not able to do in my medical practice. As a result, I soon found myself spending a lot of time in the kitchen, testing new recipes, attempting to create new and interesting vegetables and wholegrain dishes to put on the restaurant’s menu in hopes of ‘enticing’ my customers to try them. I also found myself spending a lot of time speaking to my customers about healthy eating whilst serving them at the tables.

Through interactions with my customers, I realised that many amongst them were not just the health conscious, but many were people with diabetes brought to the restaurant by well-meaning friends or family specifically to try the wholegrain options on the menu such as the quinoa Yangzhou ‘fried rice’, hoping to ‘wean’ or win them over to choosing wholegrains instead of polished grains.

I also began to find that many of the customers at my restaurant were hungry for more than just tasty healthy food, but also for more practical knowledge about food and common chronic diseases such as diabetes. My restaurant soon became a mini classroom of sorts, where I would often be found engaging customers in conversations about food and health, educating and encouraging them to pay more attention to the power of food, not just to nourish but also to potentially harm our bodies should we not be careful about what we eat.

I was very encouraged, but also frustrated at the same time as a busy restaurant was not a particularly conducive environment for meaty discussions on food and health. I began to want to do more… Starting a school to teach food and health

After a period of time, I restarted my medical practice and also started a food and health school to conduct regular classes for people who wanted to learn more about the science of food and its relationship with chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases. I found that many of the students attending my classes were people with chronic conditions such as diabetes who were already convinced of the importance of food choices in the management of their conditions, but had gaps in their knowledge and wanted help in plugging them.

It dismayed me and yet at the same time drove me to conduct more classes, when I found that many people with diabetes who came for classes at The Food & Health School were ignorant of the many potential serious complications of diabetes and the importance of lifestyle, especially dietary modifications to reduce the risks. Attempting to change food habits is not easy People with chronic diseases face real challenges and struggles translating seemingly simple dietary advice into daily reality. Some had difficulty making changes with their diet because their family members were not prepared or willing to adopt a healthier diet together with them whilst others had challenges finding suitable healthier diabetes friendly food options at their workplaces. Many have the motivation to improve their diet to manage their conditions but need more than just ‘sound-bites’ or advice. They need medical guidance, support and practical help.

So before long, I ended up devoting my entire medical practice to focus on seeing patients who need support with lifestyle and dietary modification efforts to improve the management of their diabetes or other conditions where food plays a significant role. I even brought some on supermarket and eating-out tours to learn more about cooking and eating healthier, especially for people with diabetes. Volunteering to be a food soldier in the war against diabetes

​The government has declared war against diabetes, and to me, food is one of the important weapons in the armoury we need to harness more in this war. But it will not be easy; making changes to one’s daily food choices is one of the ‘simplest’ and yet most difficult for most people. People who embark on journeys to change their daily food choices need education, encouragement, and most of all, practical help. With my ‘obsession’ with food as the primary weapon, I am volunteering myself as a food soldier in this war against diabetes. And with whatever you have in your arsenal, you can too! A not-for-profit magazine published 3 times a year by TOUCH Diabetes Support.

About Diabetes Lifestyle magazine - a publication by Touch Diabetes Support, itis circulated to TDS members, all major hospitals, polyclinics, certain private practices and to the ITE libraries. This is part of our effort to keep readers up to date about developments in the field of diabetes, and to create greater awareness of diabetes care and management.

Life's full of accidental journeys, I simply embrace each and every one of them.
My accidental adventures and journeys continues .....

Even since I accidentally started a restaurant The Bento People and also accidentally became a full-time chef there for a few years, my life has been totally transformed, not just my own eating habits, but also that of my entire family, my conviction and belief in the power of healthy lifestyle & dietary habits, the focus of my medical practice, restaurant as well as consultancy and training work has also totally changed towards awaken, training and coaching people to unlock the power of lifestyle and diet for health.
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​I now practise as a medical doctor focusing on prescribing lifestyle & dietary modifications to control and combat chronic lifestyle-related conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, cholesterol disorders, fatty liver disease etc. On top of that, I am also a chef in my restaurant The Bento People as well the Medical Director and Principal Trainer of Engines of Health conducting workshops and training programmes to educate and enable people to improve their dietary habits to prevent, control and combat diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases.

Although I  graduated from medical school more than 25 years ago and in all the years of  practising as a medical doctor after that, bfore I accidentally became a full-time chef, I have mainly practised medicine mostly in a 'Diagnosis' & 'Treatment' mode; and the 'Treatments' I prescribed primarily focused on medications or procedures, and although I knew lifestyle and dietary modifications should be a cornerstone of the management of diabetes and other lifestyle-related chronic diseases, I must confess that I didn't quite truly translate that to action, whether in my own dietary habits or that of my beloved family, or in my medical practice.

