My confusing illness & Road for the healing.

My confusing illness & road for the healing!

             It is a story of last few weeks. I felt seek and my mind started diagnosing the issue, finding out the solutions. And I realized this time it was not a simple issue. My symptoms were so confusing that it became difficult to decide the line of treatment.

              It was a mixture of everything. I was very tired with body ache, my face was showing it, there was a constipation, the fever was not there but definitely my body was experiencing high temperature and also there was a little mucus, my throat was gone. The most overpowering symptom was cough, mostly it was dry, after coughing for long some little mucus was coming out.

         I was experiencing Vata, Pitta as well as Kapha symptoms! What to do, from where to start? What is this problem, what to name it? I remembered a guideline from Ayurveda books which says even though you can’t name the disease doesn’t matter, just understand the symptoms and start the treatment.  Fine, no need to name it. But my next question was what to balance, Vata, Pitta or Kapha?

            I checked my hunger & thirst. Hunger was low but not totally gone, thirst was there but I was not enjoying warm water, rather my body was asking for slightly cold water. Wow, this was a clear indication that my Pitta has gone up. As there was thirst & little hunger the Kapha was not too much so for time being I kept my kapha away. I remembered my past experience that whenever my kapha was high my thirst was minimum, I preferred a warm water and hunger was totally gone. This was not the case now.

          Secondly symptoms like body ache, constipation, extreme tiredness was pointing my attention towards Vata. Now I started planning my treatment. The foremost thing I decided to do is taking a good rest. That was the best treatment of Vata. I also recollect one reason of not getting a good hunger is my extreme tiredness. I am tired means my whole body is tired, my brain is tired, my liver is tried and my digestive system is tired. Every cell of body is tired. How can I get hunger? I have this experience in the past several times. Whenever I was tired too much my first demand was rest, not food. As I used to take good rest, my systems were fresh again, my hunger used came back.

                        Next is eating food when body demands but the lighter one. My body was rejecting wheat, roti or rice, sweetmeats, mere sight of such food items & I was experiencing the rejection. I gave a thought on what my body will prefer, just few minutes of thinking and I got several answers. Puffed rice, churmura, some fruits like pomegranate, sweet lime etc. that’s all. Also without spices, body was not ready to accept hot spices, so bland food. As my Pitta was more, it was so natural & wise signal from the body to go for the bland food. And of course normal temperature water whenever body demands.

                    Certain other important decisions were came in my mind.  First is not to hurry and not to worry. When I look back it was very clear for me that how this illness came in. For almost a month I was just working, working & working. Not taking enough rest, not giving a proper nutrition to my body. I accepted my mistakes and decided to give a very good rest to clear the balance. First of all I have to let go the big list of what to do in coming days. Very difficult task but at same time very important one! I must need this mindset to start the treatment, otherwise I was not really resting. With some initial resistance I was able to let go everything and then in real sense my rest started. Rather I started enjoying this resting which I was doing after so many days.  Deep within I knew this will be the treatment. This mental & physical rest activated my healing.

             In Ayurveda one way of treating the illness is treating or balancing the reasons behind the illness. If the illness is due to eating a lot then eating less or fasting is the treatment. So for me exertion was the reason of the illness, naturally rest was my primary treatment. Sometimes I feel that many of the patients get well after hospitalization because they get good rest over there, compulsory rest. Rest works for them than any other treatments.

               Secondly I decided not to keep any time limit for my recovery. That’s another important decision. How can you decide the time limit? And if you decide it then the pressure game starts. Oh, two days over and still I am not feeling better. Let’s go to another Doctor, let’s change the medicines. That may lead to over medication, hospitalization! The mind game starts. Mind will continuously valuate the situation with conclusion that I am not getting better. A game of expectations! So I took out the pressure of the time. Rather took the situation positively that my poor body, working for so many days, now will get a good rest and will become strong again. So decided to observe the symptoms, any new changes and accordingly changing the mode of the treatment. Changing as per the present situation!

                      I also did very important thing is to discuss about my decisions with my close ones. Sometimes you get unnecessary pressures form your near & dear ones and the process of recovery may slow down. You are not hungry and you get a pressure for eating something, you want to take a good rest & everyone around you are discussing about how much rest you are taking. There is great pressure within ourselves and outside of getting well soon.

                       So I took all this permissions of eating whenever I want, whatever I want, resting a lot and taking my own time to recover. I was happy for getting the cooperation from my close ones. Now I was very relaxed, only work remained was ongoing observation.

                     For the first day and two took a very good rest, slept & slept a lot ,was not much hungry so was eating very light food, was not  getting pressure for stools ,so accepted it.  Within two days started feeling better, the tiredness reduced, body ache reduced drastically, face was little better. Within two days of rest I felt like I can do some work and started doing it. But I was wise enough to do appropriate work, was not getting tired with the work.

                   Suddenly my face turned red, there was a red colored rash on the hand, dark colored urine, requirement of fan and a deep craving of having sweet and cooling things.  I understood my Pitta has surfaced, a different turn in the story.

                Respecting these new body signals, I jumped to cooling & sweet things, but of course the lighter ones as my hunger was still not good. So I had guava, Gulkand (Rose petals & sugar), little ghee and sugar, fresh coconut and a cooling medicine made from khus. Again I was right, my body responded well, the heat with in went down, redness of my face diminished, the color of urine became light yellow. My wise body reduced the demands of sweet and cooling things. I was surprised by the sensitivity and wisdom of my body. My confidence strengthen once again and I saluted to my natural wisdom. I was much better in every aspect than the initial situation.

             And then came the time of kapha, it started coming out. Again I followed my signals, as hunger was not strong I was enjoying the lighter food. Now felt like having something made from Pulses, dals, a little heavier food. So had chilla, dhokla, dals etc. Felt like no need of having cooling food so stopped it. But either I didn’t felt to have spices (which are the good medicines for kapha), so didn’t took it. But started taking honey which is the best medicine of kapha.

                 It took almost two weeks to come back to normal hunger and strength. There were times where my mind came up with doubts such as whether I am on a right track, whether I have do something else. But then I used to check my improvement. Oh, my tiredness and body ache has reduced, my redness & heat has gone, and day by day my strength is coming up. That gave me confidence again to walk on the path.

