Look before you eat

I love my food. I am very curious about people. Not nosey, just curious.
I look at the multi cultural landscape that is London and wonder where they come from. 7 million of them. Where all do they come from. And then there is the fellow traveler on the bus with light skin, dark hair, brown eyes and an accent that is not British. And I wonder…..

Like this I have met many. Some have actually become my friends. And one such is a lady I met recently, originally from Algeria. She speaks Arabic, French and English (or “eengaaleesh”, in her words – I love the way she speaks), makes a killer coffee and food to die for. Which is one of the reasons I am even writing about her. She made traditional Algerian bread for me today.

It was simply out of this world. And I can’t believe how simply and easily it was done too. This is the tastiest no-fuss-ready-in-four-minutes bread I have ever eaten. Made from scratch.

I watched in awe as she emptied a bag of semolina into a big wooden bowl (traditional bowl used for such things as kneading flour), sprinkled it with salt, dowsed it in olive oil and started kneading, literally on her knees and stooping over the bowl. I was very impressed. She pummeled the dough, adding water from time to time and then separated them into neat little balls, which were duly rolled out and put one at a time onto a hot pan.

Lo and behold! We had the most deadly, golden colored flat bread ever. Mmmmm….absolutely lip-smacking delicious, and eaten traditionally dipped in a sauce or curry with meat or veg thrown in.

Traditionally. I love this word. Traditions are sacred. Food is too. And food made and eaten traditionally, the way it should be, is absolutely sacred. In many cultures, the word “tradition”, in relation to food can be loosely translated into “made from scratch”. In India too, we make everything from scratch. Cooking food is a slow process. Eating it, just a little more so. I love food made the old fashioned way. I am fascinated by the whole process, utensils, spices, ingredients and all. Spices, as well, are looked upon with reverence because they have healing properties and tradionally the healing value of food can be enhanced using spicess.

I am determined to try making this bread at home. I know my kids would love it. Call me an obsessive compulsive wholesome food promoter, or put it down to slow-food evangelism, but I really think traditions in the kitchen ought to be taken seriously.

Labels: algerian bread, flat bread, food, slow-food, traditional food

If someone were to tell you that there was an element of poison in your plate of food, what would your reaction be? Truth is, we do eat poison. Regularly if not everyday. Unless we are informed and aware to begin with, that is. Our food is poisoned with pesticides and other types of chemicals, which have serious implications for health.

Even our kids are exposed to the worst kinds of chemicals in food specially targeted at them. Chemicals in food kill a child’s developing taste buds so that she doesn’t know the difference between a natural taste, (or how strawberry yogurt ought to taste), and an artificial but deceptively good taste.

Food for children tends to be full of color, additives, MSG and artificial sweeteners.
According to a recent article published in The Guardian, the following list of ingredients are a big no-no, and should never be given to kids:
Monosodium glutamate (E621); disodium 5'-ribonucleotide (E635); artificial sweeteners; sodium benzoate (E211); sulphur dioxide (E220); the colourings Quinoline Yellow (E104), Brilliant Blue (E133), Sunset Yellow (E110), Carmoisine (E122), Ponceau 4R (E124), and Indigo Carmine (E132). Even vanilla essence is bad, bad, bad. The label on the ice cream container must say vanilla extract, if not, don’t eat the ice cream. Vanilla essence is a chemical. There have been reports to even suggest that vanilla essence is nothing but industrial effluents, bottled and distributed as the sweet smelling spice that we take so much for granted. At this point, it is worthwhile acknowledging what seemed like an anti-advertisement for m&m type sweets: it ran a caption that said "food additives are as harmful as lead". Now, if that doesnt tell us a thing or two then what will?

Chemicals have almost become accepted as part of life and normal or may be we don’t ask enough of the right questions. Whatever the reason, the time has come for us to take stock of what we put on our plates.

Even so called fresh produce is laced with pesticides, to say nothing of other healthy food such as yogurt, slowly sliding down the scale into the “supposedly healthy” category all because the list of ingredients is not only suspect, but outright harmful in many cases. For example, according to the same article in The Guardian, “Suspect the worst when ingredients listings mention loose terms such as 'flavorings' or 'colorings'. Likewise, with the word 'flavor'. The difference between snacks that are 'cheese flavor' and 'cheese flavored' is that the latter actually has cheese in it.”

Not only should you pick your snacks and packed foods with utmost awareness, but also, eat produce that is fresh, seasonal and organically grown. However, if eating organic means a drain on your wallet and is carbon footprint intensive (like eating organic strawberries flown in from Peru, for example) then opt for produce from a local farm that doesn’t spray the fruit and veg. This means being informed and aware when you buy your food and knowing where to buy your food too. It also means participating actively in what could be one of the most important aspects of your survival: gathering food and eating it. In other words, take responsibility for the food you eat.

