The three white poisons

We all have heard of the three witches of ‘Macbeth’, the three aspects of godhead, ‘trimurti’, Bramha, Vishnu, Maheshvara, three doshas of ayurveda- vata, pita and kapha. But what are these three white poisons? According to Naturopathy, the three white poisons are- white flour (maida), sugar and salt. The three culprits cause so many health problems of which we are clueless.

And isn’t it a disturbing or rather alarming thing as we all have these three items in our kitchen shelves, laying there innocuously and almost inevitably. These three forms a part and parcel of most of our cuisine and it seems as though we cannot do without them. Here, I am reminded of an incident which made me realize how many wrong choices we make every day and the ubiquity of ‘the three white poisons’. I had gone to see my brother who stays in Bangalore with a friend. As we went for some grocery shopping, I saw his friend put a packet of white flour into the shopping cart. I could not help it. I had to tell them. I told it is not good for health and it will cause Diabetes Mellitus if you eat it frequently. The awareness about diet and health is so less in the common man and the ‘un-vulnerability’ feeling of youth got the better of him. He had to take the flour. In spite of my warning him, he has to take it. ‘Rotis are softer, you know, when you use white flour’ he retorted. And into the cart went a packet of biscuits, bread, cup cakes, Maggi, Yipee noodles, a bottle of jam, butter, to my utter dismay. The three white poisons staring at me and as though sneering at my futile efforts to fight them.  

You may now be curious why I called them ‘poison’, and here is the explanation. 

White flour or maida is the refined form of wheat. To improve the shelf life of white flour, the whole wheat is processed to remove its kernel and bran. This produces a white powder devoid of the natural oils, Vitamins and dietary fibre.

In processed white flour chemical substances like alloxan is added to make it soft and white. And alloxan is a chemical used in pharmaceutical experiments to induce diabetes in lab rats as it destroys beta cells of the islets of Langerhans. One can gauge the seriousness of the problem if he knew of the complications of diabetes, which ranges from numbness in hands and feet, blindness, gangrene in the foot, kidney failure to list a few. Also, refined carbohydrate can be easily over consumed leading to excess of calorie intake, a risk factor for obesity.  So, isn’t it poison that we are consuming so happily. One can list out the health problems that obesity can lead to but that would be never ending.

Why berate the poor bottle of sugar now? Again, sugar is consumed without any hesitation and with utmost relish in most homes. We have so frequently heard of the phrase ‘you know, I have a sweet tooth, can you please give me an extra sweet? Or I have diabetes, but I’ll have just one sweet before my wife sees’. The average person consumes about 24 kg of sugar every year. Sugar is made by refining sugarcane syrup or beet root syrup by diffusion, treatment with milk of lime, evaporated and crystallised. The most common form would be sucrose crystals. Other forms are liquid sugar, treacles, sugar alcohols, brown or unrefined sugar.  In the form of sweeteners, it is maltodextrin. Sugar is refined form being processed from the beet root or sugarcane stem to the sparkling white crystals. It is now devoid of any goodness a natural food could provide. And to add to that, sugar is hypothesized to cause diseases like obesity, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, tooth decay, and even Alzheimer’s disease. So, beware of the spoonfuls of white poison you add for your tea or the sweet meat you eat with so much pleasure.

Now, the third item in the trio- salt. Oh yes, the ubiquitous bottle of white powder on the dining table. In most dining places, it is considered not ‘up to the mark’, if the waiter fails to provide salt and pepper powder on the table. Salt, speaking of its importance, one is reminded of Birbal’s story when he answers ‘salt’ to Akbar’s question as to what is important and he proves his point by feeding his royal guest with a feast devoid of salt. And it is indeed true, salt adds to the flavour of things like nothing else. But do we know what havoc it wreaks inside your body when it is consumed. I suppose not. Salt or sodium chloride is considered inevitable whenever we cook anything. It is proven by research that overconsumption of salt can lead to diseases like hypertension, stroke and may increase the risk of heart attack. The body requires 2000mg of sodium chloride per day for its normal functioning. But we need not consume it separately as this much amount of sodium and chloride is available in the foodstuff that we consume daily. Also, preserved foods like pickles, butter, bread, and canned food all contain extra sodium chloride to prolong the shelf life of the products.  