                 So this may happen to anyone, no diagnosis of the disease, confusing symptoms, or a diagnosis such as Dengu, viral fever where there is no treatment as such but road to health is respecting body signals, observing, understanding & tracking yourself, lot of patience and taking actions as per the present situation. Knowing the positive signs of health is also important. Tiredness has reduced and freshness has gone up, food demands are changing, body is asking for heavier food than before, body is able to work little more than before, and then you are on a right path.

                If I my symptoms were worsening, my tiredness was increasing, high fever came in again & again, body was not showing any signs of improvement and then I must do some intervention, some expert advice, and some investigations! If you are walking on the path and there is no positive signs then be wise to change the path. Don’t follow it blindly. Give some initial time of 2-3 days and if you experience some positive signs then only move ahead. Otherwise think differently. Don’t go to extreme.

                No one like to be seek, it’s not a pleasant situation. Everyone wants to come out of it soon. But sometimes this extra hurry, impatience puts us in more trouble. Too much medications, changing the Doctors again and again worsens the situation. With so many healing factors Ayurveda always mentions about time, very important healing factor. One must give appropriate time for healing.

                See how much important is to choose the right food. Today we choose medicines very easily but don’t choose the appropriate food. We must give lot of importance to food, my experience tells it is a very important factor for our healing, far more than medicines. See how I was changing my food as per the situation.

               So our learning is giving importance to rest, food and above all is our mind set. Then you are on your road to True healing!

Dr Nikhil Mehta

Pune

26 th Aug 2016

Pulses/Legumes/Beans

Pulses /legumes/ Beans:

            As we have learnt that food means cereals, they come at the top of the list. After them the second on the list is Pulses, legumes. They are Dicot seeds, having two halves together. Means if we break them they depart in to two halves. As per Ayurveda although they have presence of earth and water element they also have wind and space elements in dominance. So they are generally astringent along with the sweet taste; some are also bitter tasting. They are dry, cooling, light, constipating, causes excess Vata, good for Kapha & Pita imbalance and for obesity.

           Do you remember what we need every day as a nutrition? Yes, we need around 10-15 % of proteins from our food. Cereals provide around 7-10% of proteins to us, so we can say half of the required proteins come from cereals. To fulfill the remaining half Pulses is a very good source along with dairy products.

          Also cereals and pulses work complimentary to each other. Cereals lack some amino acids (Proteins are made up from various amino acids) & pulses lack some. When we eat combination of two we get all the required amino acids.

          Those who have non-veg food as their staple diet they get proteins easily. But for a vegetarian person pulses & dairy is essential. If you see the chart( at the end) you can easily conclude that all the pulses have little higher protein content, around 17-28%. Naturally they take care to fulfill the demand. As they are high in proteins they have little less carbohydrates, around 54-61 %

           If you see how peoples eat pulses/beans world-wide is interesting. In India Dal-Roti or Dal –rice (Dal is a soup made out of pulses), in South America rice with beans, In Europe bread with beans, it’s a perfect combination, which makes the food almost complete food. But see the proportion, almost 70-80 % is cereal and 20-30% is a pulse, legume, not vice versa. That will cause imbalance. We will understand it latter.

            Along with carbs and proteins pulses give lot of vitamins, minerals and fiber if they are unpolished.   They are rich in Vitamin B group vitamins.  Now you know it means 7-8 Vitamins. They also have Iron, Calcium, Phosphorus and other minerals.

           As their protein content is more they are hard in nature. You can easily notice their hardness. When you cook them they take longer time to become soft than cereals.  As they are hard they take long time to cook. But remember they are not heavy. Heaviness and hardness are two different qualities. Try this, take one fist full of cereals in one hand and one fist full of Pulses in other hand. You will notice the lightness of them as compare to the cereals.

           Now let us understand them with Ayurvedic wisdom. Ayurveda also gave them importance after the Cereals. All the pulses have slightly astringent or bitter taste along with the sweet taste.   Naturally they have more wind element into them than cereals. Can you correlate? Astringent & bitter tastes have dominance of wind element. As wind is light the pulses are lighter than cereals. And also wind makes them more dry and hard. If you remember the taste chart the bitter, astringent tastes come at the lower part of it. So they are less important than cereals. Both the sciences modern medicine & Ayurveda talking the same about the proportion of Cereals and Pulses.

              In Marathi language the dals are also known as Varan, it means Aavaran, means topping, covering. It speaks about the proportion of cereals to pulses. So you take a heap of rice and cover it with Dal, Varan. That’s the proportion. Not vice versa, taking a dal and mixing small portion of rice into it.

              You can very well understand with the wisdom of Ayurveda that if you have more pulses you are going to suffer from Vata issues, wind issues as they have more wind into them. Many of the patients very clearly correlate that when they have more pulses they suffer from gases and problems due to them.

               Remember your experience. One day you ate more pulses and your stomach bloats. If you don’t know the gaseous nature of pulses you cannot correlate this bloating with Pulses. Especially a person suffering with Vata issues cannot tolerate pulses, he eats pulses and his Vata becomes stormy. The dryness, pains and aches in the body, the gases increases immediately.

              Today one stream of health emphasizes on having high protein diet. One has to check that having such diet doesn’t come up with any gas issues? Especially the proteins from pulses lack fats and can create more gas issues as compare to proteins from Dairy, Non-veg & nuts. Even the basic science from modern medicine says that for good metabolism of proteins fats are necessary. So be cautious for the side effects while having excess of proteins, especially from the pulses.

             There is one very good information has come up about hormone of happiness—Serotonin, which is in abundance in the brain. The carbs, sweets, chocolates increases this hormone making you happy but if you have more proteins serotonin levels goes down making you unhappy. So remember the side effect of excess protein intake.

           The culture around the world knows this fact about the pulses so while cooking them care has taken that how the wind, gas can be pacified.

           Do you remember which tastes pacify Vata? Yes, Sweet, sour & salty. See how people around the world cook pulses. In the north India they use sourness of raw mango. Of course they use the best medicine of Vata that is oil in abundance or ghee while cooking pulses. This oiliness and sourness pacifies Vata.

