Category Archives: AFT Podcast

AFT Interviews, Pods Malaysia

AFT Interviews: Eyes on Amina Jindani and the ‘Theatre of the Mind’ collective

Amina Jindani is a performance art entrepreneur and founder of Mo One Drama. A teacher and a student, she has studied acting, creative writing and directing in London at the Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre. She embraced Malaysia as her home since 1991, and has explored theatre, film and television as an actress, presenter, producer, director, writer & performance educator for all ages.

A Speech and Drama teacher for over 25 years, Amina is passionate about helping her students grow from school children into creatively competent adults who are able to represent the nation on the world stage; giving speeches at international conferences; working in television, stage and film; winning awards at creative writing, public speaking and the arts; as well as possessing inspiring, creative skills that can enhance their profession in all types of careers.

 

Amina attained a Licentiate in Teaching Speech and Drama (Distinction) from Trinity College London and is certified and trained as professional teacher of Cambridge IGCSE Drama. Also known fondly in the arts circle as ‘Moone’, Amina was selected the Malaysian Winner of the Motion Picture International’s Script to Screen feature film pitching competition (2019) and won an Award of Excellence from Trinity College London (2017).

Team AFT spent some time to learn about Moone’s life stories and her latest projects; a radio play that is gaining attention from listeners around the world.

AFT: How did you ‘play’ while growing up?

Moone: I was one of those children who could play for hours on my own.  Sometimes, I’d make things out of old boxes, toilet rolls and sticky tape, sometimes it was about dressing up and creating characters to play and sometimes I’d record soundscapes on tape and invite my friends over to listen.  My favourite was making haunted house sounds for Hallowe’en.

AFT: What influenced your artistic eye?

Moone: I was very inspired by TV shows that taught children how to paint and make things but also museums.  I think my two favourite museums when I was a child were the V&A Museum and the Commonwealth Institute.  They made my mind explore culture and history and opened up my imagination and appreciation.  Art is everywhere but for me it’s mainly in how people past and present express themselves.

AFT: Theatre of the Mind is a fairly new installation, why did you come up with this form of radio drama? Do you think there an audience for this kind of classic radio play?

 

Moone: There is a niche audience that is growing.  When I was a teenager, I was challenged to make radio plays popular for young people and went on the radio with some scripts I wrote.  I think it was the wrong era as other young people weren’t really interested.  Then, recently, I noticed a new generation of younger people listening to audio online again.  It was time to pick up the thread and reach out once again.  I’ve waited a long time for this.

Eight months ago, here was the ‘cold’ reading of a script written by Amina Jindani of the first episode of Derek Kong, Private Detective. Video link: https://youtu.be/ARtq7QiTY5E.

AFT: Did you produce any scripts or produced any plays or dramas during COVID19? What did you do to pass time?

Moone: The first thing I did was embrace the art of not doing anything at all!  It was liberating.  I lived like a cat eating, sleeping, stretching and sitting looking out of the window.  Then I started to cut old clothes and sew them into a bedspread.  I enjoyed the slow pace and listened to stories online while sewing.  Then all of a sudden all these script ideas came flooding to me and I started writing.  Shakespeare wrote his best works during the great plague and I realised why – ideas need space to develop – not a cluttered schedule of stuff to do.

 
The poem, Wau Bulan, was written a few years ago by Amina Jindani and is published in Celine’s Anthology – Part 1, published by Wordville (UK), 2021 during the MCO lockdown. It has been used in Malaysian school performances, for teaching in classes. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCSy3q7wV7g

AFT: What is the one thing you strive to do with Moone Drama? Tell us about the early days, how you started this company. Have you been successful?

Moone: MoOne Drama strives to develop performance arts pedagogy as the basis for all education.  To develop creativity, expression, interpretation and to think critically with experiential learning.  I started it because mainstream education is a rewards-based system focused on the end product and not the journey.  I wanted to create a learning experience that is about the journey for the personal development of people – all people. In 2021, we won an award as Malaysia’s Best Performing Arts Institute.  This year, we launched MO1 Productions where trainees can learn to work with established professionals. It’s growing and I’m happy with the progress.

