Make your skin glow

We all agree that Indian kitchens are unique. Not only because of the wide variety of ingredients but if you go back to the permutation combination classes the sheer number of dishes that you can whip out because of these ingredients are astounding. But the beauty of the Indian kitchen is not limited to just satisfying your taste buds. They are also great for your daily skin care requirements.

Coming to think of it our grandmothers never had the luxury of a parlour, yet their skin glowed (part of it has to be attributed to the physical exercise they got doing home chores alone). But as a kid I have sneaked on my Granny applying whatever she was cooking with on her face (much to the amazement of my grandfather of course). 

Today we are bombarded with hundreds of products that promise miracles. So here I am rephrasing the questions Olay has been asking lately, “Do we need to smear chemicals on our face for a healthy and glowing skin?”

The latest in the cosmetic industry

Not really. Explore the corners of your kitchen and you will see that:
  1. A paste made with besan, milk and ground almonds is the best face scrub you could find
  2. Chandan with a little bit of camphor will fix pimples more naturally
  3. Rubbing tomato skin on your face makes it glow
  4. Applying a paste of neem leaves cleans and disinfects your face
  5. Massaging your skin with olive oil will keep it supple
  6. Massaging your knuckles with coconut oil will keep them from drying and hardening to a brown patch

In addition to all of the above, maintain a good diet and a do a little exercise everyday, even simple walking helps!

Turmeric: The wonder spice

Tumeric has been used for over 2500 years in India, where it was most likely first used as a dye.

The medicinal properties of this spice have been slowly revealing themselves over the centuries. Long known for its anti-inflammatory properties, recent research has revealed that turmeric is a natural wonder, proving beneficial in the treatment of many different health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer's disease.

Here are 20 reasons to add turmeric to your diet:

1. It is a natural antiseptic and antibacterial agent, useful in disinfecting cuts and burns.

2. When combined with cauliflower, it has shown to prevent prostate cancer and stop the growth of existing prostate cancer.

3. Prevented breast cancer from spreading to the lungs in mice.

4. May prevent melanoma and cause existing melanoma cells to commit suicide.

5. Reduces the risk of childhood leukemia.

6. Is a natural liver detoxifier.

7. May prevent and slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease by removing amyloyd plaque buildup in the brain.

8. May prevent metastases from occurring in many different forms of cancer.

9. It is a potent natural anti-inflammatory that works as well as many anti-inflammatory drugs but without the side effects.

10. Has shown promise in slowing the progression of multiple sclerosis in mice.

11. Is a natural painkiller and cox-2 inhibitor.

12. May aid in fat metabolism and help in weight management.
13. Has long been used in Chinese medicine as a treatment for depression.

14. Because of its anti-inflammatory properties, it is a natural treatment for arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

15. Boosts the effects of chemo drug paclitaxel and reduces its side effects.

16. Promising studies are underway on the effects of turmeric on pancreatic cancer.

17. Studies are ongoing in the positive effects of turmeric on multiple myeloma.

18. Has been shown to stop the growth of new blood vessels in tumors.

19. Speeds up wound healing and assists in remodeling of damaged skin.

20. May help in the treatment of psoriasis and other inflammatory skin conditions.

Turmeric can be taken in powder or pill form. It is available in pill form in most health food stores, usually in 250-500mg capsules.

Once you start using turmeric on a regular basis, it's fun to find new ways to use it in recipes. My favorite way to use it is to add a pinch of it to egg salad. It adds a nice flavor and gives the egg salad a rich yellow hue.

Contraindications: Turmeric should not be used by people with gallstones or bile obstruction. Though turmeric is often used by pregnant women, it is important to consult with a doctor before doing so as turmeric can be a uterine stimulant.

The right food choice for your children

Raising a child well enough for him/her to grow into a non-self-destructing human being is the biggest challenge a parent faces. Among other lifestyle lessons that a parent (hopes to) impart, eating habits comfortably sits within the top 5. And why not? These habits will shape the most important aspect of their life – health.