Yes I agree life should be lived to the fullest with zest and not in fear of an impending doom. But what I want to emphasize here is ‘if you lose money, you lose nothing; if you lose health, you lose something; if you lose character, and you lose everything’. By being reckless in our eating habits, one has very high chances of acquiring diseases and with ailments; life is not so enjoyable anymore. The solution to the issue at hand is moderation and substitution. If we know that these three substances cause so many problems, should we continue being slaves to our tongue and bring on the problems upon ourselves. Wisdom lies in healthy choices. White flour can be substituted by whole wheat or brown rice. Sugar can be substituted by honey or jaggery. Salt can be consumed less.

Brahma astra against the three white poisons:

·         Use ragi (finger millet) powder or whole wheat instead of white flour.

·         Use honey or jaggery instead of sugar.

·         Decrease salt in food preparation and do not keep the salt bottle on the dining table.

·         Avoid bakery items like- bread, biscuits, cakes, muffins.

·         Avoid packaged noodles, soup powders, fruits juices.

·         Avoid pickles, ready to eat preparations, canned fruits and vegetables.

·         Avoid chips and snacks available in stores.

·         Prepare snacks at home and eat more of veggies and fruits.

·         And drink 3-4 litres of water a day.

Conserve your life energy, eat healthy and be healthy. Enjoy life the natural way.

Sarve bhavantu sukhinah (may all be blessed)

Love and regards,

Roshni

Fast food

In the last post, I wrote about natural food. Carrying on with the same thread, let us now learn about unnatural foods or simply put food that is not meant to be consumed. And one among that is ‘fast food’. Hmm fast food is it? Yes indeed fast food. With the developments man has achieved in various fields, he is paying on one count dearly. And that would be time. As told very aptly in a Facebook upload I saw recently, ‘now you can have costly watches but you do not have time’.

There is no time to sleep, eat, talk, and laugh. For that matter, there is no time at all for anything. In my last posting at a nature cure centre, I met a few patients and I had to explain the follow up diet chart and practice schedule. This, the patient had to follow up for a period of time. I was totally at a loss because this person does not have time to eat, sleep or drink water. I was baffled and asked, ‘can’t you drink water while you are working’, ‘no’, because he does not have time to pee after that. He earns in millions, has so much bank balance but he has no time to live his life.

In this fast paced world of ours, everything has to be fast. As a result, our food too has to be fast. So, there you go fast food, food which can be consumed on the run. On the down side, food which increases your waistline fast. By definition, fast foods are foodstuff which is fast to eat, it can either be precooked or easy to serve and had on the go, mostly finger foods which does not need cutlery. Food stuffs which can be called fast food are hamburgers, French fries, sandwich, pizza, rolls, cutlets, fish fries, chicken fries, diet coke, hot dogs, tacos, more towards our side pani puri, vada pav, bhel puri, chole bhature, and so on.

This fast food culture is spreading like a wild fire the world over. One can see food chain restuarants of fast food like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, and Subway everywhere in the entire globe. Business and revenue generated by this sector is stupendous. But the health problems following it are even huger and have further repercussions.

The foodstuffs served in fast food joints are ‘not foodstuffs’, actually, they are stuffs which look like food. It is loaded with sucrose syrup and refined carbohydrates, devoid of any fibre or any other nutrients. A balanced diet should comprise of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water in the right proportion. In fast foods, one gets empty carbs and nothing else. These simply give a false sense of filling the stomach but the body keeps craving for more as it is deprived of the nutrients. Also, if a person’s diet consists of only these stuffs, he is bound to suffer from deficiency disorders. The stuffs served here have to be preserved for a period of time and to help keep it fresh for long, preservatives have to be added. It is most of times deep fried and saturated oils are used for the same.