But all that totally changed after 2014 because of my accident journey as a full-time chef at The Bento People ( you can read the story of how I accidentally birthed The Bento People in my blog post on this >> The Story of The Bento People ) 

That's because I began to see a different and greater need, especially after the last few years of accidental but intense involvement in the different aspects of food - as a chef in my restaurant The Bento People, as the Medical Director and Principal Trainer at my training company Engines of Health conducting talks, workshops, seminars and programmes on lifestyle & dietary modification to combat diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases and also when I practise medicine as a medical doctor focused on coaching patients to change their lifestyle and dietary habits to manage and combat their medical conditions.

I began to see that for most people, one the most critical aspects of their lives that greatly impact their wellness, their health is their dietary habits, what they choose to put onto their plates at every single meal. And yet that is also the area that most people are either most resistant to change or are poorly informed or confused.

It happened insidiously, slowly but surely, ever since 2014 when I accidentally became a full-time chef and the subsequent journeys that it led me to, it has become not just my passion, but also my personal mission and calling to activate, educate and coach people to make the necessary changes to their dietary habits and unleash the power of lifestyle and diet to control and combat diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases.

As with most of the significant adventures in my life, all these happened accidentally.

And this is the story of how it all happened.
and I must start the story from the very beginning ....

My life's a collection of many accidental journeys.

My life has always been one of many colourful accidental journeys, none of which planned. At every stage of my life, my career, I have always been guided by seeking purpose in whatever positions I find myself in at any point in time.

All these time, whatever positions I found myself in, I always try to discern God's purpose for me in that position, once I find it, I would see that as my purpose and mission for the season, pursuing it with passion and intensely building my proficiency in it.

'Accidentally' was how I became a medical doctor, I didn't grow up dreaming of becoming a doctor. It happened by accident. I did well enough in my 'A' levels to be able to qualify for almost any courses in NUS then, and 'medicine' was the only course that one would not get in based on just good results, but applicants had to attend a selection process and interview. So I told myself that I would put that as my first choice and even though I was not a Christian then, I wanted to leave it to 'God' as whether I would pass the selection & interview process for medical school. If I get selected for medical school, I would take that as 'God's' plan for me, and if I fail to get past the NUS medical school selection process, I would also take that as an indication of 'God's' plan for me and move on to my own preferred choices of Law School or Business School. Please don't laugh at me for having such a 'strange' way of deciding something so important in my life, hey I was 18 years old then, but seriously and more importantly, I did it this way because even though I was not a Christian then, I felt there was this 'God' who loves me and would make good choices for me like a father would do, better than the choices I would be able to make for myself using my logical mind. So without knowing who this 'God' is and whether 'God' that I sensed do really exist, I decided to leave the decision of whether I should go to medical school, law school or business school to 'God'. And as it turned out, I passed the selection process and I got into medicine. I always saw that as 'God's' plan for me, even though I would have preferred to go to law school or business school, and never once did I regret going to medical school.

'Accidentally' was also how I became a senior management person in a government statutory board subsequently, the boss of a few hundred people operating out of more than 20 offices in 16 countries around the world.

'Accidentally' was also how I became a CEO of a hospitality company constructing, developing and operating a hotel and conference business.

'Accidentally' was also how I became a chef in the restaurant I started ( see my post - The Accident Chef Story )

'Accidentally' was also hwo I realised I left a 30 year legacy when I was 9 years old >>>  ( see my post - Legacy, how I accidentally left a legacy )

'Accidentally' was also I completed a 42 km marathon when I was only 12 years old ( see my post - How I accidentally ran the marathon at 12 )

'Accidentally' was also how I started The Bento People ( see my post - The Story of the birth of The Bento People )

So it should be no surprise to anyone that 'Accidentally' was also how I became what I am today - a medical doctor, speaker & advocate, trainer and coach in teaching patients and public how to change their eating habits to combat diabetes and other related diseases.

So this is what happened in detail.

What made me into this Doctor, Advocate, Coach and Trainer passionate about 'Awakening', 'Coaching' and 'Educating' people to unlock the power of lifestyle and dietary habits in combating diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases.

 
It all started  about 2 years ago when I accidentally became a chef 
( see my post >> The Accidental Chef Story ) 

And how a facebook post by a friend, who was then a christian missionary in India, led me to embrace advocating healthy eating as my purpose, mission and passion ( see my post >> The day advocating healthy eating became my purpose & mission ) 

And then in May 2015,, these 2 events led me to create and start The Bento People, a restaurant with a focus on educating and encouraging people towards healthy eating.

And during these 2 years of being a chef running a healthy food focused restaurant, I dived deeply into researching about the relationship between food and health, reading all the medical research literature and all the food and health books I can get my hands on. 