Very often kids nag, and not because they like to generally make our lives difficult, but that is their way of asking for love and care. And love and care we give…often in the way of bad eating decisions for them! Just consider, how many times you “reward” your children with chocolates or ice creams or just give in to their feet-stomping demands of sweet treats at the grocery stores.

For your child, many lifelong food habits are established between the ages of 6 and 12. And in this day and age of KFC and Mc Donald’s corrective measures have to be a part of everyday life. So here are some tips on how to steer their affinity towards the healthier eating options out there.

• Allow your child to eat only when they are hungry. Make sure they eat slowly. The brain takes a good 20 minutes to register that you are full. Eating in a hurry often leads to over-eating. This can be a life-long weight control habit.

• Using food to bribe or reward makes the child ignore hunger cues. Buy your child a book or small toy instead of an ice-cream cone when you want to show them you are pleased.

• Make sure junk food is clearly categorized as “indulgence” and must be consumed only once in a while.

• Drinking milk is the easiest way to build strong bones because it provides both calcium and vitamin D. There are a zillion ways to make milk taste better. Just ensure that you do not add access sugar.

• Getting children involved in food choice and preparation is one of the best strategies for helping them eat right.
• Take your child shopping for groceries and make sure they are allowed to choose only among healthy options.
• Involve your child in cooking healthy meals. Let him make a brown bread sandwich or other easy-to-cook food like chaat. Appreciate the effort and taste to continue the trend.

• Kids who eat breakfast take in more of the nutrients they need. Breakfast skippers typically do not make up for the missed opportunity the morning meal provides and also tend to over-eat during other meals.

• Hungry kids will eat whatever is available, so stock the kitchen with healthy snacks.

Kids are like soft clay, ready to take up any shape you give. It is entirely up to you to give them the right guidelines. Hence, teach them the importance of healthy eating and let them know how good food can help lead a better life. And yes, pour in some amount of your endurance and patience since parenthood is pretty much synonymous with these two words. 

Food Woes

Is there enough food? How do we get it to people? What is its quality? These common questions all concern supply; people spend a lifetime addressing them, and if you closely examine any one, you’re ensnared in a complex web.

Like many professionals, I often succumb to the temptation to work late and eat out with friends. That experience, effortless and pleasurable in anticipation, is usually expensive — even when it’s at a theoretically inexpensive restaurant — and frustrating; more often than not it’s unsatisfying. (Note that this means it’s also sometimes satisfying, which is why I keep doing it; it’s a gamble.)

 When I cook, though, everything seems to go right. I shop an average of every two weeks in a supermarket, and make a couple of trips a week to smaller stores. I’m aware that my choices are mostly imperfect, but I rarely conclude that I should make a burger and fries for dinner or provide a pound per person of prison-raised pork served with fruit from 10,000 miles away, followed by a cake full of sugar and artificial ingredients. Yet, for the most part, that describes restaurant food.

This time of year, I’ll buy local greens and local fish and wind up eating half or less of the food I would have if I had eaten out. Dessert only happens if someone else buys or makes it because it’s just too much work.

That’s pretty much it. The investment is minimal: A quick shopping trip takes me a half-hour, including the walk or drive. The time spent eating is relaxing and uninterrupted by the insipid ritual: “Is everything tasting to your liking?” or “You guys O.K.?” It takes 10 minutes to clean up. And not to mention the happiness on the face of my husband because I cooked him a meal.

Compared with a restaurant, the frustrations and annoyances are minimal, the food is not all that bed, unquestionably healthier and more environmentally friendly, and much less expensive.

It’s not that I’m unconcerned about the supply side. I can’t help bugging myself with questions about whether the food I buy is “good” enough: pesticides? Fertilizer? Carbon footprint? Fair pay for farmers?
But that is easily taken care of really. Organic variants actually take care of those queries. And if you are worried about the slightly higher cost then stop cribbing!

Buy things that you feel answer to your standards, and you’ll be a cut above most restaurant food in every category. You’ll know exactly what you’re putting in your mouth and how much of it. You’ll move in the right direction, cooking and eating less meat and junk and more plants.

