I’m back after a hiatus and let me begin by Wishing you all
a Blessed 2020.
After a certain age discussions on health becomes the most
discussed topic in town, particularly when section 144 is not in place. This
happens when 3 or less who are at the cusp of half a century meet, we start
talking about our cholesterol, sugar, blocks and all levels possible. Amongst
the 3 one will be a health guru who dishes out unsolicited gyan, the other the ardent
follower of the guru, one who vouches for all that the health guru doles out
and the third, a skeptical one who is actually afraid to live long since he
does not have enough insurance to cover his extended stay on planet Earth.
Yours truly is the third protagonist in this story.
The health guru rattles out words like KETO, LDL / HDL Cholesterol
, Type 1, 2 3 Diabetes, Intermittent fasting,
Bullet coffee, OMAD (for the uninitiated it stands for One Meal A Day) etc. The
skeptical one sips on the gin and tonic bubbly while biting into a lamb chops
barbeque and listens to this entire health gobbledygook while the 2nd
person takes notes on longevity.
The health awareness
cult hit its nadir when I came across the concept of Gutter Gourmet. A
lifestyle that eulogizes the benefits of scavenging food from dustbins and
leftovers at restaurants to contain diabetes and to further their cause they
link a UN sustainable developmental goal to it …reducing waste. It is at this
point I lost all patience and took to writing this blog.
It is not my intent to show disrespect to the hardcore
patrons of a disciplined health / nutritional regime, but the sad part is that
man has started playing God these days by challenging the process of metabolism
and toying with the Protein and Carbohydrate levels and reducing the human body
to the level of a high school chemistry lab experiment. Religious texts were
misinterpreted in several ways all these years to the convenience of a few,
leading to the disturbance of peace and brotherhood all around the world, and
now the same malaise has befallen Health science. We have contradicting
versions around the correct measures of Cholesterol, effects of Carbs or even
the diabetic counts or the condition of the arteries that pump blood to the
heart.
Doctors were a revered tribe and we took their word in the good
old days and followed their advice religiously, sadly it’s not the case anymore,
today we have Dr. Google at our finger tips and as soon as the doc writes a prescription
we engage him into a conversation that will remind him of his graduation dissertation.
Doc! ”Why does the content of the pill you prescribed show 5.2 mg of
Phenylalanine, I know for sure it’s not suitable for persons with
Phenylketonuria”. At this, the poor doc gets stumped. We have sadly started to
abuse the access to information we have and end up challenging the doctor and
his expertise. Not that all docs are saints but for the sake of generalization
I would place the majority on the right side of things in this noble
profession.
There are an equal number of papers on the internet that say
Carbs are needed as much as there are on the ones professing zero carb diets,
similarly with Cholesterol levels, diabetes etc. So where do we draw a line? We all have an
unique genetic make-up and have been brought up on some kind of dietary habits
almost half our lives and suddenly one fine morning we decide we see the need to reverse
that fat build up around the waist/ abdomen and we are advised the best way is by going
for an entire change in nutritional regime which is still not proven in the
long term. They ask me to shun all what my ancestors ate and ended up living
beyond the nineties. Genetically I have inherited their genes. Well, the
counter argument could be the quality of the food or the lifestyle we lead
today or the environment we live in are far different from that of our
ancestors. So be it…I am willing to discount a clear 15 or 20 years from the 90
they ended up with and more so, the societal / familial support system is falling apart these days and I cannot
afford to support myself that long on my own.
My mantra is to follow a lifestyle and food habits that you
have been born and brought up with, the genes are designed to take them,
moderate the intake to counter the ill effects of poor production conditions
your food has gone through and the causes due to external environmental factors
like pollution etc. you are subjected to. Here I am trying to lose a couple of
inches around by belly to fit into those slim fit shirt they make these
days, sadly it is slim fit or Plus sizes nothing for the in-betweens. I certainly
don’t intend to go on zero carb or on an intermittent fasting regime. Will
moderate my intake and see where it takes me. Intermittent eating sounds more
positive than intermittent fasting and I still intend to have 3 square meals a
day as long as I can afford and am alive.
I am not looking at a six pack; all I want is, to see a “few
inches of my feet” when I stand straight and look down without the view being
obstructed by my abdominal fat.