          In Maharashtra, middle part of India they use Jaggery & tamarind or Kokam, sweet and sour and with some oil or ghee. There is a tradition of putting a ghee on a sweet dish named Puran Poli made from chick peas.  This is also a complete food --rice, plain dal & ghee. (Carbohydrates, proteins & fats)In south India they will go for sourness of tamarind.

            The famous humus, an Arabian dish, works on the same principles. It is a mix of chick peas, sesame seeds & olive oil. In china they ferment the Soybean (Which increases the sourness of it) before eating.

 Use of salt and asafoetida will also pacify the windiness of pulses.  So with this precautions pulses are very useful for us. 

                Another precaution is about eating them raw in the form of sprouts. As we have seen that they are hard to cook. So in this form they are hard for digestion and so Ayurveda recommends not to have them raw.

           Another very good way to have proteins is fried pulses, pharsan, shev, Bhujiya, phafada etc. I was always wondering why this Gujarathi people always have Pharsan (Fried Pulses items) in their food. Now I got the answer. They used to be strictly vegetarian, now the culture is changing. Few of Gujarathi’s started eating Non-Veg food now. For a vegetarian person pulses is a very good source of Proteins and when you have them with oils then their gas producing effect is pacified.

              After many years I was reading a book on Biochemistry, a subject in Modern Medicine, and it mentions that for protein metabolism (proper utilization of protein in the body) fats are essential. So the Pharsan’s, the fires Pulses is a very good combination of Proteins & fats. And due to extreme fear about the oils the vegetarian person stopped having them, what a loss! Although our wise body demands it often but we restrict this very important food as a junk food.

                 If you actually calculate how much oil you need to make a Pharsan, you will come with the answer that very minimal oil actually goes inside. Just think if lots of oil was going inside these fried pulses items their prize should have touched the sky, as oils are expensive. But it is not the case. So in reality Pharsan’s need very less oils. So don’t worry. Yes, you can worry about the quality of oil used. It should be filtered or cold pressed Groundnut, Sesame, Musturd or coconut.

          I am waiting for the day when someone will make Pharsan’s in these oils and also using the organic pulses. Now a days they use cheap quality refined oils. Or the best way is to make them is at home. But have them and they will fulfill your nourishment.

              This is the normal proportion but you can increase them especially during Kapha issues. As the dryness of them acts against the stickiness of kapha.  They play a role of balanced food for kapha. During excess kapha  when very little hunger comes one can go for soups of pulses with addition of hot spices ( sambhar or rassam) or if hunger is little better some solid item made from pulses –– dosa or roti made of pluses flour. Or Thalipeeth--- roti from roasted flour of pulses. Or just eating roasted pulses as it is-- Chana –Phutana (Roasted Pulses). And our wise body prefers anything made from Pulses when Kapha takes over us.

               For obesity one can give preference to Pulses, increase the quantity of pulses to grains and you will benefit. But again remember the side effect of pulses. If you start getting gases, has suffer from Vata issues reduce the amount of pulses.

               As most of the pulses are cooling in nature (Except Horse gram) soup of pulses without hot spices is a very good remedy for the raised Pitta. And with the addition of the best medicine of Pitta, the ghee, it will be more ideal.

            Amongst them Green Gram (Moong) is the best one because it produces least gases. If you cook soup (Dal) from it a slimy layer like cream on the milk comes on the top. This is the stickiness of Green Gram. Due to this it produces least gases and therefore best among all Pulses.

               Next to it are Red Gram (Masoor) and Pigeon Pea (Toovar). Pulses like chick peas, Chinese peas, Garden Peas, kidney beans, flat beans, Chole, Rajma makes lot of gases and one has to take proper precautions while making them. ( See how they cook Chole & Rajma in North India – with lot of oil, isn’t it?)

            Only the Black gram (Udid, adhar) is heavy, sticky, sweet, and warm in nature and reduces Vata.

See the table for the qualities of different pulses.

The rough flour made from this pulses especially from Red gram or Chick peas acts as a very good scrubber for cleaning the skin.

             And remember to have less polished or naturally polished Pulses. They will offer you all the nature’s wealth into them.

Pulses, Beans

1.             Green gram (Moong) – Best among pulses, less Vata producing, strength giving, best for making soup (Dal) and purities (cleans) wounds.

2.             Red gram (Masoor) - Strength giving, good for skin, increases Vata, good for making bathing powder.

3.             Pigeon peas (Toovar) - Increases Vata, cold, reduces Kapha and Pitta.

4.             Garden peas (Matar) - Increases Vata too much, little bitter also.

5.             Chinese peas (Chuli) - Increases Vata too much, dry, heavy and increases bowel quantity.

6.             Chick peas (chana) - Increases Vata, are constipating.

7.             Flat beans (Pavata) - Hot, increases Pitta and Vata, reduces Kapha heavy, not good for eyes and genesis, helps in getting motions.

8.             Kidney beans (Mataki) - Cold, light, increases Vata.

9.             Black gram (Urad) - Hot, heavy, oily, sweet, helps in getting motions, reduces vata increases Kapha, Pitta and fats, increases stool quantity, increases shukra dhatu (responsible for genesis) and nourishing.

10.     Horse gram (kulith) – Hot, sour, dry, light, increases Pitta, causes acidity, reduces Kapha and Vata.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DIFFERENT FOOD TYPES

(We are considering here unpolished cereals and pulses, and unrefined fats)

