SO WHAT IS THE FUSS AROUND FOOD

If we were to look at our ancestors…..no, not the recent ones, I mean, like the really prehistoric ones, the ones who wore skin & leaves  to cover themselves, yes those ones, the oldest of the lot….. So while the woman of the house would rear children, the men would go out and  fetch or pluck raw food,  the animals hunted, were the only stuff cooked on fire. Same day hunt, on-the-spot cooking and consumption, and most of it raw. If you ask me by and large this was the healthiest way to live. These really are the basic tenets of food consumption. Our learnings from the above, however vapid, are the following:-

·      Fresh food

·      Raw food (Cooked food is dead food, so they say)

·      Fresh animals too.

·   Don’t let food sit for hours, but rather eat within minutes after being cooked. (which means fresh from the stove too)

·   None of the above has salt/sauces/preservatives(remember we are talking about million years ago..so yes no salt and no pepper)

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Point made.

Cut straight to 2020, (Im not going to describe evolution of food century by century) So what do we have here : Besides rice, wheat, grains, spices,, and a whole lot of packaged food, lab produced veggies and fruits, ‘animal farming’ produced meat, nitrate coated meat etc.are available.  Now these choices by themselves are not as overwhelming as by the mayhem created around them.  Is whole wheat better then refined wheat, OR go gluten free?. So Quinoa is better than brown rice & brown rice better than white rice? Has olive oil given way to cold pressed oils, local oils, ghee is back or no? We should say no to adulterated packaged milk but yes to A2 Grade pure cows milk, or buy your own cow OR, its time to give  up milk altogether as it creates high levels of oestrogen? Coconut sugar/date sugar/organic jaggery are certainly better substitutes of refined sugar but then what about any form of sweet destroying our good cells continuously and lowering our immunity? All this half baked knowledge about insulin/glucose/fat/gluten-free/vegan diet etc is creating more disease than health.

Technically we we live in times where we have a plethora  of nothingness amidst plentitude of everything. If you understand what I mean. Too many choices kill your decision making abilities.

Even though we exist in 2020, I can safely say there is no harm in going back  a few decades maybe  50-70 years, the time of our grandparents/GGP(oh my fascination for ancestors,) so yeah, just follow their diets of the 1950’s, buy stuff produced in our country and we are sorted. I talk of this time period as this generation, was relatively BP free, Cholesterol free, Diabetes free. Our generation in addition to all the above now has some new ones-Type 2 Diabetes, Hashimotos thyroid, Autoimmune disorder, Metabolic syndrome etc. Why instead of becoming disease free, are we getting deeper into it. Ever thought of it?

Our gut is the third most important thing after our brain and heart. (And if you don’t take care of your gut, believe me your brain and heart wont function- they just give up- these 3 are actually best and loyal buddies ) Imagine sitting in a meeting doing a million dollar deal but suffering from bowel irritability? Now you understand. There is no way your brain is thinking about that deal.

Proper functioning of each and every organ is governed by our gut health, even  neurotic diseases like Autism, Alzheimer, Parkinsons, Eye diseases,  all are related to the gut. We keep talking about immunity, do you know where it is located? Yes, right next to your intestinal lining are about 70% of the immune cells. And yet we excel at making poor food choices.

We are NOT ok with exhaust pipes of our cars getting choked, but we are completely okay running around with clogged intestines? (Those cute little pipes inside our body, they are working their  A** off the whole day trying to digest what we are feeding them. Have some affection for them please.

We have no business then, bellyaching about hair, weight, skin and other serious health issues.

We have kept ourselves  well entertained for a few decades. Atkins diet/ GM diet/ All liquid diet/  Salad diet/ brown diet/ Keto diet-. We don’t need diets. We need wholesome meals.

We can’t be eating all day please, so pick up a hobby. (2hr snack / midday snack..blah)

Do not eat according to the ups and downs in life. You know- celebrate with buckets of beer & chicken wings and drowning in blues with tubs of ice cream …NO.

Our body does not require this much food. Human body can live and survive perfectly well on 1/4th of what we eat. (yes, don’t be shocked and disappointed). And what that 1/4th constitutes, becomes even more critical. Make sure you are getting all your vitamins from ABCD to XYZ. 

Lets be smart and start early in life. We need to change our thought process from’ what I gave up’ to ‘what I should include’ in my diet. Start thinking, of  the intake you partake (wow I love when words rhyme). So In addition to healthy home cooked food, try a 50% raw intake, lots of prebiotic and probiotic. We guys are lucky we were born in India and are not stuck with just – whats that called, yeah green salad and steak. We have choices of food that can tickle anyones palette. And maybe it is time we learn a thing or two from our Japanese friends, a culture as old as India, much ahead than most of the world in technological advancement yet they have not been swayed by changing food trends and remain highly & strictly connected to their traditional food.

It is sad that fear of  fat and not health makes people change food habits and give up things. Start making an educated conscious choice. My fav line: use your mind please, all answers are sitting there 🙂 You may be surprised at your own common sense, because that’s all that is needed to make your choices in food.

Happy Eating 🙂