Most animal products such as milk and eggs are under the scanner now and rightly so. If you love your toast with egg on it, then make sure the egg is certified organic and has a seal to that effect on the box. Recently, however, there has been a campaign against eggs, organic or not, because there is evidence of growth promoting hormones in it. So you just may be better off giving up eggs altogether, but if you can't do it overnight, then the least you can do is switch to the organic variety.

Educate your kids to eat more fruit and veg rather than sugary treats at the end of the school day. Teach them when they are very young the value of eating healthy and what it really means to do so. Even babies these days can't escape the chemical onslaught. Diapers and baby products are made using the harshest of chemicals such as dioxins, for example. Search for alternatives. Babies deserve it. Besides, you will do the earth a big favor by supporting chemical-free products, be it packaged food, soap, baby lotion or carrots.

Labels: chemicals, E numbers, eat right, eat well, eggs, food, fruit, milk, organic, poison in food, produce, vegetables, yogurt

The winter is fast approaching. This means shorter days, less sunlight, depression on the rise and people getting fatter and less fit from all the eating. Christmas round the corner doesn’t help much either for obvious reasons. A simple thing like a change in season can make human beings change the way they feel, behave and eat. Science suggests that a lowered body temperature can cause one to eat more and when the temperature rises, hunger decreases. Moreover, when we feel low pshycologically, we tend to seek happiness through food, often erroneously relying on the wrong kind to get through the moodiness.

Call it a case of winter blues, but we seem to have an insatiable appetite for dense sweet treats, such as sweet breads, cakes, muffins and pies, especially when it is cold outside. Even thick sugary drinks and loads of chocolate seem to be the order of the day. This can take a toll on the body and leave it just a little bit too unhealthy for comfort. Winter is also typically the time when we are prone to a colds, coughs and a whole lot of other sicknesses, some even originating from the feeling of sadness, depression or loneliness that is so typical of a long, cold, grey winter. This is the time, then, to take stock of how we eat and what we eat. It is a good time to use diet as a means to boost immunity, even psychological immunity. After all, if the body is sprightly, well, energetic and happy, the mind is bound to be that way too.

A good start would be to drink loads of green and other herb teas through the day. When it is cold, we sometimes forget to drink water. Some hot herb teas will do the job of hydrating and cleansing all at once. Green tea is good for that caffeine kick though a coffee now and then isn’t going to hurt too much either. Science is now extolling the virtues of the coffee bean.

Removing toxins from the body is a good way to stay fit. Toxins tend to slow down the body’s metabolism, preventing fats from metabolizing. And sugar is an authentic source of toxins, being as it is, very acidic. Put herb teas and freshly prepared juices on the list for sure. Fruit and fruit juice may not be appealing during winter months, but they are so rich in vital energy, it might be the thing to rely on for boosting the immune system. Eat salads. Especially a medley of sprouted grains, with a squeeze of lemon, is a blast of energy because sprouts are live food. So much of the food we consume is dead. And that’s not even meat we are talking about, but refined foods, for example, that make the body tired because it ingests no nutrients into it.

Drink hot, spicy vegetable soups, laced with black pepper. Black pepper gives energy, boosts metabolism and boosts immunity as well. In some cultures, such as India, moong lentils and black pepper are given to those recovering from illness or to new mothers. And what is more, it will keep the body warm as well. Include whole grains, cereals, brown rice and breads made from whole grains too. They provide fibre, vitamins and even minerals in some cases. Eating like this helps the blood to stay more alkaline than acidic. That in itself implies good health because acidic blood can make you sick like nothing else can. For the body to restore the alkalinity of highly acidic blood, it will have to deplete the bones and tissue of minerals in order to do so. Now, that doesn't sound good does it?

One of the keys to good health, both body and mind, is good healthy food and freshly prepared where possible. If you can stand to eat yogurt in the winter so much the better. It is a wonder food packed with goodness. Just be sure to check the ingredients list because the last thing you want is to eat HFCS or artificial sweeteners, flavoring, gelatin and color in the name of acidophilus and bifidus.

This list of foods is by no means comprehensive. Much has to be based on your body, your intuition, and the need of the hour. All that this article hopes to do is to reinforce that the choice to eat healthy and stay healthy is each one's to call their own. Be creaticve and resourceful too in preparing your plate of food.