Food Item	Carbohydrates	Proteins	Fats	Minerals	Vitamins	Fibre	Water
Cereals	66.2-78.2 %	6.8-12.1%	0.5-1.7%	0.9-2.7%	B group vitamins (8 vitamins)	0.6-3.9%	11.9-14.9%
Pulses	54.5-60.9%	17.1- 28.2%	0.5- 1.7%	2.1-3.5%	B group vitamins (8 Vitamins)	0.7-5.3%	8.1-13.4 %
Leafy Vegetables	1.4-13 % very few more	0.4-8%	0.1- 0.8%	0.6-3.4%	Vitamin A & C	0,8-4,8%	73-95%
Fruit Vegetables	2.2-17 % very few more	0.4-4.1%	0.1-1.9% few more	0.3-1.6% few more	Vitamin A & C	0.5-3.0% few more	70-96.5 %
Fruits	3-30% few more	0.2-1.8% few more	0.1-1.5% few more	0.1-1.7% few more	Vitamin C	0.5-5% few more	60-95.8 %
Roots & tubers	3.4-28 % few more	0.2-2.5%	0.1-0.7%	0.4-2%	Vitamin B group & small amounts of Vitamin C	0.1-1.7%	60-94 % few less
Nuts & oil seeds	10-28.9 % few more	13.9-25.3% few less few more	25.6-64.5% few less	0.6-6.4%	Vitamin A,D,E,K	1-10.9% few more	3-6.5 % few more
Oils	00.00%	00.00%	100%	very minimal	Vitamin A,D,E,K	00.00%	00.00 %
Fish & sea food	0.9-7 %	8.9-25.2% Dried: 56-68 %	0.4-10.8% few more	0.9-3.2% Dried: 12-17.4%	Vitamin D Not much other vitamins	0.0%	53-83% Dried: 5-18 %
Meat, poultry & eggs	0.1-3.7 %	13,3-26.6 %	0.9-13.7%	1.0-2.4%	B group vitamins	0.0%	68.8-79.4 %

Cleaning Agents

Cleaning agents                                                                                                7^Th March

            Today we will think on the various cleaning agents we use in our daily life. We use so many cleaning agents, soaps for bathing, washing our hairs & hands, washing our utensils & cloths, cleaning our floor and furniture, cleaning our toilets etc.

          If we think about the purpose one is literally cleaning-- cleaning the dirt, dust, sweat, sticky, oiliness from it. And secondly take care of, getting rid of microorganisms from it,—form body, from floor, from utensils etc.  I am totally agree with the first reason we must clear all above things almost every time, every day. So let’s discuss on that first and then we will come to the second point.

           Today all these cleaning agent’s contents very high degree of chemical agents.  It is a fact that you cannot make a soap or detergent powder without using a chemical such as caustic soda. There cannot be herbal or Ayurvedic soap without such chemicals. So please come out of such misunderstanding that I am using herbal soap or shampoo. And the detergents used for washing clothes, utensils & floor have much more chemicals than bathing soap and shampoos. One thing is very clear to me today we are opting for chemical cleaning.

           Naturally it has its side effects on us, on our physical health and environmental health. It is a proven fact that all this chemicals are carcinogenic and responsible for many cancers. One may argue that we are not consuming this chemicals as a food so how can they are responsible for the cancer growth. If you observe carefully even if you take while washing your utensils some little portion of it stays with your utensils. Naturally you are consuming this poison every day.

          Ultimately all this chemicals are mixing with river water or sea water or will eventually mix with our mother soil. And will ultimately through sea food, river food and food coming from our soil will reach us.  A big risk! Also tons of these chemicals are polluting our natural resources.

          So what are the options? Just go few decades back and you will get all the options. The answer is mechanical cleaning. The soaps entered in Indian land around 16-17 th AD. The history says that in Europe from 15 th to up to around 18 th century soaps were not a commodity for a common man, they were very expensive.  Naturally before that Europeans must be using a mechanical cleaning. What is this mechanical cleaning? As for oily utensils we were using mud or ash. The dryness of mud and ash will absorb the stickiness of utensils making it clean. I have tried it myself and it works. Most of the time when utensils are not sticky even a plain water is enough to clean the utensils. Try it yourself.

           Same with the body. Our skin oozes a sticky substance which makes our skin oily. On this oily surface dust gets stuck. If such dirt remains there then may be microorganisms will grow there and will create a problem. So if we take care of this dirt then we don’t have to worry about microbes. Clean skin naturally has a protective mechanism for all such microbes. And then the various scrubbers is the answer. Remember what we were using to clean the skin—a rough rock, a cloth, a fibers from different dried gourds,  a coarse powder of pulses such as chickpea, red gram etc,  ubtan—mixture of different herbal powders and even a soil like multani mitti.

         Basically anything coarse, rough which will have a scrubbing action and will take out the dirt from the skin. When you rub such rough material the dirt comes out making your skin clean. Once it is free of dirt it is free of microbes.  A mechanical cleaning!

       Actually you can try this experiment. Bath with a soap and then once again bath with using any scrubber immediately. You will be surprised to see how much dirt comes out. Soaps are not doing their job. When you use scrubber you get a real feeling of cleaned skin. I myself using a stone, the same stone for last 8-10 years and might well go for next many years. Only for the face I use some herbal powder or powder made from chick peas. Only problem with such bath is you have to invest some time and some strength.

     I think this is the issue. We don’t have time, today we need a quick wash. Secondly some of us also don’t want to use this exercise of rubbing, they want an easy solution. But all these fast and easy solutions are putting us is in more risk. 

           Now the big issue of microbes. We are exposing to media day and night which are coming up with the advertisements showing very dangerous microbes on your skin, on your hands, your teeth. Naturally a common man will rush to the shop and will buy these soaps to protect oneself, one’s family. But is there any truth behind this? We must think then why these microbes were not affecting our ancestors or those few of us not using soaps even today? Are we human beings are so weak then rest of the species that we need such chemicals to protect us. Try not using soaps and nothing will change rather you will have a more healthy skin. Just use scrubbers and your purpose is solved. And these scrubbers are not polluting your soil and water.

For hairs again go back to age old cleaning agents as Shikekai and Reetha.  Make a decoctions from it and wash your hairs.

Now let’s discuss about solutions to clean floor and toilets. Actually for floor we have to just clean it with water, no absolute need to use any chemical. We don’t have to take any action against microbes, just clean the dirt and dust. If don’t get a strong smell of chemicals we don’t feel like our home is clean. What a powerful impact on us. Just think for years people are staying in houses where floor is made up of mud and cow dung. I strongly feel that someone must do a research in depth on this issue.

For toilets I follow a simple advice from my friend. Just clean the commode every day with a broom made to clean it.  If you do it every day it remains absolutely clean. Again no need to use any strong chemical. Sometimes the issue comes about the foul smell. Most of the times if you keep it clean the issue of smell doesn’t come and even if it comes use some natural fragrance.