AFT: Tell us about work that you have not finished or can’t complete? What happens then?

Moone: I have written screenplays with a lot of trial and error in the process.  There’s such a big gap between writing a screenplay and producing one.  I am determined to start getting these stories made one day.  I will keep going.  Sometimes, it’s about meeting the right people or it’s about the timing.  Sometimes, you realise you need to do a re-write and so I work on these in the background.

AFT: Is health and fitness important to you as a scriptwriter and performance artist? Can you share a little about your daily routine?

Moone: When my mind travels into my ideas, I kind of feel like my body is not doing anything.  I’m not even aware of it.  After a while, I notice that I have not even moved.  That’s when I decide to take a long walk.  I don’t drive and have been a pedestrian all my life.  Walking is my source of fitness.  When I walk, I go on for miles and miles.  When I don’t walk, I make sure I do household chores the old-fashioned way.  I don’t use a washing machine – I hand wash clothes every day.  I mop, clean, scrub, dig the garden and saw the excess branches off trees. It’s like going to the gym.

AFT: Finally, what’s your ultimate favourite thing to do?

Moone: Zone out! I can sit and do nothing and relish that feeling of incoming creativity.  Ideas forming. After I zone out, I am so much more productive.

If your curiosity is piqued about what a Noir Parody Audio Drama could sound like, tune in to the Theatre of the Mind’s production of Derek Kong, Private Detective on Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud. Or, visit the official website: https://www.moonedrama.com/about-3.

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Originally published in AsiaFitnessToday.com AFT Interviews: Eyes on Amina Jindani and the ‘Theatre of the Mind’ collective is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Source: https://www.asiafitnesstoday.com/?p=12679.

AFT Features, Features Korea, Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), The Kurang Manis Podcast

[Korean Version] 덜 단 The Kurang Manis (Sugar,Less) Podcast by AsiaFitnessToday.com

Hello 2022! We welcome the new year with a special Korean podcast version of highlights from Season 1 of The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast, voiced by four students of one of South Korea’s oldest private universities, Chosun University in Gwangju. The students were mentored by podcast co-hosts Nikki Yeo and Jasmine Low over a month, where they spent hours researching the topics, discussed as a group, translated articles from English to Korean (www.asiafitnesstoday.com/sugarless) and lent their voices to this recording. We hope this outreach will play a significant role in halving NCDs in the Asia Pacific region – as per Asia Fitness Today’s MISSION 2030.

We hope you’ve enjoyed these bite-sized pieces of information on lifestyle diseases. Learn more about The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast here: https://www.asiafitnesstoday.com/?p=9233

⚫️🔴⚪️

Produced by AsiaFitnessToday.com Podcasts.

Producer and Editor Jasmine Low & Nikki Yeo.

Korean Version recorded by the individual students using their mobile devices.

English Podcast recorded at Sydney Podcast Studios.

All Rights Reserved, Go International Group Dotcom Sdn. Bhd.

TC: https://bit.ly/3b9FHuM

EMAIL: info@asiafitnesstoday.com

Originally published in English between February – May 2021.

AFT Podcast, Public Health

AFT Podcasts on Public health

AFT Podcasts curates some of the most interesting audio documentaries on public health. In this edition, we share BBC’s The Compass, with a particular focus on sugar, and industries it supports. Have a listen to Lainy Malkani’s Sugar-coated World.

Lainy Malkani digs into the history of sugar and how it helped shape the city of London.

