Divided States of India.

India has 28-States and 8- Union Territories and that many State Languages (actually much more.

So is this a good thing? Yes it does give India the advantage of Diversity, but with this diversity comes individual State Governments, State Laws, State Taxes, etc. yes, so what’s new and different here, one may ask. Well the problem is that each state is working as a separate nation, much similar to the times when kings ruled their individual kingdoms.

If we are One Nation, then why is each state fighting for its individual State Language, State Domicile, which is like your citizenship and nationality of that particular state. Why do we need Quota and Reservations to uplift weaker sections? Is getting or providing these children and people jobs or school/college admission an answer to their uplifting? How does that help? 

Thousands of People are fighting and died for securing Reservation and Quota at various places and institutions, why can there not be a level playing? Why can’t these economically weaker sections given aids to help them come at par intellectually.

How has this helped these students when they have entered the professional world? Has securing Degrees and Certificates helped them intellectually? Have they been professionally successful? 

Question: how many of the decision makers of this reservation and quota system/allotment have or are willing to visit / work with these professionals who have come from this Reservation and Quota category? Why is the answer None? Isn’t that hypocrisy?

Why are these same Students, Families, People and so called Professionals, when applying for admission and jobs outside India, not asking for Reservations and Quota there? Why is that considered fair-n-square to secure basis your own intellectual “merit” (leaving sponsorship and donations aside, that is another story to discuss).

Why is India complaining of Brain Drain? Why is India complaining of intelligent and deserving Students wanting to study outside India when same could have been in India itself? Why are students who worked so hard and slogged to secure high percentages /marks in examinations, are made to suffer and see their “rightful” seat being passed on to much lesser secured marks/percentage students. And these same students would share the same classroom and teachers as those high percentile students.

College’s have admission cut-offs at 96%, there are few who have 98% and 99% cut-offs for their admissions (this too is an absolute stupidity of having such high cut-offs). Same colleges are then delaying admissions and starting their academic year in order to accommodate students from Reserved and Quota Categories.

Isn’t this playing with Students Future, playing with Students Psychology, playing with Students Emotions... playing with the Future of Our Great Nation?

This has made India, what I call as not One Nation, but Divided States of India.

The Sad Truth.

Depression is a Disease... Respect It and Save Lives.

DEPRESSION is real and is a disease and because people do not understand, its still a taboo to talk or worst, even when people talk or share, people don’t take it seriously or bother to think and pass it off as either “Mood Swing” or “trying to take advantage of the situation”, or “she/he is just weak emotionally “. Worst is the other taboo of “Men cant Cry”, for we are tutored that Men cannot show their emotions and if they do then they are labeled as “Oh He is Just Not Man Enough”, “He is Soft”.

The thinking and perspective of Humans for Fellow Humans needs to change, when will it change?

The grooming has to begin from tender age. Over-protecting your child needs to stop. Over-exposure to Social Media which creates a (Destructive) Self Image that shatters the Emotional and Real World Image needs to stop because then we are not able to cope with the Real Self, we cannot accept the Real Me. We start believing and living in our virtual self Avatars.

And then we have this Yellow Journalism. Why is media so very insensitive. Why can’t they leave the grieving family and friends alone and NOT make a mockery of such a painful phase in their life.

There are enough “stories” out there for these news channels and media to cover, why get into these insensitive side of stories. Stop That, respect people’s privacy, even of celebrities and public figures... yes they too have right to their private life.

Education has destroyed us. Education has on the contrary made us so inhuman and insensitive. It has made us believe that life is all about “COMPETING”. People without formal education are far better because they use their instincts and natural intellect. We all have read stories of how the poor helps the man in need. I call that education, and not literacy. I call that as social being which makes us humans and not what formal education makes out of us.

It amazes me to see instinct reactions of people like in the case of Sushant Singh Rajput. How do we start justifying by posing questions like “what depression did he have? His career was doing good, he had a beautiful house, he is good looking and very talented. What possibly did he lack that he was depressed?”

It is high time we understand what this demon devil DEPRESSION is. It is a Disease of the Brain, similar to any other disease we get of our organs like of heart, liver, lungs etc. and anyone irrespective of who they are, what their profession or social status is or where they are, can get this disease. 

Let us stop being these Educated Illiterate people.

Help and Get Helped to Save Lives.

Isolated During Lockdown Due To CoVid-19 Pandemic

While I was having my morning tea, my thoughts wondered to what is happening around us. It led to calls and messages which I had received in recent past to check how I am doing and holding up during this Lockdown Period, and my answer or response had been “doing very well”, “I am happy to be at home” etc. and this response surprised the person who asked, while their response was totally opposite. I wondered Why?

I wonder Why people are so concerned about being at home during this pandemic.