Now the question remained is of clothes. Here I have not got a good solution. One thing I have tried is soaking the clothes in water or a hot water for hours and then striking them on a floor or on a rock. These takes out some portion of dirt from them. Remember how they used to wash the clothes in olden days. These repetitive striking loose out the dirt and takes it out. But the oily dirt needs some use of soap. We have to search what are the olden day’s solutions?

When I studied about soap making some facts became very clear to me. The original soaps were made from just using oils, fats and caustic soda. That’s all. You mix them and your soap is ready. I have tried it and it was the best soap I have ever used. But as oils and fats became costlier they started adding fillers just to fill the space. (This reduces the efficacy of the soap.) That is why still some soaps made today by using oils are expensive. And as good amount of oils are there so they don’t make your skin dry. They reduce the effect of caustic on your skin.

On the other hand these new generation of soaps started using multiple new chemicals making them strong and stronger. Especially the washing soaps. Detergent powders, making the pollution worst.

            May be in these issues we have to go a step back. We can use the soaps or powders few decades ago where they were using very few chemicals and good amount of oils/fats. Remember those yellow cakes. I can think of the same issue here. With such old generation soaps you need some mechanical strength, striking the clothes again and again, rubbing them again and again. So again some time and strength. To avoid these the new detergents came in the pictures. The additional benefits in washing clothes in this way is going through the good exercise, no need to take out a separate time.

So let’s move few steps back and start using Eco-friendly, health friendly solutions. Many of us must be using such solutions even today. Please share your experiments with all so we will know many more age-old ways and many doors will be open for us. Most important is please come out of the fear factor of microbes. Pl search on it and you will know that we are unnecessary taking the extra precaution to clean our house with these super chemicals. Just imagine if every one of us minimizes the use of these deadly chemicals what massive effect it will have on water and soil pollution!

Dr Nikhil

Pune

Cereals -The Holistic Food

Ø CEREALS, THE HOLISTIC FOOD

                 (Cereals means food – writing this blog in such a details is to highlight the importance of the cereals)   

                   Due to many misconceptions now a days we are keeping cereals away from our food and increasing intake of vegetables, fruits, pulses & beans. But when we study the cereals and compare them with other food types cereals emerge as the best food we have. Cereals offers such a great variety of nutrients and in an appropriate quantities required by the body. We can say that they are the miracle of the nature and the most holistic food on earth.

              As we lost many healthy traditions we are also losing the most holistic food from our diet. The age old science of Ayurveda starts with cereals while informing about the various food types, giving them the topmost importance. Let’s understand the science about the Cereals in great detail. If you able to understand about the Cereals you are very close to your health and you can resolve many of your health issue. You can get read of tons of medicines. After all what our forefathers were eating?

                 According to Ayurveda Cereals have Earth and Water as their dominant elements, so naturally cereals or grains are sweet in taste and heaviness is their main quality. They have to be cooked properly to make them lighter and suitable for digestion. In the Indian context, wheat, rice, barley, ragi, corn and different kind of millets (Jawar & Bajra) are the cereals, the grains. In other parts of the world, you may also find oats, rye and quinoa.

                Let us first understand an essential topic in the modern science’s perspective. We can divide the food types in 2 main groups: macronutrients and micronutrients. To make it simple macronutrients are those types we need in relatively large amounts, measured in grams, as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibers and water. And the types we need in minute, trace amounts, measured in milligrams or micrograms, are micronutrients, as vitamins and minerals.

(1 gram= 1000 milligrams, 1 milligram= 1000 micrograms)

              In general, what is the need of each food type per person? One way to understand it is that our total caloric requirement should be fulfilled as follows: 70-75% from carbohydrates, 10-15% from proteins and 5-10% from fats.

              Let’s see what an Indian adult male weighing 70 kg will need as a recommended daily allowance

Chart One
Recommended Daily Allowance of an Adult Indian Man (70kg)

Macronutrients		Micronutrients
		Vitamins		Minerals
Carbohydrates	350 grams	Vit A	1000 µg	Calcium	800 mg
Proteins	70 grams	Vit B1	1.5 mg	Phosphorus	800 mg
Fats	40 grams	Vit B2	2mg	Iron	10 mg
Fibres	30 grams	Vit B3	20 mg	Copper	2 mg
		Vit B6	2mg	Iodine	200 µg
		Vit B9	150 µg	Magnesium	350 mg
		Vit B12	2-3 µg
		Vit C	60 mg
		Vit D	5 µg
		Vit E	10 µg
		Vit K	70 µg

                     Here we can clearly differentiate the macro & micro nutrients. The carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fibres are required in grams and all others such as Vitamins & minerals in mg and microgram.  Just focus on the quantity of Vitamins and minerals we need. Compare these 50, 60,400 grams of macro nutrients with these few micrograms and milligrams of micro-nutrients. 

                 And to fulfil this requirement they recommend to have following food types for an adult doing moderate work

                                                                               Chart Two   
                                                   Food Items Required to Fulfil Nutritional Needs
                                             of a 70 kg Indian male adult performing moderate work

Food Items	Vegetarian	Non-Vegetarian
Cereals, grains	475 g	475 g
Pulses, beans	80 g	65 g
Vegetables	200 g	200 g
Roots & Tubers	100 g	100 g
Fruits	30 g	30 g
Fats & Oils	40 g	40 g
Milk	200 ml	100 ml
Meat & Fish		30 g
Eggs		30 g
Sugar & Jaggery	40 g	40 g

                        Another way to estimate it is as follows. The average daily need of carbohydrates per person is 4-6 g per kg of body weight. So for a 70 kg person, the requirement of carbohydrates will be around 280-420 g per day. The daily need of protein is 1g/kg, so a 70 kg person will need 70 g of proteins per day. The daily need of fats is 0.5 to 0.6 grams / kg body weight. So for 70 kg person it will be 35-42 grams/ day.

                     This data will help you to understand the difference between the need of macro and micro-nutrients. Today we are experiencing a strong change. Everyone is focusing on the vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Many, many health issues are being correlated with micro-nutrients deficiencies. As a consequence, if a particular food item has a good content of one or another vitamin or mineral, everybody will turn to it and consuming it becomes a fashion, a healthy one. This has happened with products such as milk for calcium; green leaves like spinach, pulses like soy beans for iron; pomegranate for phosphorus; berries or guava for vitamin C; carrots for vitamin A; olives for vitamin E;  dates or figs for some of the B group vitamins; and meat & Cheese for Vitamin B 12.