Released On: 29 Sep 2021

Available for over a year

Lainy Malkani focuses on the story of sugar in the USA. From one of the oldest confectionery shops in New Orleans where the local delicacy of pecan nut pralines are made every day, to a former sugar plantation along the Mississippi river, she hears about the role of sugar in the history of Louisiana. She speaks to Khalil Gibran Mohammed about the legacy of sugar and slavery in the region, and hears from the manager of the Whitney plantation about what remains there today. From there to the sugar beet plains of the mid-West, Lainy looks at how sugar has influenced government policy over time, and how the commodity has become central to American culture, its diet and economy today.

Released On: 06 Oct 2021 Available for over a year

Lainy Malkani looks into the story of sugar in Thailand, now the second biggest exporter of sugar in the world. We hear how farmers there are coping with climate change, what sustainable production might look like and what sugar cane can be used for once the sweet juice has been removed, from fuel to water bottles. Lainy looks at the future of sugar, talking to those experimenting with sugar to try to make it healthier, like the company Douxmatok, who are hacking sugar crystals at a structural level in an effort to help us eat less of it without compromising on taste.

Presenter: Lainy Malkani

Producer: Megan Jones

Listen to more AFT Podcast Recommendations here.

AFT Podcast, AFTNews, AFTNews, Olympics

AFT Podcasts: Tokyo 2020 Olympics

From the Olympic Channel:

Catch Malaysia’s darling at the dive boards – Pandelela Rinong who has won first two Olympic medal and five World Championships. A Sabahan from Malaysia’s Borneo, Pandelela was the First Female Athlete to win a gold medal for her country. Watch her in action on 27/7/2021

Start TimeLocationEventStatus
Tue, 27 Jul 15:00Tokyo Aquatics CentreWomen’s Synchronised 10m Platform Final
Wed, 4 Aug 15:00Tokyo Aquatics CentreWomen’s 10m Platform Preliminary

Other related:

AFT Interviews, AFTNews, Kid's Health, The Kurang Manis Podcast

AFT Interviews: Dentist Dr. YokeLi Ling on crooked teeth, sleep disorders and systemic health

Oral myofunctional therapy and dental sleep medicine for both children and adults.

Team AFT met with Dr. YokeLi Ling, a dentist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 20 March 2021. What ensued is a chat between The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast co-hosts Jasmine Low & Nikki Yeo with the good doctor about how she’s been able to assist her patients breathe better and live better. Her passion and dedication as a Sleep and Airway Centric Dentist shows in her work in providing a holistic patient management approach. 

In this interview, Team AFT speaks to Dr. Ling about:

  • Minimal, non-invasive interventions in dentistry
  • Prevention and rehabilitation of poor facial and jaw growth development that results in dental misalignment, sleep disordered breathing, and compromised systemic health.
  • Oral myofunctional therapy, incorporating it into the treatment of orofacial myofunctional disorders, and dental sleep medicine for both children and adults. 

In this interview, Dr. Ling speaks at length about her field of specialty. She shares, “I would like to introduce a broader concept of the dentist as an oral physician, a gatekeeper to the wellness of systemic health through the mouth.”

AFT: You practice minimal, non-invasive dentistry to achieve sustainable outcomes for your patients. We’re curious what that means, what is non-invasive and why this kind of specialty? 

Dr. Yoke Li elaborates on Malocclusion, Sleep & Airway and compromised health.

AFT: What causes a child or adult to have crooked teeth? 

Some people have an upper or lower jaw that is too far in or out? What has resulted in that? Is it in our genes that some of us are born with a smaller jaw hence the overcrowding of teeth?

Having a small jaw with crooked teeth are signs that a person’s sleep may be compromised.

“Once sleep is compromised, health is also compromised” – Dr. Ling.

When we sleep the body is restored and our immune system is generated to protect the body. When sleep is interrupted, the lack of oxygen during obstructive sleep apnea would lead to a diminished quality of life, mood swings, irritability, hypertension, even metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

AFT: Why is our jaw too small to accommodate all our teeth? Surely it should be perfectly balanced, unless it’s changed over time?

The standard practice now is for most people to remove their wisdom teeth. Dr. Ling shares her thoughts thoughts on this. 