I recognize that I’m privileged with my cooking skills, though, in fact, I have friends who are better cooks than I am, who have access to better food and who have more leisure. I recognize, too, that there are many people for whom time and money and skills and even access are challenges. The thing, though, is not to discount this argument simply because not everyone is in a position to benefit from it, but rather to use it to benefit those it can, and to create the same possibilities for everyone.

Benefits of consuming dal everyday!

I am sure that our earliest childhood memory is that of our mothers shoving dals down our throats while we fantasized about junk food. Personally, dal is the only left over dish after every meal in my house! But just as I have insisted before, I insist again – our traditions were built on strong foundations that were designed for us to live in harmony with nature and our own bodies. Here is a snapshot of all the goodness a bowl of dal has to offer:

Get more iron: Beans and Lentils are good sources of iron, which is required for the production of hemoglobin in the blood. Iron deficiency can lead to anemia. Combine iron-rich legumes with good sources of Vitamin C (such as oranges, lemon, tomatoes, guava etc) to increases your body's ability to absorb the iron. One cup of beans and lentils provide 30 to 37 percent of the daily value (DV) for iron.

Maintain your weight by reducing food cravings: A research published in 2008 found that people who consumed beans regularly had a 22 percent reduced risk of obesity as compared with people who hadn't regularly eaten beans. The research also found that bean-eaters had a greater probability of having a smaller waist size. According to researchers, the soluble fiber in beans slows down the rate of digestion and this allows the feeling of being full to stay for a longer period of time.

Get More Protein: Legumes are considered as good-quality sources of proteins. When combined with a whole grain such as brown rice, legumes provide protein comparable to that of meat or dairy foods without the high calories or saturated fat found in these foods. One cup of cooked lentils provides around 35 percent of the daily protein requirement, and one cup of cooked beans provides around 30 percent of the daily requirement.

Prevent Birth Defects: A woman who is trying to conceive should consider including sources of folate in her diet. Folate prevents birth defects, and you can get more than 80 percent of your daily folate requirement from one cup of cooked lentils! Beans also contain significant amounts of folate. For example, one cup of cooked kidney beans provides 57 percent of the daily folate requirement.

Bring Down the Risk of Cancer: Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health examined a dietary data of 90,360 women who fell in the age group of 26 to 46 years. The data revealed that the women who ate beans and lentils for at least twice a week had a 25 percent lower risk of suffering from breast cancer than those who ate legumes just once a month. Legumes fight obesity and this way it prevents the development of obesity related cancers. Refined carbs fuel the cancer cells with sugar and when these foods are replaced with legumes, the body would develop the immunity to fight cancer.

Lowers the risk of heart disease: Beans and lentils, being high in soluble fiber, can help lower total cholesterol as well as LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Soluble fibers binds to bile acids (necessary for fat digestion) made by the liver from cholesterol and carry it to intestine for defecation. As a result, the liver must use additional body stores of cholesterol to manufacture new bile acids. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that people who eat the most fiber, 21 grams per day, had 12 percent less coronary heart disease and 11 percent less cardiovascular disease compared to those eating the least, 5 grams daily.

Now that we are all “grown up” and “independent” we totally have the choice of not choosing dal as part of our meals. But if we did that who is losing out in the end?

The bitter truth

We often read about the “staple diet” of various regions and marvel at the variety the world has to offer. But one particular food item has crept into the lifestyles of very geography, without us even realizing that it now influences almost every dish we prepare. It’s the new staple of the world, it’s devil’s own – sugar.

Its presence is irrefutable. Be it the morning cuppa or the glass of milk or satisfying a craving, sugar plays the vital ingredient. So addicted we are that we blissfully ignore the perils that come with it: obesity, rheumatism, pyorrhea and the occasional but large bills from the dentist. What is worse, if we analyze sugar as a food, it is little more than a cocktail of chemicals. All its nutrients are sacrificed at the altar of consumerism. And what we get are crystals bathed in sulphur dioxide, lime, phosphoric acid, formic acid, bleaching agents and viscosity reducers to name a few.