                          These days, people in general tend to prefer fruits and vegetables because they have more vitamins, minerals and fibre. It is something like being in front of a 7 ft tall person. Naturally, due to this particular characteristic, he can very easily perform some work at heights others cannot reach. But no one considers that he may be lacking so many other qualities. He may not be very strong, his bones may be weak and he may have certain health issues. On the other side, we have a person with an average height who may not perform tasks at such heights. But he or she will have all the average qualities, and will basically be strong enough to do the routine work without much of health hindrances. In the same way, vegetables and fruits may have good content of few vitamins and minerals, but lack several other important nutrients to the surprisingly high amounts. 

     Let’s have a look at different food types to know the facts.

Chart Three
NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DIFFERENT FOOD TYPES

(We are considering here unpolished cereals and pulses, and unrefined fats)

Food Item	Carbohydrates	Proteins	Fats	Minerals	Vitamins	Fibre	Water
Cereals	66.2-78.2 %	6.8-12.1%	0.5-1.7%	0.9-2.7%	B group vitamins (8 vitamins)	0.6-3.9%	11.9-14.9%
Pulses	54.5-60.9%	17.1- 28.2%	0.5- 1.7%	2.1-3.5%	B group vitamins (8 Vitamins)	0.7-5.3%	8.1-13.4 %
Leafy Vegetables	1.4-13 % very few more	0.4-8%	0.1- 0.8%	0.6-3.4%	Vitamin A & C	0,8-4,8%	73-95%
Fruit Vegetables	2.2-17 % very few more	0.4-4.1%	0.1-1.9% few more	0.3-1.6% few more	Vitamin A & C	0.5-3.0% few more	70-96.5 %
Fruits	3-30% few more	0.2-1.8% few more	0.1-1.5% few more	0.1-1.7% few more	Vitamin C	0.5-5% few more	60-95.8 %
Roots & tubers	3.4-28 % few more	0.2-2.5%	0.1-0.7%	0.4-2%	Vitamin B group & small amounts of Vitamin C	0.1-1.7%	60-94 % few less
Nuts & oil seeds	10-28.9 % few more	13.9-25.3% few less few more	25.6-64.5% few less	0.6-6.4%	Vitamin A,D,E,K	1-10.9% few more	3-6.5 % few more
Oils	00.00%	00.00%	100%	very minimal	Vitamin A,D,E,K	00.00%	00.00 %
Fish & sea food	0.9-7 %	8.9-25.2% Dried: 56-68 %	0.4-10.8% few more	0.9-3.2% Dried: 12-17.4%	Vitamin D Not much other vitamins	0.0%	53-83% Dried: 5-18 %
Meat, poultry & eggs	0.1-3.7 %	13,3-26.6 %	0.9-13.7%	1.0-2.4%	B group vitamins	0.0%	68.8-79.4 %

                        Let’s do some mathematics for some more clarity. Now considering the chart one, two & three an adult male with 70 kg of weight and doing the moderate work if consumes 450-475 grams of cereals, this will complete almost the 80-82% of his carbohydrates’ need and around 1/2 of proteins’ requirement  and it will provide just 4.5 grams of fats if we consider it has 1 % of fats.

(Calculation= 475 grams of cereal will have 332 grams of carbs if we consider it has 70% of carbs , 475 grams of cereals will provide 38 grams of proteins if we consider it has 8 % of proteins).

# These calculations are just to give you some direction. Please don’t take them absolutely correct one.

                  If unpolished they provide good amount of fibres, almost the same as vegetables and fruits, and a good amount of minerals almost like vegetables (rather fruits has less minerals –refer the chart three) and B group vitamins except Vitamin B12. It is important to remember that Vitamin B group contains 8 vitamins, almost half of the total number of vitamins. So, having a good quantity of this particular group, cereals have a major part of the vitamins’ requirement. Concerning minerals, cereals have: Calcium, 0.01-0.05%, Phosphorus, 0.17-0.35%, Iron, 2.8-8.8%.

                    Let’s calculate how much calcium cereals give. 100 grams of Wheat has 41 mg of Calcium. Now if one has 475 grams of wheat he will get 194.75 means almost 25 % of the need.

             In a same way it will complete almost half the need of Phosphorus (100 gm of wheat has 306 mg of Phosphorus) and the iron (100 gm wheat has 5.3 mg iron)

                # From above calculation we can conclude that Cereals are providing us almost 80-85% of the nutrients we need including 80 % of Carbs, 50 % of proteins, half of the vitamins, most of the minerals & fibre. What they lack is in fats, vitamins such as the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K, as well as vitamins C and B 12, about 1/2 of the protein requirement and some percentage of some minerals

                   Can you sense something what a magical things are inside this tiny seed of cereals.

                    Now, let us see the data about the vegetables.

                     They have around 70-95% of water content, which can be replenished by drinking plain water. They are extremely low in the content of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. They also lack B group vitamins. The percentage of minerals and fibres is almost the same as unpolished cereals and pulses. And if you study their individual content of vitamins and minerals, some vegetables will have a good amount of some but will lack others. For example, green leafy vegetables have a good content of vitamin A, C and iron, but they lack in Vitamin B group, almost 8 Vitamins. And all the fruit vegetables such as gourds, cabbage or cauliflower have good amount of Vitamin C, but a low content of calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A, B group

                   Certainly you can conclude by yourself what you will get by eating 300-400 g of vegetables and 300-400 g of cereals. 

                   It is the same about fresh fruits.

                 Again they a have very high percentage of water, about 60-95%. The content of fibre in the fruits is 0.5-5.0 %, somewhat close to unpolished cereals & pulses (Very few fruits have more fibre content). They greatly lack in proteins and fats, and also have only 3-30% of carbohydrates content. This makes them a poor source of macro-nutrients. About the micro-nutrients, except for vitamin C, they are also not such an extraordinary source of vitamins and minerals. Just as the vegetables, some fruits have some vitamins and minerals but lack others.