AFT: Do our food choices contribute to misaligned teeth, jaw and the structure of our face?

We don’t seem to be chewing enough in this era with foods. Archeologists have shown that the hunters and gatherers had a full set of teeth, continuous stimulation of the jaw bone.

AFT: How about people who grind their teeth at night? Can that be cured?

Ever heard about singing as a cure? Dr. Ling elaborates on some situations where spouses have reported positive improvement after their partners undergo treatment in merely exercising upper body, tongue and facial exercises as well as a diet change.

Put your tongue on the top of your mouth palette and breathe. Try it.

Don’t under estimate the power of the tongue and the power of breathing through your nose, chew your food, eat foods that require you to chew and that’s when your body starts to becoming more effective overall.

Q: At Asia Fitness Today, we advocate movement as therapy. What is the one thing that you have been able to use your Fitness for Good?

Married to her childhood sweetheart and blessed with 3 children, Dr. Ling loves hiking, traveling and playing tennis. She shares that fitness activities is how she gets herself out and up and encourages her family and friends to join her. Through sport, it’s not just about being fit physically, but also about being mentally and emotionally fit because good hormones are released.

Dr. Ling’s credentials include:

  • Doctor of Dental Surgery from University Science of Malaysia (Honours, 2006)
  • Recipient of the USM Chancellor’s Gold Award, USM’s University Gold Award and Conference of Malay Rulers’ Royal Education Excellence Award
  • Postgraduate training and certifications on Orthotropics from London School of Facial Orthotropics
  • Mini Residency on Guiding Craniofacial Growth and Development in Children
  • Mini Residency on Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics
  • Craniofacial Epigenetics
  • Oral Myology from Coulson Institute of Orofacial Myology
  • Myobrace from MRC Australia
  • Implant Training Program University of Southern California

Available across all platforms

Read more about The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast

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AsiaFitnessToday.com Interviews: Dentist Dr. YokeLi Ling on crooked teeth, sleep disorders and systemic health is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Source: https://www.asiafitnesstoday.com/aft-interviews-dentist-dr-yokeli-ling-on-crooked-teeth-sleep-disorders-and-systemic-health/

AFT Podcast, Fitness, Move8 Fitness Podcast

Move8 Fitness Podcast

Move8 • Move It • MoveAID (www.move8.org) is a fitness movement that advocates wellness education and action, making fitness accessible to all layers of society. The movement was founded by co-hosts Nikki Yeo & Jasmine Low as a way to get more people moving; head outdoors to enjoy nature and living their best lives. They get up close with everyday heroes who use their own fitness for good and find out what’s their secret to happiness.

Season 1, Episode 1: Sally Sukkar

Welcome to the first episode of the Move8 Podcast. Join co-hosts Nikki Yeo & Jasmine Low as they speak to Sally Sukkar – health advocate, body building competitor and founder of the Me Movement (www.me-movement.com.au). Sally helps people look and feel great in movement, mindset and health. 

Here’s a list of her credentials:

✔ Bachelor Of Exercise and Sport Science (Majoring in health promotion)
✔ Sports Nutrition Certificate
✔ 4x bodybuilding competitor
✔ Kettlebell, TRX, SPIN, Powerlifting, Olympic lifting qualifications (psst just to name a few)
✔ Rolling out a foundations of movement course
✔ Sally also loves her food and family
✔ Sally sings! No really, she does! Listen until the end of the podcast.

Sally and Move8 Fitness have come together to offer this 30-day exercise program, delivered virtually to your convenience. Click on the button below to learn more!

Move me!