All that whiteness makes me suspicious

 So what is one to do? We will, under no circumstance, compromise with the taste nor will we give up the traditional yummness that form our early memories. So I googled “substitute for sugar”. Yes, I know what you are thinking. Artificial sweetener was my top bet too. But Google did surprise me, that too pleasantly. The answer it threw at me was jaggery. So I googled jaggery and I stumbled on the following nuggets:

• Ancient medical scriptures dating back to the period 2,500 years ago state how jaggery purifies the blood, prevents rheumatic afflictions and disorders of bile and possesses nutritive properties of a high order.

• Mahatma Gandhi in 1935 exhorted everyone to put gur in their milk and not refined sugar. Gur has a mild laxative effect. It has calcium, phosphorous, iron, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, absorbic acid and a host of other nutrients.

Jaggery or "Gur" is a pure, wholesome, traditional, unrefined, whole sugar. It contains the natural goodness of minerals and vitamins inherently present in sugarcane juice and this crowns it as one of the most wholesome and healthy sugars in the world. It is rich in vitally important minerals. Magnesium strengthens the nervous system and potassium is critical to conserve the acid balance in the cells. It is very rich in iron and prevents anemia. The natural processing of jaggery requires no chemical treatment  but an organic variant can ensure that you totally eliminate it. 

Phew! I don’t remember the last time I had such a long list of virtues for anything. But living close to nature does have its perks. It remains only for us to find and recognize the treasures buried in our traditions.  

Beauty, indeed, is only skin deep

India has an undeniable affinity towards all things shiny. If you don’t believe me, check the quantum of revenue generated by gold jewelry in India or the fact that the fairness creams were the only recession proof products in India. Have you noticed how, even when you shop for groceries, you automatically move towards polished and uniform looking products?

As a result all pulses shine, all grains shine, all fruits shine, even vegetables, you guessed it, shine. But that is not how Nature designed it. Pick anything fresh from the field and it will not dazzle your eyes with polished awesomeness. But beauty, indeed, is only skin deep. Today we pick one such unfortunate basket that lost its sheen to the race of superficial beauty – unpolished wheat products.

It is sad that only well-heeled Indians switch to unpolished food when they are on a diet. Few realize that, apart from the lower fat content, there are many compelling reasons to eat this way. Quoting from a story published in The Hindu, a doctor once asked his students, “What was the single most important factor for the health of the nation at the beginning of World War II?” The answer, “Raising the amount of the grain used to make bread flour from 70% to 85%.” His next question was, “Who do you think made the most complaint about it?” The answer was, “The laxative companies.”

In 1880 the English flour mills began to produce a very fine white flour consisting purely of the endosperm of the grain, sans roughage, vitamins and minerals. The introduction of this very white flour and its very white bread was eagerly taken to by the masses of the country, as it was only the well-to-do who had white bread heretofore, it being very expensive to sieve out through fine muslin.

In 1900s, some twenty years after the introduction of this special white flour, there was this interesting new illness, coronary thrombosis, along with constipation, gastric ulcers, diverticulitis, varicose veins, gall-bladder problems and general ill-health. The one section of the community who knew something has changed was the grannies of English society who could not understand why they were now constipated. So worried were they that colonic washout clubs were formed to deal with the problem.

The other wonder product from the family is brown rice. Brown rice basically refers to unmilled and unpolished rice that we used to eat before rice started coming packed almost to our doorstep. Only the outermost layer, the hull, is removed to produce brown rice. This makes the rice retain all the natural nutrients. The most important benefit is that it prevents heart diseases because it tackles obesity, diabetes and cholesterol. Since the bran is never removed, it is also rich in essential oils and also helps maintain insulin levels.

Coming to the laxative properties, it prevents food from just sitting in your gut and letting the poisons and toxins to be produced by unhealthy anaerobic bowel bacteria. If you allow that to happen it can cause illnesses from acute appendicitis to bowel cancer especially of the large intestine and rectum.

Off late we also see a lot of effort to add the leached original goodness back to the products and sell them under “fortified” or “added fibre” categories. But that is, and can never be, as good as the real thing.

Coming back to beauty being skin deep, brown is rice is great for the skin. It is rich in vitamin E and the bran layer contains zinc and magnesium which can make the skin glow. Oh boy, I love irony.