Eating light meals, more frequently through the day is sound advice from a feel-fit-and-well point of view, so it’s not just a winter strategy. It’s a strategy. Period. Stay away from canned food as far as possible. Eating fresh has it’s own benefits.

Food. It has the power to make or mar a human. If you let it, it can take over your life, make you a slave to it, make you unfit, unhappy and just plain depressed. The comfort-food theory takes you thus far and no further. Yes, chocolate makes you feel better because it releases certain chemicals in the brain that boost your mood, make you think better and keep you awake through the night when you have an important assignment to finish. If you love chocolate, go for the dark and bitter variety. It is still quite sweet and loaded with anti-oxidants.

It is useful to exercise the power of choice, feel what we are eating and, well, in a way, even choose how we feel through the dark and dreary months. If there is any truth in the theory that food satisfies us at the emotional level as much as it does on the physical level, then it is imperative for us to choose wisely what we eat.

Do yoga and some of those amazing breathing techniques we all know as pranayama. Again, yoga and pranayama can increase metabolism, improve blood circulation remarkably, induce a sense of contentment and happiness and make one feel fit and well. Any form of excercise is obviously good, but one that can be done on your own mat in the warmth of your living room, is even better.

Here’s to a healthy, happy winter with loads of good food, celebration and joyful tidings.

Labels: eat well, food, healthy eating, winter, yoga

Whatever happened to the good, old-fashioned food culture? The answer to that question will be really hard to locate, what with kids and teenagers today making a beeline for that greasy burger and bag of fries, with a soda thrown in for good measure. It is the age of fast food. In fact, it is the age of fast everything. Life itself is on fast forward. Eating fast food means instant gratification, for the moment anyway. Living on the fast lane and eating fast food much of the time can seriously injure the health of anybody, but especially growing children and teenagers.

Everywhere they are lamenting that obesity is on the rise, especially amongst children and the overfed are actually the undernourished. Blame it on salt. Call it the fast food disaster, but a meal at a fast food restaurant could expose you to unnaturally high levels of salt. According to a BBC report, “Lobby group, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), found one meal from Pizza Hut contained four times the daily limit of salt for a six-year old.” “KFC also did poorly in the analysis of hundreds of food items, which also included McDonalds and Burger King.”

According to this report also, the daily recommended dosage of salt is no more than 6 gm per day for an adult and 3gm per day for a child, whereas fast food meals could easily ingest four times that amount for a child and double the recommended amount for an adult. And what is more, these fast food meals are extremely high in calories – a small amount and you will be packing on the pounds like nobody’s business. Besides, what an excess of salt in the body can do is nothing to scoff at. It can send your blood pressure seriously out of whack putting you at the risk of both stroke and coronary heart disease.

Another BBC new report quotes Researcher Professor Andrew Prentice, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who said: "We all possess a weak innate ability to recognize foods with a high energy density.

"We tend to assess food intake by the size of the portion, yet a fast food meal contains many more calories than a similar-sized portion of a healthy meal.

"Since the dawn of agriculture, the systems regulating human appetite have evolved for the low energy diet still being consumed in rural areas of the developing world where obesity is almost non-existent.

"Our bodies were never designed to cope with the very energy dense foods consumed in the West and this is contributing to a major rise in obesity."

Changing food patterns in developing countries, however, have led to a rise in obesity too, albeit in big cities only, where fast food culture is spreading itself out, much like a shroud.

Coming back to the point, a diet of fast meals morning, noon and night will deplete the body of minerals, deprive it of vitamins, give it no dietary fiber worth mentioning, absolutely no essential fatty acids and leave it starving for real food to boot; all this, after pumping up the calorific intake to a staggeringly high level because it is oozing bad fats. If this is what kids eat today, we can safely assume that diseases attacking the immune system will be on the rise, as will obesity, heart disease, and possibly even osteoporosis from all the intake of soda. This is how it works: soda is high in sugar and hence very acidic. If the body has to render the blood alkaline once again, (that is restore the natural blood Ph), then it will have to deplete the bones and tissue of all minerals in order to do so.

The consequences of bad eating are many. From skin problems to obesity and poor digestion, the range is pretty exhaustive. You name it, it is there. To say nothing of bad health affecting self-esteem and the ability to think clearly, a general lack of energy and constant mood swings, even hormonal imbalances and blood sugar inconsistencies. Please include every kind of ache and pain possible onto that list. And worst of all, an insatiable hunger, so that the vicious cycle can start all over again. Moreover, fast food, spiked as it is with monosodium glutamate, a nasty relative of sodium chloride, makes you hunger for more, creating an addiction just like any other, negative consequences and all.