AFT Interviews, AFTNews, AFTNews, Features Australia/NZ, Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), The Kurang Manis Podcast

AFT Interviews: Dr. James Muecke AM Australian of the Year 2020 wants to put diabetes in remission

Video

Listen to the full interview on The Kurang Manis Podcast, Season 1, Episode 7

Type 2 Diabetes could be put into remission, says opthalmologist Dr. James Muecke AM. Almost as soon as he was named Australian of the Year 2020, Dr. Muecke started advocating for the implementation of a tax on sugary drinks in an effort to save more eyes. Dr. Muecke speaks to AsiaFitnessToday.com about his proposed change to Australia’s dietary guidelines, he expresses why there’s a need for government to impose a sugar tax and talks about his work in raising awareness about diabetes – a lifestyle disease that could lead to the loss of sight.

Dr. James Muecke with his team in Vietnam. Photo credit: Sight For All foundation

He began his career in Kenya, then returned to South Australia to become an eye surgeon and blindness prevention pioneer, starting both Vision Myanmar at the South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology in 2000, and Sight For All, an organisation which uses Australian and New Zealand eye specialists to train overseas doctors, a social impact organisation “aiming to create a world where everyone can see”.

Has sugar blinded our reasoning?

A few months ago, we featured a story about a patient of Dr. Muecke’s who woke up one morning Blinded by Sugar. Neil Hansel is sadly a victim of the debilitating disease which has not only taken his eyesight, but also his limbs.

In his address at the National Press Club in Canberra last year, Dr. James Muecke gave an immensely moving account about having had to remove a patient’s eye. He wanted to be an eye surgeon to give the gift of sight and not to take it away from someone, especially when someone has been needlessly blinded by an avoidable, man-made Type 2 Diabetes he said.

Sugar toxicity can be solved

Humans were for the first time in history “overfed and undernourished” with sugar and refined carbohydrates, he affirmed. We met with Dr. Muecke in person at a studio in Sydney this March 2021, one square year after the Australian border closures and he summed up our conversation to this, “When the mother is pregnant with the baby and if she’s consuming a diet high in sugar, that sugar crosses the placental barrier to the foetus but insulin doesn’t cross, so you’re already metabolically priming the child for health problems in the future. So gestational diabetes is a big big problem so people should be aware of that, that it be picked up early in pregnancy and wind right back on your consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates,”.

Dr. Muecke spoke to us at length about a strategy he came up with, which he calls the 5As of sugar toxicity.

  • Addiction
  • Alleviation
  • Accessibility
  • Addition
  • Advertising

It’s so hard to kick the habit. If you’ve ever tried to detox from sugar, it’s quite an unpleasant process. And even if you’re able to succesfully do it, everywhere you go, all the foods you eat, you’re just bombarded with sugar, so it makes it very difficult. So having a tax on sugary drinks, we know that it’s been shown to reduce purchase and consumption in 17 countries with Mexico being one of them.

Let’s say in Australia, we put a 20% levy on sugary drinks, that would raise about A$600million which could then be used to fund health awareness initiatives and about 77% of Australians agree with this in principle,” added Muecke, giving light into his call for a sugar tax.

Back home in Adelaide, Dr. Muecke continues his advocacy work in awareness building and has called for a crackdown on sugar in drinks and processed foods, also a change in Australia’s dietary guidelines.

He spoke about how diabetes, one of leading causes of blindness among Australian adults could be sent into remission. Diabetes is a metabolic disease, caused by the over-consumption of sugar, refined carbohydrates and ultra-processed foods which are cheap and accessible. He mentioned the dangers of seed oils, and that we should be aware of the types of oils we’re consuming daily.

Australia’s dietary guidelines was last updated in 2013 and in a Facebook post, Muecke suggests a certain biasness that 80% of the recommended foods were plant-based. He came up with this proposed diamond (see diagram below), shifting sugar and heavily processed & grain fed meats to the opposite tips of the healthy eating diamond.

A 7News report quoted Dr. Muecke saying, there were three successful ways to place type-two diabetes in remission – low calorie diets, low carbohydrate diets or bariatric surgery. Of these, he said the low-carbohydrate diet was the easiest solution.

