The book is a journey, recounting the quest of a son and brother who wanted to understand the root of the problem that leads to heart disease. The journey of being one of the caregivers to his father led him to becoming a certified metabolic health coach.
The book starts with an introduction to metabolic disorders which have become a silent epidemic and the biggest health crisis affecting our country. According to a major health study published in the Lancet in 2023, 101 million people in India are diabetic, 136 million are pre diabetic and a large number remain undiagnosed. Genetic predisposition, along with changing lifestyles has changed the pattern of diseases in India. From being a nation riddled with infectious diseases, now a large part of the country’s population is prone to lifestyle diseases.
The opening part of the book explains the myriad factors including genetic ones that leads to insulin resistance. This, according to the author, is the starting point of many diseases, not just diabetes, but also heart ailments, neurological disorders, PCOD and infertility. All this is laid out in simple, easy to understand language.
The next part of the book looks at how to diagnose insulin resistance while the final chapters are prescriptive, providing a playbook to deal with insulin resistance. The playbook rests on three golden pillars — Nutrition, movement and managing sleep and stress.
Self experiments
In order to understand metabolic disorder, Sarin has extensively self-experimented with constant glucose monitoring (CGM) to check and test the effect of all kinds of foods on his body. He goes into great detail in explaining the role of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, micro nutrients and how they affect insulin resistance. He tells you about the hidden sugars in everyday meals. He has given clear logical and science-backed guidance for a vegetarian diet.
Interestingly, he advocates eating fat for he says fat is the fire required to burn carbohydrates. His chart on Glucose Response Hierarchy is simple but gives adequate guidance to anyone looking for information at a glance.
For years, the Indian system of medicine has looked at food as medicine but over the years, our food has changed, our food habits have changed and so has the makeup of food. Take wheat for example, dwarf wheat developed by Norman Borlaug has replaced almost all traditional wheat and through constant breeding has a higher content of starch and is high in a compound called amylopectin, a compound which gets digested quickly and causes sugar spike. At the same time traditional grains like Bajra and Jau have been replaced.
Sarin makes a case for daily movement starting with walking 15 minutes after having a meal, using non exercise activity thermogenesis — standing while talking on the phone for instance, or choosing stairs over elevators. He advocates resistance training and aerobic activity like dance, yoga, walking and cycling for heart health. Sleep and stress management is one of the most significant pillars to good health.
The last chapter has the protocols written in simple terms for taking charge of your health and getting yourself out of the spiral that is insulin resistance. All in all, it is a well written, well researched book by an author who has learnt by literally living by what he preaches.
The reviewer is an independent journalist who has been tracking the healthcare sector
Checkout the book on Amazon
Title: Sick Nation: Inside India’s Lifestyle Disease Epidemic and How to Fix It
Published on March 1, 2026