Doctors you just screwed up our eating of food !
Dinesh K Kapila
I sat and looked at the yolk of the egg as it sizzled on the toast and grilled tomatoes. I had wanted it exactly that way and said it was to be my breakfast a couple of days ago. Otherwise it is normally the same old boring, safe for the heart and body (and maybe mind) breakfast for me. Yet I could not eat it. Instead of the wonderfully tasting dish which was making me salivate just a few moments ago, I saw only cholesterol blocking my heart. I started choking inside and could bring myself to eat one of my favourite breakfasts with great difficulty. When I see a banana now a days I see potassium and magnesium. One doctor has written extensively on how important both minerals are and spinach is really important in this context plus I am to believe it has iron. So now I am focused on spinach plus bananas. But then there goes another doctor stating the pomegranate is very good for the heart, a sort of elixir and so we come to the equation of banana + pomegranate + spinach + whole wheat bread and no maida or refined flour. But then what do you eat. In fact the equation for us as per multiple doctors is now Lemon Juice (the advise varies from with hot water to cold water to just warm), Basil Leaves (crushed, rolled, raw lightly boiled), Gooseberries (Indian Amla), wheat grass and then flax seeds, sundry leaves boiled and put together in varied colours (or attracting the human mind and body) and lightly spiced but still insipid and boring and what not. Then one doctor or dietician, more on this tribe of dieticians later, has stated take it easy on the wheat. Millets are the only safe option, but I thought our ancestors have been eating wheat for centuries but there are views the wheat roti or wheat is not really for us. Another dietician has views on milk and it’s need or rather lack of need for the body. The puzzling part, put together two dieticians, their views would be in conflict even say on the use of clarified butter.
Earlier at weddings or parties I walked past the range of food as advised by one of few doctors I can have a rational discussion on this issue, Dr Bhim Sen Agarwal. After the reconnaissance done subtly or otherwise, I then zeroed in on the dishes I would surely enjoy. Yet, yesterday, at a wedding, with all the views of doctors weighing down on my poor brain, I saw this – Mah ki Dal (butter possibly), vegetables (maybe the oil is on the tad higher side), the noodles seem the safest with what looked like boiled vegetables whatever be the name given, the pastas, would they have generous amounts of cheese. I avoided most of the desserts, groaning inside. The chicken and mutton, well my brain was only screaming too much oil, too much oil. Danger, Danger ! The hosts were serving juices and soft drinks but I drank a coffee, to be correct, as we now say in India, cappuccino, no sugar and well it’s not fun, safer maybe but not fun or enjoyable.
Then pray what am I to actually eat. Food is meant to be savoured and enjoyed. Simply, honestly stated. No ifs and buts. That is actually what will impart nutrition and joy and peace to the soul. That is what we call homely food, wholesome, some fat in it, and comforting. Comfort is really important as it enables a deep sense of satisfaction to permeate the body. Any meal at a restaurant has to be maybe in the realm of some ingredients being blockers or weight gainers but then the taste comes precisely from those very ingredients. Sugary, fried or salty, maybe sour, the fundamental tastes which bring food to life. Try potato chips without the salt or ketchup, the cake without sugar and you might as well be eating or rather chewing grass on a farm.
My favourite doctor, Dr MM Lal, has always advised moderation in whatever I indulge in, the advise is well taken. But then the sheer number of articles on the net, in print and on TV, it’s all too much. And then it is reaching absurd levels. I am going off on a tangent. My dentist says I need to use two particular mouthwashes for some time, the journals state that a team in Europe (I think it was UK but the UK is a part of Europe though they don’t seem to relish the thought) has researched and found mouthwashes are enablers for diabetes. Now what the hell are we supposed to do. The humble egg was food, then dangerous food, then highly dangerous food, then partially dangerous food – if only you threw away half of it and now it’s back to being simple food. What a journey it has been with the humble egg ! And very much like a roller coaster ride.
I am not even going near Alcohol. I asked a doctor recently, what about a small one, a really, really small one, after a long hard day and a walk thrown in, NO was the answer. The explanation, what is the guarantee you will stop at the first one. Fair enough. What about a small glass of red wine. No, why not a soup, was the emphatic answer, now I thought I would test him , so I threw in a question about a Lime with a chilled soda, the doctor threw back, don’t you know the soda is fattening and it’s very harmful for the teeth. End of the story, game, set and match.
I am still searching for the safer and yet tastier food, In my mind the thoughts travel constantly, haunting me and challenging me. I say guys, doctors, and oh yes, dieticians, take it easy on the articles. Sit among yourselves, draw up a list and recommendations and then let it be a little bit of discretion too. I need the soul to be nourished, the mind and the body.