AsiaFitnessToday.com also attended a webinar in November 2020, organised by the Australian Society of Opthalmologists. In that webinar, Dr. Muecke shared an imagery about glucose metabolism likening it to a packed train at peak hour. When too much glucose is ingested, insulin level rises and tries to push glucose into the blood stream, but it’s rejected. It’s then stored as glycogen instead in the liver, giving rise to fatty liver. Fructose – when taken up by the liver, almost a third of it is converted to fat so fructose is far more toxic than glucose! 

Dynamic duo

Dr. James Muecke was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012, then in 2015 he was EY’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year for Australia, and in 2019 received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Adelaide. It was the year of the Covid-19 pandemic, that Dr. Muecke was named Australian of the Year for 2020 and appropriately so, considering he is not going to be silent anymore and will be carrying the torch to highlight the fact that non-communicable lifestyle diseases like diabetes can be put into remission, and one of the ways to achieve that is to intervene with awareness first, followed by a change in lifestyle and importantly, diet. Partnering Dr. Muecke in advocacy and stewardship of the non-profit work is spouse Mena Muecke OAM, who also plays a vital role in the marketing and publicity of Sight For All and is a co-founder of the Vision 1000 social investment initiative. She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2018. The Mueckes run private consultancy, www.Medthink.com.au.

Follow Dr. Muecke on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn. 

The podcast also features:

Dr. YokeLi Ling

In this 7th episode of Season 1 of The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast, we also speak with Dr YokeLi Ling, based in Kuala Lumpur who is passionately advocating Sleep and Airway Centric Dentistry and Oral Myofunctional Therapy. Dr. Ling shares more details in the 8th episode of the podcast (click here) with co-hosts Nikki Yeo and Jasmine Low. 

Mia Palencia

Our tradition continues where we introduce music from this region and we’ve chosen a song titled SUPERMAN by Tassie-based Mia Palencia who launched her career in Malaysia at the age of 14 as the other half of Sabahan jazz duo Double Take. The song reflects the advocacy work that’s being undertaken by Dr. James Muecke AM – Australia’s SUPERMAN. Mia composed, produced and performed the opening night theme song for the Southeast Asian Games 2017, and continues her PhD research in Songwriting at the Conservatorium of Music, University of Tasmania and released her 7th album with her Australian jazz quartet, In Good Company. Visit www.miapalencia.com.

Available wherever you get your podcasts:

Public advocacy

We welcome messages from our listeners, and invite you to send us a voice message if you have comments or feedback for our guests.

Feel free to share and repost these visuals via your social media pages or messages. Thank you.

Now streaming – Dr. James Muecke AM, Australian of the Year 2020 wants to put diabetes in remission. Listen to the podcast on AsiaFitnessToday.com or wherever you get your podcast: “The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast”
Now streaming – Dr. James Muecke AM, Australian of the Year 2020 wants to put diabetes in remission. Listen to the podcast on AsiaFitnessToday.com or wherever you get your podcast: “The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast”
Now streaming – Dr. James Muecke AM, Australian of the Year 2020 wants to put diabetes in remission. Listen to the podcast on AsiaFitnessToday.com or wherever you get your podcast: “The Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) Podcast”

More opinion pieces by Dr. James Muecke AM:

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AsiaFitnessToday.com Interviews: Dr. James Muecke AM Australian of the Year 2020 wants to put diabetes in remission is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Source: https://www.asiafitnesstoday.com/dr-james-muecke/

AFT Interviews, AFTNews, AFTNews, Events, Fitness, The Kurang Manis Podcast

AFT Interviews: World Vision’s Marilee Pierce Dunker

#RunForChildren in 2021 is a 42-minute virtual run to raise awareness and advocate for the 42 rights of children.

The World Vision Virtual #RunforChildren is back! Author and World Vision Ambassador Marilee Pierce Dunker is daughter to American missionary Dr Robert Pierce who founded World Vision in 1950 when he returned to America after travelling to China and Korea. There, he encountered people living without food, clothing, shelter or medicine. Team AsiaFitnessToday.com spoke to Marilee Dunker in Kuala Lumpur in May 2019 at the launch.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), children have 42 rights. These rights are based on what a child needs to survive, grow, participate and develop their full potential. They apply equally to every child, regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion. Learn more here.