This article as you can see, is not just a tirade against salt in excess or salty food. It is also a tirade against fast food, unhealthy food and junk food. Even domestic kitchens are not free of these ugly impediments to health, the best proof of which are the contents of grocery carts.

To think most humans, at least adults, do this to themselves consciously? How do we educate our children about food, good eating habits, and how do we teach them to separate the wheat from the chaff?

So here is some food for thought:
Can we take a good hard look at how we eat, why we eat the way we do and how that will affect future generations? Maybe we need to completely change the way we view our food. After all, we are eating to live, not living to eat.

Right?

If you think that the labels on food packaging tell you everything you need to know about the food inside, you’d better think again. Food labels are Greek and Latin to most people. And that is an understatement. Recently, there has been a growing population interested in the food they eat, for a number of reasons, none the least of which is a concern for health.

If you walk through super market aisles, you will notice more and more people flip the food packet to look at the fine print. These people are obviously curious about what goes into the food, but not just that, they are eager to pack in some healthfulness into their diet as well. However, research shows that not all inquisitive shoppers pick the healthiest option. The reasons could vary from idle curiosity to a complete lack of knowledge and understanding about what truly lies beneath the façade of fancy names, pictures and labels that appear to tell all.

Consider this, for example: A food package that says “no added sugar” or “fat-free” could be very misleading. Especially to the eager beaver on a dieting spree, it would sound deliciously attractive. This is just a clever disguise to keep the artificial sweetener or the excess sugar (as in the case of fat-free) under wraps. There are umpteen cases of misinformation or more accurately, of revealing only partial truths, where consumers think they are buying good, clean, healthy, chemical-free food, only to later find out that they were royally fooled.

When a juice bottle, for instance, claims to have “no added sugar or color”, please do yourself a favor and look on the back of the bottle. In all probability, you will see aspartame or some other artificial sweetener in there. Keep it back on the shelf. Although there is a huge lobby that defends the use of aspartame in food, there is an equally vociferous one that says, “do not consume” because it has disastrous consequences for health. Better err on the side of caution and steer clear of food that has it.

The next thing you need to look for is the "E" followed by a number on the label, also commonly known as the E Number in food. What is the E Number? Again, nobody knows exactly what that is, but it's supposedly additives and chemicals (including food coloring) that are “safe” to consume. Take that with a pinch of salt. A little bit of suspicion will go a long way. Food additives such as coloring in particular have been associated with ADHD in children. And when combined with synthetic preservatives, they can be lethal. Furthermore, there is no law that binds food manufacturers to declare the use of preservatives on the label.

Another thing that should raise the red flag is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), a sugar substitute used to sweeten a product excessively.

Dr. Andrew Weil, pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, has written extensively about food and the chemicals and additives that go into processing and packaging them. He has spoken out vehemently against HFCS, which is supposedly used in soft drinks and colas. The term “all natural” in labels is unacceptable if there is high fructose corn syrup in the list of ingredients. HFCS are not natural because of the high level of processing and the use of genetically modified enzymes required to produce it. And if that is not enough, HFCS are known to cause obesity as well.

Also, another significant health deterrent to watch out for is partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which are high in trans-fat, and synonymous with coronary heart disease. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are used in food in order to increase shelf life and yes, you guessed it, it is a cheaper alternative to semi-solid oils. The dangers of consuming trans-fat are too many to ignore and it is widely accepted (with scientific evidence and all) that trans-fat has disastrous consequences for health: coronary heart disease, liver dysfunction, diabetes, obesity and even Alzheimer's disease.

According to an article titled "Trans-fat: Avoid this cholesterol double whammy" from the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER):

“In fact, the consumption of trans-fats increases one's risk of coronary heart disease by raising levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.”

And again, according to an article titled "Trans Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Disease" in the New England Journal of Medicine 354, by Mozaffarian D, Katan MB, Ascherio A, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC (April 2006: “Health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans-fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans-fats from partially hydrogenated oils are more deleterious than naturally occurring oils.”

According to Dr. Weil sugar, starch, refined carbohydrates and trans-fat are far more threatening to health than saturated fats.

The list of negatives in our food is beyond the scope of this article. However, the main aim of this article is to give consumers a peep into what those labels are really saying and to provide some insight into what to look for and stay away from. You could even say it is an exhortation to consumers to look before they eat. After all, it’s your body, your health. Don’t let them control it.

It is now imperative that we change our eating habits and look for food that is friendly to the body and the earth. As the old saying goes, you are what you eat. Whether we believe that or not, a change in the way we approach food could well mean the difference between lasting wellness and disease.