A few inches of feet!

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 2^nd 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.