Proceeds from the World Vision annual #RunForChildren are channelled to child protection efforts in Malaysia and overseas to support children’s safety, to call out violence when it occurs, and to work with survivors to heal and recover so children can experience a safe and secure childhood that will advance their sense of well-being.

When you sign up for #RunForChildren, you’ll be running for the child on your bib – to ensure that their rights are protected! Your participation helps give children a safe and secure childhood 👧👦🧡 It Takes You & I

Click here to visit the World Vision Malaysia page to join.

AFT Interviews, AFT TV, AFTNews, AFTNews, Diet & Nutrition, Features Malaysia, The Kurang Manis Podcast

AFT Interviews: Malaysia’s “biggest” comedian Papi Zak: high uric acid got your tongue?

Video

We captured some curious questions from Malaysia’s “biggest” standup comedian and debut wrestler, Papi Zak (www.thepapizak.com), to Australia’s gastroenterologist and Instagram educator Dr. Pran Yoganathan (IG @dr_pran_yoganathan) – he spoke with us on Episode 3. Dr. Pran elaborates on the expensive tissue hypothesis (ETH) which relates brain and gut size in evolution (specifically in human evolution). Listen in to the trailer below for information on gout, uric acid on a high protein diet, our gut and metabolic health. 

The full episode of Ep. 4 with Papi Zak – listen below.

TV host & celebrity entertainer

Introducing Papi Zak, well known in the comedy circuit in Malaysia and the “biggest” Malaysia has to offer, states his website. For over 12 years, he’s written and performed material for his shows, and has fast established his quirky brand of humour and witty observations on the absurdities of every-day life. Zak was a former LiteFM and REDFM radio broadcaster and his comfortable presence in front of a camera has landed him screen work as the host of two television lifestyle programs – ‘The Halal Foodie’ and ‘Happy Endings’. Zak is currently the brand ambassador for Mr. Potato.

In doing our research on Papi Zak’s The Halal Foodie show, we found this bootleggish version translated and dubbed in Thai!

Papi Zak speaks to co-hosts Jasmine Low and Nikki Yeo in Episode 4 about his fitness journey – how he shed over 30kg from his 160kg stature, his childhood as a third culture kid, his mother’s amazing cooking, his new foray into wrestling and his quest to inspire others on the path towards fitness – just as he has. He also indulges us in his relationships… with food!

In this same episode, you’ll hear the voices of Dr. Pran Yoganathan, gastroenterologist featured in Ep. 3 and Dr. Desmond Menon, medical lab scientist from Ep. 2. Papi poses some curious questions Dr. Pran and together, we learn about gout, gut health, satiety, cholesterol levels and gout.

In the tradition of AsiaFitnessToday.com’s methods of using rhythm and movement as therapy, we introduce a comedy skit by Papi Zak at a TimeOut Kuala Lumpur show to seal off the episode. Tune in to the podcast to listen now.

Learn more about The Kurang Manis Podcast, click here: https://www.asiafitnesstoday.com/?p=9039.
AFT Interviews, AFT TV, AFTNews, AFTNews, Diet & Nutrition, Features Australia/NZ, The Kurang Manis Podcast

AFT Interviews: Dr. Pran Yoganathan Gastroenterologist and passionate educator uses IG memes to drive understanding on satiety

Video

Gastroenterologist and hepatologist based in Sydney, Dr. Pran Yoganathan is an extremely passionate educator, a Mathematician-turned doctor who aims to empower his patients with data that can help them on a journey of self-healing using the philosophy of “let food be thy medicine”.

