Sunday, October 28, 2012

Promote Natural Food - Say NO to Prop 37

Yes, you are reading it correctly and it is not an oxymoron statement!

When I was preparing to vote for Prop 37, my immediate reaction was (very likely as yours) to vote Yes, with a notion that yes, they must be held responsible to let the world know that they feed the world GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) and GE (Genetically Engineered) products, which in turn harms humans.

But then as I was debating this with my wife, who brought a different perspective, who also was thinking of voting Yes, to start with .... collectively we reached a different conclusion and that is to vote NO. If you wonder why, please read on ....

The goal of Prop 37, per my understanding, is to promote healthy food habits. This in turn can be defined as Non-GMO, Non-GE, natural food. Correct ? If that is correct the best way to do so would be:

- To promote availability and affordability of natural, healthy, non GMO, non GE food.
- Label natural food - For example promote Non GMO Project:
- We do not label produce which is not organic - we label organic one's.
- Publicity of anything legitimizes it (creates an acceptance of it) and you can apply this to anything ranging from celebrity behavior to terrorism.

Now let's evaluate if Prop 37 is passed - what will we achieve?
Labeling requirement for GMO, GE food will require:

1. Almost every food to be labeled, as most food being sold today is GMO and GE.
2. This in turn will result in a need to consume more toxic material in the form of ink, as much of the produce today is minimally labeled which will require labeling.
3. This will result in massive costs to the existing food companies or at least a good excuse for them to increase food costs.
4. In current economic situation this will mean more cost to a families, food pantries, shelters, food banks and in turn more costs for the tax payers.
5. A lawyer community now has an additional reason to promote law suites.
6. In turn we have only expanded the legislated living we all endure today.

By passing Prop 37, we would have succeeded to let the whole world know that we are eating bad food.  But the question is, will this change anything on the front of 'availability and affordability' of healthy, natural food? Not by labeling it for sure!

Now one may say - I am just seeking my right to know which is a fair requirement.
But I think I live in a free country and I already have that right and actually have access to that information if I really want to know about it.

Finally a humble disclaimer: I am not a Republican nor a Democrat, not even Independent. I am an American and I think voting No is good for California and America.




Sunday, July 22, 2012

Surprise Surprise: Boiling is better

In light of series of acute medical conditions diagnosed in our families - I decided to initiate a series focusing on Health.

I wan to follow two basic guidelines:
1.  Medicine is a science of statistics - let it be on your side.
2.  Conscious Living: Live consciously and stop living in denial.

Today's Topic: Potato or Sweet Potato / Boiled of Fried.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/01/news/la-heb-sweet-potatoes-weight-gain-201100701

And this fair comparison which says Potato is not as bad but Sweet Potato is indeed "Sweeter".
Note: Sweet Potatoes has high concentration of Beta-carotene AND Beta-carotene is a precursor for Vitamin A.
http://www.lisanelsonrd.com/blog/white-potato-vs-sweet-potato-which-is-better


Next week: How Sweet is sugar ?

How sweet is Sugar ?

Two key guidelines:
1.  Medicine is a science of statistics - let it be on your side.
2.  Live consciously.

When I visited my physician last November, he warned me about my "numbers".

He advised two things:

1. Potatoes are not vegetable! - Stop eating potatoes and rice until you improve your numbers.
2. Exercise at least 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes.

While my physician was candid enough to explain to me the reasons to minimize carbohydrates, I was not too convinced about it. I grew up eating carbohydrates everyday, rice has been my favorite. The entire southern India eats nothing but rice. So why now suddenly they are the source of the problem?

I thought, if I believe that medicine is a science of statistics, then the world knows a lot more about medicine in last 30 some years. Thus there are things known to the science of medicine which conventional wisdom has not caught up with.

Learning about carbohydrates lead me to "Glycemic Index" or GI.

One of the definitions of GI: The glycemic index measures how fast and how much a food raises blood glucose levels.

There is a lot of information on the web about GI, so I will let you Google that. But I just want to share the key elements of GI I learned (or learnt) which helped me understand the advise of my physician:

1. There are three basic classifications of foods based on GI - Low, Medium and High.
2. Low GI food - fruits and vegetables will release glucose more slowly and steadily.
3. Sugar, white or brown, has medium GI. Honey and Agave have low GI.
4. Potatoes, rice, white bread, corn flakes, wheat flower have high GI.
5. If food with higher carbohydrates has high quantity of fiber - it reduces GI.

And most important statistics -
Several lines of recent [1999] scientific evidence have shown that individuals who followed a low-GI diet over many years were at a significantly lower risk for developing both type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and age-related macular degeneration.

Back to my numbers - after few following life style changes - in just four months, I brought my numbers back to normal (way below average):

1. Installed morning breakfast of Fruits and Vegetable smoothy - No bread and cheese anymore.
2. Ensure the dinners has none or very low carbohydrates:
    - Salads - you will be surprised how many tasty options of salads there are which I never know of.
    - If I do eat carbohydrates I ensure that I also eat protein (lentils) and fiber (whole grains).
3. Most of us do not need more than 1500 calories in a day.
    I consciously, monitored quantity of my intake and reduced it by at least 30%.
4. Replaced any junk food intake with Nuts, Dried Fruits as snacks.
    Junk food is defined as, anything processed to be preserved and eaten over a period longer then 2 (two) days, primarily using frying as method of preservation.
5. Minimized SALT (key enemy) and replaced sugar with Honey and Agave.

Sugar is everywhere in the form of carbohydrates - so watch out and it is not as sweet as it tastes!

References:


1. Inactivity is the major contributor (53%) of the Heart Disease.
    http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm/

2.  There is no alternative of plain, simple, serene water:
     http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/12/what-happens-to-your-body-within-an-hour-of-drinking-a-coke.aspx

3.   All about GI:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

4.   GI of Sugar:
      http://www.fitsugar.com/Glycemic-Index-Where-Do-Sweeteners-Fall-3031565