Initially, it was out of simple necessity & a sense of responsibility, because if I were to advocate healthy eating, I better get the science right, the science of healthy eating, healthy food. 

Then subsequently this became a passionate pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of the essential life skill knowledge of the relationship between food and health, wellness & illness. I was particularly interested in the role of food in maintaining wellness and it's role in helping us regain wellness if we do lose it, as we all inevitably would as we age. I was reading ( books, research papers, online medical resources), watching videos, thinking, talking food & health every waking minutes I had. I would be reading, watching or thinking about food & health the first thing I wake, the last thing before I sleep, even whilst driving, cooking, bathing or walking.

All these time, my ever supportive wife, Janice, had to bear with my 'obsession' with learning about 'Food & Health'. She initially started off as a bemused observer but being the supportive wife that she had always been and sensing that this was no simple passing hobby of mine but a intense pursuit of knowledge to fulfil a purpose, she decided to join me in this 'obsession' with food & health. 

We then began diving into biochemistry, physiology and especially the pathophysiology of diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases together, we would be reading and discussing things together of the things that we discover or learn.  Our daily conversations began to be predominated by topics such as hormones affected by food or which affects the metabolism of food such as insulin, glucagon, cortisol, leptin and others. 

And in the past 2 years, especially in the past 6 months, I had learned more about the science of dietary habits on diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases than I had in my 5 years of medical school and in the more than 20 years since I graduated and became a medical doctor put together. 

But soon all this became a great gnawing dissatisfaction. I could see the potential of how informed mindfulness of what one eat can help maintain or regain wellness & health, but yet something so 'simple' & powerful was seemingly beyond or ignored by most people. Some simply didn't care or were unwilling to comtemplate any change in what & how they eat, these people only Live to Eat. And yet there were some others who were so quick to be jumping enthusiastically into the latest 'super' discovery of 'super' food, 'super' seed, or 'super' diets or 'super' supplement, natural or manufactured. 

I encountered on a daily basis, people asking me about food & health. Friends, family & even customers when I served them at my restaurant. I could see that many are conscious of the need to know more, to be more mindful about the food that they were putting into their bodies, the food that they were putting on the table for their loved ones. But yet, most were inadequately equipped with the basic foundational knowledge of food, our body and major diseases to be able to make informed decisions, informed change in their eating habits, especially in the avalanche of conflicting and confusing news about food & health in the media, especially online and social media. So some where either over-zealous and over-reactive to every new information, every new discovery in the area of food & health, whilst the majority, confused & frustrated simply just gave up and fell back to a middle of the road approach of 'just eat everything and everything in moderation'. But family, social gatherings or the brief encounters with customers were not the best 

I was especially disturbed whenever I encounter people who needed and were desiring to eat well to regain their wellness but didn't know how or were unable to because of their home or work situations. In particular, people with diabetes or pre-diabetes, I began to 'encounter' more & more of them, friends or family when I meet them at social gatherings as well as customers when I serve them at my restaurant. 

I knew, with the journey that I had in the last 2 years, the knowledge that I had acquired, that I could and I had to do something. I knew and believed that God didn't put me through the hardship of the past 2 years for nothing, that no journey was to be wasted. However I knew that changing one's eating habits is something seemingly simple but almost impossible for most, that most would either not try or would fail even if they did. They needed help, most of all they needed support if they were to succeed. I decided that I would.

So I became a doctor not just advocating but also prescribing mainly lifestyle and especially dietary modifications as medicine. 
And I started a school, Engines of Health
All of it, as with most things in my life, Accidentally. 

I used to fit into this pair of pants just 6 months before this photo was taken.
One of the biggest 'headache' of weight loss was having to buy an entire new wardrobe
​and I hate shopping!

This is the story of how I accidentally lost 15kg over 6 months in 2015. I did not consciously embarked on a weight loss journey and I certainly did not go on any crash diet or special diet of any sort. I 'accidentally' lost the weight when I decided to walk the talk and practised the eating habits for health that I was 'preaching' and teaching.

Here's the story.

Those of you who had been following my blog would know about how my journey the last few years from a medical doctor to a full-time chef and advocate & trainer on dietary habits change to combat chronic diseases had all been accidental.

In short, the story was this – in 2014, I was just a middle-aged overweight die-hard foodie doctor when I started a restaurant, I found myself having to stand in as a full-time chef in the restaurant because the chef I hired quit 2 days before the restaurant’s opening. Finding myself stuck working in the kitchen, I decided to do something more meaningful than just cooking and serving good food, I decided to dive deep into the medical research literature on the relationship between eating habits, food and diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases. I then began to use the restaurant as a 'living classroom' to encourage and teach people to explore different foods so as to change their eating habits for health and to combat chronic diseases. I decided that I could not just ‘preach’ and teach people to eat right, but I should also walk the talk and practise what I was preaching and teaching, there I  began to improve my eating habits as well. 6 months after, I ‘accidentally’ lost 15kg and found myself back to the same weight that I was when I took my wedding picture more than 20 years before.