And as a result, one can see the obesity epidemic on the rise the world over. The ever expanding waistline which refuses to decrease however much you run, jog, or starve at times is a result of fast food consumption. As they say, ‘you are what you eat’. Eating burgers every day, one finally looks like the burger. Leave alone the shape of the body; one has to consider the higher incidence of colon cancer in the west due to absence of fibre in diet. Not only this, one can list down a number of health problems fast foods can cause. To name a few, constipation, diabetes mellitus, cancer, gastritis, obesity and many others not to mention diseases for which obesity and diabetes are risk factors for. So, do we need this? Not at all. Why pay 500 bucks and buy for yourself diseases?

Change your diet to a more fruit and vegetable based diet with ample amount of water or fresh juices. And see the differences for yourself.

 Today’s mantra for health:

·         Avoid fast food like the plague.

·         Eat fresh fruits and vegetables in the form of appetising salads and fruit bowls.

·         Drink plenty of water during the day. It keeps craving for snacks away. Simple logic, your tummy is full.

·         Something spicy can be prepared using veggies to avoid having snacks.

·         Have your kitty parties and buddy bonding with healthy foodstuff, try fruit combos using innovative recipes and home-made stuff.

·         Stop running with everyone in the rat-race; take a breath, live life relishing its varied aspects like real food.

Sarve bhavantu sukhinah (may all be blessed)

Love and regards,

Roshni

Eat natural

In the previous post, I have written about ‘return to nature’. Moving on with the thread, let us know how to eat naturally. So what is this natural way of eating? It encompasses what to eat, when to eat and how to eat? To cover the first part, what to eat? Let us go back in the past and see what Homo sapiens and our other ancestors the monkeys used to eat. And here I am talking about the monkeys in the wild with no access to packed food or processed food. Nowadays even monkeys will eat biscuits, pasties and what not.

Before we move on with this let us explore the eating habits of our friends. What does a rabbit eat in its natural habitat? Grass right? Fine, what does a squirrel eat? Nuts, fruits? What does a lion eat? Meat of herbivores. Does a lion seem happy and eager to eat when you give it a bowl of vegetables? Of course not. Feed fish to a rabbit. Does it even turn to look at the fish? No. Okay, the point is driven home I suppose.  So, what do we eat? We eat everything on the face of the earth. There is a saying in Meiteilon, which goes like this: ‘They eat everything even four legged ones, the only exception being the cots and tables’. So, the situation is more or less same as described in the saying. Some people even eat insects, some worms, frogs, cows, dogs, cats, snakes and on and on go the list.

But what are we supposed to eat? Our ancestors, the monkeys used to eat fruits and nuts in the wild. Our more recent ancestors, the cave men used to eat fruits and vegetables and nuts. After they learnt the art of making fire and growing plants, they started eating cooked food grains, vegetables and cooked meat. And there began the problem. Man, being not bound by the bondage of ‘chatur dharma’, as referring to the notion of an organism’s bondage to its nature of what to eat (ahara), how to eat, fear (bhaya), need to sleep (nidra) and seasonal control of procreative activities (maithuna). He is put on a higher pedestal since the time of Renaissance, bestowing praises of his liberty to move higher in the plane of consciousness on his ability to choose and move beyond bondage of nature. But truth is man has misused this liberty and he is paying for it.

In ancient times, when man lived in the natural environment, close to nature, eating natural food, diseases were unheard of. In gross contrast, today man has numerous choices in food items all processed or modified and the list of diseases and ailments also keep mounting. So, the question still remains: what to eat?