                    With dates being the most wholesome one, having a high content of minerals, whereas among vitamins they only have an important content of the B 2. Apricots have good amount of vitamin A, banana has vitamin B 6 as well as potassium and selenium, figs have vitamin B 6 and calcium, guava has vitamin C.

                      Are you realizing something? Are you sensing something? What a serious mistake we are making by shifting our focus from cereals to fruits and vegetables. Do you see it? It is just as the story of the 7ft tall person and an average person. While madly running after some vitamins and minerals we are losing much more essential things. Surely this dangerous turn in our diet has made us vulnerable to many new diseases.

                     At this point, one question may come to your mind. Why not emphasize on a high pulses (Protein) diet and less cereals?

                        As per the previous calculations, instead of 475 g of cereals, we would be eating 475 g of pulses. If we do so, we will get around 275 g of carbohydrates (If we consider pulses has 58% of Carbs) and 104 g of proteins (If we consider pulses has 22% of protein). The lack of carbohydrates will be very high. Remember carbs are the most significant source of energy for our body. Also we will get unnecessary high amount of proteins. Note that here we are talking about proteins from pulses not from nuts, dairy & meat. The proteins from such sources have fats with them. Fats take care of side effects of extra proteins.

                      Now a day’s science is talking about side effects due to high protein diet.  At the same time, when we will compare these food types having the wisdom of Ayurveda as the reference, you will understand very clearly why such a big quantity of pulses is actually dangerous for us.

                     Let us shift then to whatever the old age wisdom of Ayurveda has to say on this matter. The food we need on daily basis has to have the predominance of earth and water elements. We get water from the liquids we drink such as water, milk, butter milk, juices, tea or coffee, among others. And for the earth, cereals, pulses and nuts are very important sources. Otherwise, how could we get earth from vegetables and fruits? They have very high amount of water element. Even fatty substances such as oil and ghee lack in earth, having a high amount of the water element.

                   Ayurveda also comments about the tastes. The most important taste to fulfil our body demands is sweet. (What they want to say is high carb food) And cereals are the most important food item with the dominance of sweet taste. The unique concentration of earth and water in the cereals makes them fully appropriate to fulfil our needs, our body requirements.

                      On the other hand, what would happen if we replace cereals for pulses? What would be the effect if we decided to eat more pulses and fewer cereals? All the pulses have astringent or bitter tastes along with sweet. Just have sprouted pulses or cooked pulses or soup of pulses, and you will get an astringent or bitter taste, together with a feeling of dryness in the mouth. As these tastes have wind(air) element in excess they will increase the air element in the body.By eating high amounts of pulses Vata (air, gases) will increase a lot, giving you the subsequent troubles. You can try eating lots of pulses and experience the gases due to Vata.

                      And you know what this excess Vata can do? All the degenerative diseases will catch you. That is why you cannot substitute cereals with pulses. Besides, your sensitive body will not give you the signal of satisfaction after eating a meal based on pulses instead of a cereal based meal. Try it. Your wise body knows what it needs!

                       The same happens with fruits and vegetables. Try it. Just eat fruits and vegetables instead of cereals and pulses when you get a very good hunger. See what happens. On one side, you will not get that feeling of satisfaction as with cereals. On the other, you will feel hunger sooner, maybe in the next 2-3 hours. As there is lack of the earth element in the food, your body will be hungry soon again.

                      What about replacing cereals by nuts & oily seeds?

               Well, all of them contain high amount of fats. The nuts and oily seeds have 25-65% of fats, 14-25% of proteins and 10-29% of carbohydrates. In any case although oils and fats are an essential part of our diet, of a healthy diet indeed, such a high amount of fat is not at all recommendable. You know the consequences.

                      

                                  In order to have a meal that includes all our body requirements, actually we have to choose the best combination. That is a cereal based meal with a moderate amount of pulses, a moderate amount of oils, oily seeds, nuts and dairy, and a minimal quantity of vegetables and fruits. Are you surprise? We suppose so, but it may also remind you something. Got it? Yes, our parents’ food. The food our grandparents were eating few decades back. It was huge amount of cereals with some pulses and fats, and a least amount of vegetables and fruits. And compare their health with ours.  Now you may understand the secret behind.

                           Even the countries where people eat non-vegetarian food every day, both in the eastern and in the western parts of the world, their food used to be cereals based with some amount of non-veg., which means fat and proteins. Now it has changed to mainly non-veg. based food with small amount of cereals, creating many diseases. Like in the Southern part of Spain the food was rice & fish but now it has changed to high amount of meat. In India still today people eating non veg eat along with cereals such as rice, wheat, millets etc.

                You will be surprised to know what Non-veg food has? It has approximately 9-26% of proteins, 0.4-14% of fats and very, very low amount of carbohydrates, just 0.1-7 %. And again very high amount of water 68-79%. So it seems logical to have cereals with Non-veg food.

                     Story of a Patient:

                   Here we have a female patient in her thirties or early forties with a long list of complaints. The list starts with a complaint of tiredness, as she is unable to perform neither her day to day physical duties nor her regular exercise. In fact, any exertion gives her pain all over the body, joint pain, backache, headache, etc. The list goes further with complaints about hair fall, skin dryness, tanning, giddiness, insomnia and menstrual problems such as irregular manses, premenstrual pain. Then she talks about some serious issues such as hormonal imbalance, thyroid problems, low BP, low haemoglobin, deficiency of many vitamins and minerals, mostly vitamin B 12, vitamin D, calcium, iron, etc.

                          And her list does not stop here. Actually, now we have new lists. First, the list of the specialists she had consulted. Physician, orthopaedic surgeon, dermatologist, endocrinologist, gynaecologist, nutritionist and many more. And then, that one with the medicines she was prescribed. Multivitamin tablets, calcium supplement, iron, vitamin E, hormonal therapy, vitamin D and vitamin B 12 injections followed by tablets, as well as tablets for the thyroid and  tablets for balancing the irritability, mood swings and getting good sleep, pain killers, antacids, creams for the skin, bam for the joints and many more.

