From our kitchens to our commutes, changing habits are quietly reshaping the health of an entire generation
DR ZUBAIR ASLAM
Kashmir, once known for its hardy people and simple living, is now seeing an alarming rise in lifestyle diseases; hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and mental health disorders that threaten to redefine the health profile of our society.
This shift is neither sudden nor mysterious. It is the predictable outcome of changes in the way we eat, move, work, and live. The tragedy is that while the causes are largely within our control, the consequences are becoming increasingly irreversible.
Our traditional lifestyle, rooted in physical labour, modest diets, and close-knit social structures, acted as a natural shield against many non-communicable diseases. The villager walking long distances to his fields, the artisan sitting by the fire but returning to a simple home-cooked meal, the family that found comfort in company rather than consumption these images are gradually fading. In their place have arrived long hours of sedentary work, processed foods, constant screen time, late-night routines, and the pressures of a consumerist culture.
The Kashmiri kitchen tells a large part of this story. Our cuisine has always been rich, but it was once balanced by equally demanding physical activity and a slower pace of life. Today, heavy use of salt, oil, red meat, and refined grains combines dangerously with low levels of daily movement. Fast food chains, sugary drinks, and packaged snacks have quietly entered our diets, especially among the youth. Parents often consider such foods a symbol of modernity and comfort, unaware that they are seeding illness in the next generation.
Equally worrisome is the way our work and mobility have changed. Urbanisation, though limited compared to many other regions, is still reshaping the valley. More people spend their days behind desks, counters, and screens. Walking and cycling have been replaced by dependence on two-wheelers and cars, even for the shortest distances. Children who once played in open fields and neighbourhood lanes are increasingly confined indoors, their free time dominated by smartphones, television, and online games.
The valley’s particular stress environment magnifies the problem. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, and substance abuse are rising, particularly among young people. These mental health challenges do not stand apart from lifestyle diseases; they are closely intertwined. Stress can push people towards overeating, smoking, or alcohol and can worsen blood pressure, blood sugar, and cardiac risk. In turn, chronic illness deepens feelings of hopelessness and fear.
What makes the situation more painful is that our health systems are still oriented towards treating disease rather than preventing it. Hospitals in Kashmir are increasingly crowded with patients suffering from heart attacks, strokes, complications of diabetes, and kidney failure. By the time many of them arrive at a specialist’s door, years of silent damage have already taken place. Routine screenings, community-based awareness, and early intervention remain weak and patchy.
There is no single remedy, but there are clear directions in which we must move. The first is awareness not in the form of occasional seminars or social media slogans, but as a sustained conversation within families, schools, mosques, and community spaces. People must understand that lifestyle diseases are not the problem of the old alone; they are silently growing among the young and middle-aged in the valley.
Second, we need to reclaim aspects of our traditional wisdom. Simple daily walks, home-cooked meals with more vegetables and pulses, moderation in salt and fats, and regular sleep patterns can together make a powerful difference. These are not foreign prescriptions; they are values our elders quietly practised, without giving them the label of “health tips”.
Third, policymakers and institutions in Jammu and Kashmir must treat non-communicable diseases as a central public health priority. School curricula can incorporate practical health education, public spaces can be made more walkable and safer, and primary health centres can be strengthened to offer regular blood pressure, sugar, and BMI checks. Religious and civil society leaders, who hold deep influence in Kashmiri society, can also play a constructive role by speaking openly about healthy living as a moral and social responsibility.
Finally, at the heart of this issue lies a question of choice, not in the abstract, but in the small decisions of everyday life. Whether we walk or ride, cook or order, talk to each other or scroll alone, sleep on time or stretch the night with screens: these choices, multiplied across the valley, are slowly shaping our collective future.
To ignore lifestyle diseases is to squander the very gift that makes resistance, resilience, and revival possible, our health. The time to act is not tomorrow, but today, at the level of the household, the neighbourhood, and the UT.
(The Author is a postdoc fellow, columnist, and public speaker)