My answer would be eat natural stuff as much as possible. Eat fruits and raw vegetables. If cooked use minimal amount of spices and condiments. Avoid use of oil and other fats like butter, ghee, margarines. Preferably steam or boil food. Abstain from roasted or fried stuff. Canned and preserved foods or ready to eat packets are a big no no. Avoid using foods which are packed because to increase the shelf life, these stuffs are loaded with food additives and preservatives. The general rule of 60% carbohydrates, 20% proteins and 10% fat still holds good. A balanced meal with all the nutrients available is an add on. If feasible (organic foods), foods grown without fertilizers and pesticides, or grown in your own garden with natural manure is the best for consumption. This covers ‘what to eat’, in brief.

Now, when to eat?

The food materials what we eat takes some time to traverse through the food pipe and get digested and later excreted from the body. It takes 6 hours to reach the small intestine, 9 hours to reach the large intestine and 12 hours to reach the anal canal. So, lesson is ‘do not keep dumping food into the stomach before the previously eaten food has had time to move out’. Each big meal should have some time in between at least a gap of 4 hours. If frequent and small meals are preferred, that can be done. The body is governed by a biological rhythm as regulated by the sun’s movement- the circadian rhythm. According to this rhythm, the body secretes the digestive juices more at certain periods of the day. So, in naturopathy, it is said the last meal of the day should be eaten by 8pm at the latest. Also, the evening meal should be taken 2 hours before sleep. Food should never be eaten when one is physically ill, emotionally upset or simple not hungry. Have you noticed sometimes we eat just because the clock says it is lunch time or dinner time not because you feel hungry.

And now, let us learn how to eat? Eat slowly, chewing properly. Eat only to fill half your capacity. Eat in a quiet and calm ambience with loved ones sharing your food and quality time. Eat at a particular place specially kept for the purpose, need not be always a big dining hall. Do not eat on the couch in front of the TV. Eat the raw vegetables or fruits first. Eat the plain stuff and keep the oily and spicy stuff for the last part if at all you have to eat. Do not drink water in between morsels of food or immediately before or after meals. That’s all to it. Natural eating it is.

Now, it is time for today’s mantra for eating natural:

• ·         Eat when you feel hungry.
• ·         Include ample amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet.
• ·         Use whole grains and cereals.
• ·         Avoid fried and roasted food.
• ·         Refrain from using too much food additives and spices.
• ·         Avoid canned or preserved foods.
• ·         Do not eat ready to eat packed stuffs.
• ·         Eat slowly chewing properly.
• ·         In between meals, drink fresh juices without sugar and ice and plenty of water.

Enjoy natural eating.

Sarve bhavantu sukhinah (may all be blessed)

Love and regards,

Roshni

Return to nature.

Nature! What comes to mind the instant you hear the word 'nature'? In the near future, kids will imagine an artificial park with landscaped lawns and man- made lakes when they hear nature. Gone are the days when children used to play in the open meadows. As we move further away from nature, Mother Nature too shies away and we suffer the brunt. Most lifestyle related diseases are on the rise. With each of nature's laws broken, the penalty has to be paid. For health one has to 'return to nature', as aptly said by Adolf Just. Observe the laws of nature in thoughts, words and deeds.

• Be honest with yourself and others. Life is not just this instant when you score over another by cheating. It is a collection of the many moments that we call life
• Be optimistic about life situations. There is more to it than meets the eye. It always is according to the cosmic plan. Have faith.
•  Always keep your words. Others will respect you when you respect yourself and keeping your words means you respect what you said.
• Do not wear a masque. Be who you are. This solves a lot of dilemmas.
• Smile from your heart. Do not paste a grin on your face. Let the warmth flow from within to the outside.
• Eat natural. Avoid processed and canned items. Include more veggies and fruits. Avoid using table salt and sugar.
• Wear cotton clothes preferably.
• Drink 3-4 litres of water daily.
• Breathe fresh air, unpolluted and untainted by air conditioning or room fresheners. 
• Be natural. Return to nature and let mother nature nurture you and nourish you with health and vitality.

Sarve bhavantu sukhinah (May all be blessed)

Love and regards,
Roshni