HealDy MacD

The first week in the United states, Walmart, Kroger, Target will seem like a giant carnival having so many options not knowing what to pick. In the next six months it will become a routine and in two years a really really boring routine.

Well like the first scene of Food inc, the supermarkets do trick you here. The options when it comes to vegetables, grains, oil, fish and meat is extremely limited. A huge believer in eating right, I enjoy but find grocery shopping difficult and limiting to the vegetarian soul. I also find that I easily get into eating right debated, meat vs vegetarianism debates and preservatives, frozen food debates. And after almost every one of them, I read, and Lehninger is a better source than wiki I guess. A year back, I started consciously observing what I ate here and contrasted it to what I ate in India. And I made a list of things I would recommend. I decided to share it.

Before you proceed any further, this is not Yahoo's "Eat this not that". Most of my dinners are home cooked!

1. A popular Gynecologist once said that Asian women have problem because they eat too much rice and the westerners have a problem because they eat too little. The best bet would be to not eat rice three times a day, but to eat rice atleast once in two days.

2. High - protein diet is extremely essential for a vegetarian since you do not eat meat. This can be debated for hours at length. Well, if you are not rigorously exercising or building those bailwan muscles (the sedentary life style of an IOB mama) require less than 0.8g of protein a day. But too much protein is not a bad thing. It can help you burn fat etc (If you are burning it at all). Everyday include a protein.

3. A dietitian once told me that we should all ideally eat 38g of fiber a day. Well, now thats exactly one fourth of what a cow masticates. We neither have the enzymes or the teeth to eat that much fiber. Its probably 2kg of avaraikai uncooked. "Ideally" is a key work there. Like protein, fiber is always a good thing but its perfectly ok to include one meal with a whole grain and go on for the rest of the day eating others.

4. Sugar is bad. That is wrong. Sugar is the only direct source of energy to the brain cells. But if you are genetically prone to type 1 diabetes, then you need to watch out. If high metabolism and have a job that makes you think all the time, a lunch and a small dessert, like a tiny square of dark chocolate or a small baklava can set you running.

5. You need to drink so many litres of water a day. I dont even know whats the usual propaganda. The food that we eat, the coffee we drink, milk, juice everything has water. You probably need 3 -4 litres of water a day. And yes, morning water is good.

6. You have to ingest all the calcium you can before you are 40. This is not a myth. But the most absorbable calcium is not in milk, its in banana. And in banana not ripened too much.

7. I love raw vegetables and fruits, therefore propagate it as good. But I guess eating raw spinach, lettuce is even better. I try to include a spinach salad but does not happen all the time.

8. Frozen, refrigerated food is bad. Well, there is really no evidence that this is true. But I guess an Indian meal cooked without preservatives and stored will lose most of its nutrients in 36 hours. I cook sparingly almost everyday. We may not cook an entire Indian meal everyday but try to eat fresh.

Well let me stop here, because I guess its going to be more series of this now. I think regular south Indian food needs to be revamped. But again I never over do it. Like on deep introspection dosai and sambar or dosai and thakkali chutney maybe a high carb low nutrition diet but hey, its comfort food, so who cares.