I wonder Why people are complaining so much about staying at home with your family... staying at home SAFE.
I do not call this “ISOLATION”

Isolation is what the people who have unfortunately been exposed to this Coronavirus and suffering and hence Quarantined or ISOLATED are experiencing.

I think people who are healthy and still protected or not exposed to CoVid-19 should Stop saying that they are bored and upset that they can't leave the house. Ask those who are in the Hospital... they all want to Go Home.

So, thank God if you have to stay at home, because despite everything, with money or without money, with a job or without a job, you are in the best place you could be, which is at home, surrounded by who loves you and who you love. Ask those who are away from home, how they are not just missing being at home but are so concerned and worried for their loved ones, and wish they were together at Home.

So, while at home, be useful, be productive and be creative. Use this time optimally. Perhaps it is time to transform your house into a wonderful place to stay, a place of peace and not of war, of embrace and not of distance.

What I mean is change your perception or way you have been looking at your house, its time to see your house differently. Few examples I can suggest are;

Make your house a party zone and listen to music, sing, dance.

Make your house into a workout place and have sessions of different exercises with family... its fun when family works out together and feel healthy.

Make your house a temple or a holy area in your house where at designated time of every day, family gathers at that spot and prays or meditates.

Make your home a learning place to read, write, draw, paint, study, learn, teach.

Reorganise your house, deep clean it, rearrange things, decorate, label, move, get rid of things you don’t require, donate.

Make your house a restaurant and cook, experiment with new recipes, eat and enjoy. If you have place, then grow some fruits and vegetables. Make a small garden and sow few flower plants or just indoor plants.

There are tons of things to do, besides complaining and watching movies and eating.

Stop complaining about staying at home and stop saying “Isolated at Home”.

Milk: How Pure Has The Milk Been Which We Have Consumed For Years

MILK

Today, while having my morning Tea, actually while adding milk to my morning tea, thought crossed my mind.

During this lockdown;

1. All sweet and confectionary shops are shut
2. All restaurants are shut
3. All cafes, including roadside tea stalls are shut
4. Local chaat shops are also shut
5. No public gatherings, celebrations of any sort, weddings, religious functions etc are happening

If none of the above is happening, then thousands of litres of milk which was being used / consumed everyday at these places, where is that going?

Personal consumption remains the same (or marginal difference if at all). But the commercial consumption has practically come to zero.

Besides, Milk is something which we neither can store for so many weeks nor can it’s production, which is through Cows and Buffalos can be stopped or reduced.  

So the milk consumption which had been so phenomenally high, were we receiving PURE MILK, in other words, all these years, were we drinking or consuming PURE MILK?

Thought to ponder? 

Our Guardian Angels in White Lab Coats and Scrubs Fighting a War with CoVid-19 | Coronavirus.

Heal the world, 

Make it a better place

For you and for me, 

And the entire human race

There are people dying

If you care enough for the living

Make it a better place

For you and for me.

The situation we all are in makes these lines from the famous Michael Jackson song play in my mind.

Sitting at home (which is best), we have absolutely no idea of the gravity of the situation out there in medical facilities.

Novel Coronavirus or CoVid-19 has made everyone bend their knees, made us cancel all our plans and all projections are back to drawing boards, in fact there are no drawing boards right now. At the start of this century, all the corporates and governments had been talking and targeting for the year 2020; they had projected 2020 as a year of some revolution or that ultimate nirvana would be achieved, technology will be at its peak and what not. For over two decades the world had aimed their eyes on this year like Arjun aiming the eye of the fish in Mahabharat. But the situation is such that every day we wake up to a new grim day. The primary question in everyone’s mind right now, which truly is a million-dollar question, “When will all this end?”

Since years we have been reading, listening and discussing of the new age warfare, the weapons which would be deadlier than that of any army or terrorists possess, the biological weapons or bio-weapons or biological warfare; also known as germ warfare — the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Biological weapons are living organisms or replicating entities. Unlike the wars, which we humans have been fighting / engaging since the history we remember; countries today have contingency plans for those in place. But unfortunately, even after being aware of the threat of bioweapons, no country today was prepared or had a contingency plan in place for such an event to happen. Even when the renowned learned people like Bill Gates spoke and warned the world of such bioweapons, we did not plan anything or work towards it.

No, I am not hinting at any country who has deliberately prepared this deadly virus as a bioweapon and has used it against the world. There are several theories doing the rounds, but I am nobody to comment or state my views on this.