                       You must be tired just by reading her lists of complaints and medicines. Can you imagine what must be happening to the poor lady and her family? Oh, I forgot some other medicines:  oils for hair fall and omega 3 capsules. And this is just the list with modern medicines, since she also tried other pathies and household remedies. Some Ayurvedic medicines, tonics and treatments were also there, as massage and steams, shirodara and other Panchakarma treatments. And of course, acupressure, acupuncture, homoeopathy, psychoanalysis, yoga, different meditation techniques, flax seeds, neem juice, aloe Vera, almond oil, olive oil. It is almost an endless list. And despite all her efforts, the complaints were unmoved. What went wrong?

                     This brings to my mind the story of an old lady who wanted to advise her grandsons. She asked them to search for her lost pin outside her hut. They searched and searched but were unable to find it. Finally the old lady found it inside the hut. She knew they were going to be upset with her. And certainly, they blamed her. But then she explained that she wanted to enlighten them. The answers to your questions are inside you, close to you.  Do not try to find them outside.

                    In the case of our young lady, the answer was immediately clear. However, we went through all her routine, her daily activities, her food habits. As I thought, she was not eating when she was hungry; or even if she ate, instead of having cereals she used to drink good quantities of tea, coffee or juices, or used to eat fruits or salads. At lunch or dinner she used to take just one or two very tiny chapatti and a spoonful of rice with lots of vegetables and salad, total deprivation of Cereals. What to say about oil and ghee? She was just consuming few drops. Everything was just a confirmation of my presumptions about her. All her complaints and deficiencies were nothing but excess Pitta and Vata in her body.  The external medicines and treatments might have supported her for some time and up to some extent. But they were certainly not a solution.

                                And why did she undergo so many changes and reductions in her diet? Because she read some article on vitamins and minerals, or on weight loss, or on healthy food, or maybe a doctor or any diet specialist advised her in this direction. I asked her one single question. Are you happy with this few inches loss, this few kg loss and such a huge gain of complaints, this unhealthy face and irritable mind? Also I was able to throw light on the fact that as she reduced her consumption of cereals her complaints started, before that she was fine. Yes it is fine if after doing some changes in her diet she is feeling better, all the parameters of the health are fine. But if everything is going upside down then be cautious about your food.

                      As she understood the reason behind her problem she started eating normal food with good amount of carbs and oils. Her complaints, along with her different doctors, medicines and treatments reduced very soon. Now she has a healthy body and mind, works a lot, does regular exercise, eats well and has put her weight-scale in a cupboard.

                              Did you understand why the focus has gone to minerals and vitamins, the micro-nutrients? All these complaints have been rooted down to a lack of vitamins and minerals. Naturally fruits and vegetables, and so many medicines have come into play. But no one focused towards macro-nutrients. The real root cause is lacking in macro-nutrients, in quantity as well as in quality.

                          Mother Nature has provided most of the micro-nutrients together with the macro-nutrients. If you go through the Chart three you will understand that except for very, very few, you will get most of the micro-nutrients by consuming cereals, pulses, dairy and oils. Instead, the opposite will not happen. A multivitamin capsule or a calcium supplement will not give you carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Nor will do it the fruits and vegetables.

                                   Last but not least, let us give a quick thought to the economics of the subject. The most important food is the cheapest of all even today. Again, thanks to Mother Nature. Even the so called poorest people can be healthy by fulfilling most of their needs having plenty of cereals. We are always happy when we read or hear that the price of vegetables and fruits has risen. Let the farmers grow more cereals, pulses and oil seeds instead of fruits and vegetables for themselves and for others. May they get good income from growing what is really important!

Choose a right cereal (again regional) for you and go back to Cereals!

Some suggestions---

1 Eat only after getting hunger. Otherwise you cannot digest cereals (Or in that case anything) and will have to face side effects of indigestion.

2 Satisfy your hunger. You should not feel like eating every now & then.

3 Be flexible. Due to various reasons such as your life style, exertion, climate, your intensity of hunger fluctuates. So be wise and change the quality & quantity accordingly. If you have very light hunger go for very light from of cereals such as popped or puffed rice (Churmura, lahya) and if you have very strong hunger go for Roti, Parathas. And for moderate hunger rice, khichadi, lighter Roti such as Phulka, chapati.

4 Preferably choose regional cereals – In south Rice and Ragi, In North Wheat and rice from North etc.

5 know the qualities of cereals

Rice -- is sweet and slightly astringent, oily (means not dry), cold in nature, increases vigor, light (as compared to wheat), diuretic, good for health. e.g. Red rice, Basmati, Kalimoong, Jeera, Aambemohar , Kolum, Sonamasuri etc.

           There are thousands of varieties. Use the locally grown rice. It is suitable for that particular climate.

            Use hand pounded one or single polished rice. It retains all the goodness of rice. Ayurveda keeps it on the top of the list in cereals. Fortunately modern science is coming up with the research that no other cereal can give variety of nutrients like rice.

          This is the biggest misconception that rice causes weight gain. If that was the case then whole of china, south East Asia, south India, Konkan region in Maharashtra were full of obese people as their staple food is rice.

       Wheat – Is heavy, oily, sweet, increases vigor and strength, life enhancing, helps to clear bowel, reduces Vata, Pitta and helps in joining bones. As it is heavier in nature, it is a staple food for Northern parts of India. Ayurveda suggests to avoid wheat to lose weight.

       Barley (Jav)– Is cold, heavy, dry, sweet, helps to clear bowel ,increases stool quantity (means more fibrous), reduces Kapha, Pitta and increases Vata and also reduces fats and urine. (Due to its dry quality)

   

      Sorghum (Jawari - Indian millet) – Cold, light, dry and sweet. Good for             

         the middle part of the Indian continent . Again very good to lose                 weight.  

     Bajara (Indian millet) – Hot, heavy, dry, sweet, increases Vata and pitta and increases digestive fire. Good in northern and middle part of India, especially in winters as it hot in nature.

    Ragi (Nachani) - Cold, light, sweet. Due it’s cooling and lighter qualities               it is a very good cereal for southern part of India.

  6 Most important is listen to your wise body and learn lessons from your own experience!

                     

Dr Nikhil

Pune 28 th Dec 2015

Reference books

Book of Biochemistry (For MBBS students, India) by U. Satyanarayana & U. Chkrapani Edition 2013

Nutritive Values of Indian Food by National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Hyderabad, India

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