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Dinesh K Kapila
I sat and looked at the yolk of the egg as it sizzled on the toast and grilled tomatoes. I had wanted it exactly that way and said it was to be my breakfast a couple of days ago. Otherwise it is normally the same old boring, safe for the heart and body (and maybe mind) breakfast for me. Yet I could not eat it. Instead of the wonderfully tasting dish which was making me salivate just a few moments ago, I saw only cholesterol blocking my heart. I started choking inside and could bring myself to eat one of my favourite breakfasts with great difficulty. When I see a banana now a days I see potassium and magnesium. One doctor has written extensively on how important both minerals are and spinach is really important in this context plus I am to believe it has iron. So now I am focused on spinach plus bananas. But then there goes another doctor stating the pomegranate is very good for the heart, a sort of elixir and so we come to the equation of banana + pomegranate + spinach + whole wheat bread and no maida or refined flour. But then what do you eat. In fact the equation for us as per multiple doctors is now Lemon Juice (the advise varies from with hot water to cold water to just warm), Basil Leaves (crushed, rolled, raw lightly boiled), Gooseberries (Indian Amla), wheat grass and then flax seeds, sundry leaves boiled and put together in varied colours (or attracting the human mind and body) and lightly spiced but still insipid and boring and what not. Then one doctor or dietician, more on this tribe of dieticians later, has stated take it easy on the wheat. Millets are the only safe option, but I thought our ancestors have been eating wheat for centuries but there are views the wheat roti or wheat is not really for us. Another dietician has views on milk and it’s need or rather lack of need for the body. The puzzling part, put together two dieticians, their views would be in conflict even say on the use of clarified butter.
Earlier at weddings or parties I walked past the range of food as advised by one of few doctors I can have a rational discussion on this issue, Dr Bhim Sen Agarwal. After the reconnaissance done subtly or otherwise, I then zeroed in on the dishes I would surely enjoy. Yet, yesterday, at a wedding, with all the views of doctors weighing down on my poor brain, I saw this – Mah ki Dal (butter possibly), vegetables (maybe the oil is on the tad higher side), the noodles seem the safest with what looked like boiled vegetables whatever be the name given, the pastas, would they have generous amounts of cheese. I avoided most of the desserts, groaning inside. The chicken and mutton, well my brain was only screaming too much oil, too much oil. Danger, Danger ! The hosts were serving juices and soft drinks but I drank a coffee, to be correct, as we now say in India, cappuccino, no sugar and well it’s not fun, safer maybe but not fun or enjoyable.
Then pray what am I to actually eat. Food is meant to be savoured and enjoyed. Simply, honestly stated. No ifs and buts. That is actually what will impart nutrition and joy and peace to the soul. That is what we call homely food, wholesome, some fat in it, and comforting. Comfort is really important as it enables a deep sense of satisfaction to permeate the body. Any meal at a restaurant has to be maybe in the realm of some ingredients being blockers or weight gainers but then the taste comes precisely from those very ingredients. Sugary, fried or salty, maybe sour, the fundamental tastes which bring food to life. Try potato chips without the salt or ketchup, the cake without sugar and you might as well be eating or rather chewing grass on a farm.
My favourite doctor, Dr MM Lal, has always advised moderation in whatever I indulge in, the advise is well taken. But then the sheer number of articles on the net, in print and on TV, it’s all too much. And then it is reaching absurd levels. I am going off on a tangent. My dentist says I need to use two particular mouthwashes for some time, the journals state that a team in Europe (I think it was UK but the UK is a part of Europe though they don’t seem to relish the thought) has researched and found mouthwashes are enablers for diabetes. Now what the hell are we supposed to do. The humble egg was food, then dangerous food, then highly dangerous food, then partially dangerous food – if only you threw away half of it and now it’s back to being simple food. What a journey it has been with the humble egg ! And very much like a roller coaster ride.
I am not even going near Alcohol. I asked a doctor recently, what about a small one, a really, really small one, after a long hard day and a walk thrown in, NO was the answer. The explanation, what is the guarantee you will stop at the first one. Fair enough. What about a small glass of red wine. No, why not a soup, was the emphatic answer, now I thought I would test him , so I threw in a question about a Lime with a chilled soda, the doctor threw back, don’t you know the soda is fattening and it’s very harmful for the teeth. End of the story, game, set and match.
I am still searching for the safer and yet tastier food, In my mind the thoughts travel constantly, haunting me and challenging me. I say guys, doctors, and oh yes, dieticians, take it easy on the articles. Sit among yourselves, draw up a list and recommendations and then let it be a little bit of discretion too. I need the soul to be nourished, the mind and the body.
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