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Links - for info on the different things I do:
(1) 10 Questions w Doc sharing sessions >> www.10Qdoc.com
(2) Join My Team >> http://bit.ly/SpecialAssistantToDoc
(3) My Habits Jumpstart Programmes >> HabitsJumpstart.com
(4) My Clinic >> DrChanTatHon.com
(5) Collection of Media/TV/Radio shows where I was privileged to be invited to share about the power of lifestyle/diet in combating diabetes and other lifestyle/diet-related diseases >> http://www.whatscookingdoc.sg/media.html
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Many friends,  especially those who had not been following my blog and my journey, on seeing my obvious weight loss, would invariably ask me for the reason why I embarked on a weight loss journey and often I would be at a loss as to how to answer them, because I actually had not consciously embarked on a weight loss effort.

I was born a skinny boy and had gone through primary school with the disapproving School Health Service 'force feeding' the underweight me with free milk or some kind of protein powder. I grew up a slim young man and then quite quickly became a not so slim middle aged man. But like everyone else, with advancing middle age, I began to accumulate a 'little' more fat around the waist year after year. 

The reality was I had never really set out to lose weight in the first place, I had initially only embarked on a journey to improve my eating habits because I had to lead by example since I was preaching, advocating and teaching the importance of improving our eating habits to combat diseases at my restaurant and at the various Habits for Health workshops that I was conducting, the weight loss was an unexpected big bonus very early on. And once the weight, especially the belly fat, started to drop off, I was woken up enough from my complacency about my weight and I began to put in more effort to lose weight through being more mindful of what and how I ate.

But now having lost the weight that I did, I'm thankful that I did. My blood pressure, my blood cholesterol and blood sugar had also all become much better than when I was overweight, my body composition analysis test, my visceral fat level are all at a much healthier range, which I am sure they were not when I was overweight.

So should anyone now ask me why I had embarked on a weight loss journey, my reply would be this:

'I actually did not consciously embark on a weight loss journey at the beginning but had made the effort to change my previously bad eating habits only because I wanted to walk the talk since I was promoting healthier eating habits at my restaurant and prescribing and teaching eating habits change to combat diabetes and other lifestyle-related diseases at my clinic and the various Habits for Health workshops that I was conducting. But now that I have lost weight and regained my health, on reflection, I realised that I should not have allowed myself to become overweight in the past through complacency in the first place, however moderately or even just a heavy in the middle,  

So now, I shall continue to strive to keep to a healthy lifestyle to try to keep the excess weight and waist away always because:
(i) I love my wife and I want to keep in health for her
(ii) I love my kids and I want to keep in health for them
(iii) I want to walk the talk and be able to speak with authority and be able to teach, encourage and coach others about the power of the right lifestyle, especially eating habits change on the prevention and control of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and lifestyle-related conditions.

But most of all, I want to keep a healthy weight and waist and keep in health because I want to honour my God, my God who had given me this body, by treasuring my physical health as best as I could, starting with practising a healthy lifestyle to keep my weight and waist at an ideal level as best as I could.'

So to all men out there who are, like what I used to do, complacently 'laughing' off a slowly but surely expanding waistlines as 'love handles' or 'beer bellies', hope you do not mind my unsolicited 5 cents worth of advice and encouragement:
- the fat at the waist are the worst kind of fat anyone could have in terms of its adverse health implications, people may jokingly call it a 'love handle', but waist & visceral fat are really no joking matter nor is it a sign of 'love', it is anything BUT. In fact, if you love your wife, love your kids, love God, lose that fat around the waist. It would not be easy, but it has to be done and it can be done. Go for it! Work closely with your own doctor or your dietician. Start today!

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Links - for info on the different things I do:
(1) 10 Questions w Doc sharing sessions >> www.10Qdoc.com
(2) Join My Team >> http://bit.ly/SpecialAssistantToDoc
(3) My Habits Jumpstart Programmes >> HabitsJumpstart.com
(4) My Clinic >> DrChanTatHon.com
(5) Collection of Media/TV/Radio shows where I was privileged to be invited to share about the power of lifestyle/diet in combating diabetes and other lifestyle/diet-related diseases >> http://www.whatscookingdoc.sg/media.html
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Important Note:
Everyone's weight journey is different and personal.
No one has the right to judge another based on body weight. 

I shared this post because it is clear, from medical research, that there is a strong relationship between excess weight, waist and incidence of many chronic diseases. 

Our focus should therefore be on our own weight, waist and our own health and whether our current weight puts us at higher risks of the common chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. And if necessary, seek advice and support from doctors or other healthcare professionals in your journey towards a healthier weight and waist.