Dr. Pran who has innovatively harnessed creative technology and 14,400 followers on Instagram @dr_pran_yoganathan, stresses that his educational memes are not medical advice or recommendations, simply his opinions — and rather strong science-backed opinions they are too!

In the podcast interview, Dr. Pran speaks about his diet of choice, which comprises predominantly of grass-fed steak and eggs and why that has raised eyebrows and temperatures not just in the oven, but in conversation with peers as well. We ask him about butyrate and got him all fired up and excited! Now, are WE ready to absorb the fact that we’re meant to burn fat for energy and not glycogen? Let’s save that for perhaps another conversation. 

Joining co-hosts Jasmine Low and Nikki Yeo in this same episode are Dr. Desmond Menon, medical lab scientist featured in Ep. 2 Do Our Genes Predispose us to Diseases of our Parents and Malaysia’s “biggest” stand-up comedian Papi Zak who’s in training to be a wrestler.

Together, we pose our numerous curious questions to Dr. Pran and have a content-packed conversation that’s science-based yet entertaining and revealing at the same time! Dr. Pran’s message is to “eat a diet that is not rubbish, move your body”, and he shares science in between some of his Instagram posts.

We ask him why he got into gastroenterology, his inspiration behind the Hippocrates’ philosophy “let food be thy medicine” and his personal dietary habits.

On the table, we discuss hunter gatherer societies in our modern world where Dr. Pran shares about the Hazda ethnic group from Tanzania and how they forage for food today.

Dr. Pran sheds some light on high fibre diets – a push by the standard Western Diet and how excess fibre can slow down gut motility, cause reflux and bloating and fundamentally IBS.

“If you’re going to deal with fibre, you need the machinery. That is why you see our primate cousins, like the chimps and gorillas tend to have a thick hind gut, a very big belly, that’s not visceral fat, it’s simply machinery to deal with rough fibrous tissue. That’s not my theory, that is a scientific fact and it’s called the expensive tissue hypothesis. It’s what makes us special in terms of our species; our brains grew in response to a shrinking gut.

Dr. Pran Yoganathan, gastroenterologist

Incidentally, on a side track, if you’re interested to deep dive into the Expensitve Tissue Hypothesis by American paleoanthropologist and professor emeritus of the University College London Leslie Crum Aiello – click here. She co-authored the textbook, “An Introduction to Human Evolutionary Anatomy”, which uses the fossil record to predict the ways early hominids moved, ate, and looked. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed these bite-sized pieces of information. Keep reading below for more about Dr. Pran’s credentials and to listen to the full podcast.

Click to view Dr. Pran’s posts on Instagram

More about Dr. Pran Yoganathan

Graduating from medicine from the University of Otago in New Zealand, Dr. Pran is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physician (FRACP) and a member of Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA). He has accredited expertise in Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Colonoscopy as certified by the Conjoint Committee for the recognition of training in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Working across the public and private sectors in Greater Sydney, Dr. Pran has a strong interest in the field of human nutrition. He practices an approach to healthcare that assesses the lifestyle of the patient to see how it impacts on their gastrointestinal and metabolic health. Dr. Pran believes that the current day nutritional guidelines may not be based on perfect evidence and he passionately strives to provide the most up to date literature in healthcare and science to provide “Evidence-Based Medicine”. 

Dr. Pran has a special interest in conditions such as Gastro-oesophageal Reflux (GORD), Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and abdominal bloating. He takes a very thorough approach to resolve these issues using dietary manipulation In conjunction with an accredited highly qualified dietician rather than resort to long-term medications.

Ready to digest the podcast episode with Dr. Pran? Listen here:

In this BONUS edition for Spotify Listeners only – In the tradition of AsiaFitnessToday.com’s methods of using rhythm and movement as therapy, we introduce a song to seal off this episode. We have selected a mash-up song made popular by Yohani De Silva – a Sri Lankan singer songwriter and rapper, a social media star herself. Yohani did her Masters in Accounting at a Queensland university.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/28Rtrvhlp5IRFuxVjiY8sW