The difference here is that in a war or a battle, our soldiers know who the enemy is, who the target is and attack them. But in this case, we cannot see the enemy. It’s not even like hitting in the dark, because these are in fact, very tiny microscopic enemies that we have no clue where they are hiding or hanging, suspended or resting to cling onto us and enter our bodies and kill us. The rate at which they are attacking us makes it even more difficult and we are running against time to understand this enemy and prepare our counterattack strategy or our anti-bioweapons to kill them. We are working on trial-and-error models until we have tested medicines and vaccines. But while all that is happening, our soldiers, who are not in any camouflage uniforms but in their white lab coats and scrubs are out there helping us. Medical practitioners and healthcare workers are at the forefront of the battle facing this non-visible enemy with brevity. Besides them, there are many others too who are working zealously to keep the system and society running & working, like bankers, public transport, cleaners, sweepers, garbage collectors, dairy people, vegetable vendors, bakeries, grocery stores, pharmacy, police and many others. Thank you all, thank you, thank you. Had it not been for you all, our lives would have been in grave danger and impossible to go through these lockdowns. We would not have been able to survive. Thank you!

In this particular blog, I am going talk about doctors, nurses and all the healthcare workers. 

Yes, we are aware of them, yes we do acknowledge their help, yes we did pay our respects by doing what was asked us to do (a few of us even went quite overboard in showing their gratitude), but do we really know what these soldiers in white are going through? Do we?

"I am hungry, but I cannot eat or have my coffee right now, I am geared up, I cannot take a bio-break."

I am fortunate to have the opportunity to interact with few of these doctors, nurses and other medical / healthcare practitioners from few countries and stories that they have shared, gives me sleepless nights and my head bows in respect for them. No number of Thank You messages and other shows of gratitude can match up to what they are experiencing. Through this blog, I wish to reach out to them and tell them that you all are our angels, our guardian angels, and also reaching out to all others to make them aware of these guardian angels’ plight.

We all know how deadly this virus is. Do you know that practically each and every doctor and nurse today, across the globe who are helping and treating coronavirus infected people, are themselves infected, because they are exposed to this virus? You may argue about the protective gears they wear, but the sad truth is that these gears are not able to protect them. Our nurses and doctors do not have the proper and enough protective gears. Let me share something here, we have seen pictures of gears which resembles a space suite, we have seen them in movies, but in reality, the gowns which our doctors and nurses are wearing are nothing like those suites. Different hospitals (in different countries) have different types of these gowns, and then due to shortage, there are make-do gowns which they are wearing; free flowing, big plastic bags, raincoats and rain jackets, ponchos and the likes. Masks are in scarce supply too, because we civilians panicked and went berserk and bought masks in bulk especially N95, and as a result, these doctors, nurses and hospitals do not have enough masks (just FYI, N95 mask is for doctors and nurses who are treating infected people, and not for civilians). Besides, the head scarf, gloves, shoes, etc., all these require to be made of particular fabric to prevent the pathogen from passing through the pores of these material, which unfortunately are not available or made of, they are of highly substandard quality or the fabric is extremely porus. Hence, our doctors and nurses, even when they know these gears will not protect them, are still going ahead and exposing themselves to help treat Coronavirus Positive people. Imagine when you know how deadly this virus is, seeing healthy people dying every day, but still walking into those rooms and exposing yourself just to help other people recover. Aren’t they our angels, who are out there to protect us? Let me also add that once these doctors and nurses have put on their protective gears, they cannot use any of their personal belongings, they cannot take bio-breaks, they cannot eat or drink anything for long hours till they hang these gears. Due to short supply, they are forced to reuse these gears, gears which have been exposed and need to be disposed of (there are protocols of disposing them).

"I know I am infected, but I cannot stay at home, my patients need me."

"I had planned my vacation a year back. I am cancelling it. I cannot let my nurses face this situation alone."

It is not at all easy to wear these gears and work… work here is taking care of the sick. Let me give you an example. Many of us by now have experienced wearing this mask. Many of us must have watched videos of effective masks are the ones where we are not able to blow off the lighted candle or lighter, right? Now what does that mean, if you are not able to blow off the flame, means air is cut off, imagine how these doctors and nurses are breathing? How suffocating it would be for them to wear these masks and treat these patients. Let me enlighten you further, because of the deadliness of this virus, many doctors and nurses have to wear two-three different masks over the other. Now when we found it so disturbing and suffocating to wear one mask and venture out for grocery shopping, imagine wearing two or three masks and treating the sick. Have we seen these doctors and nurses faces when they finally remove their masks? They have wrinkles on their face. The mask is so tight that they have to wear special thick band-aids on their nose.

There are not enough testing labs and facilities. There are not enough beds and medical equipment like ventilators. There are no proven medicines, which can be administered, not enough ICUs. These helpless doctors are forced to take decisions on who should be treated and who should not, whose plug needs to be pulled so the next can be treated, all sad but true. All this adds on to their emotions and conscience and this is not easy to wade off. 

"I am a healthcare worker and got exposed treating my patients. I had to self-quarantine myself. Worst was when my father came to see me, he stood at the gate and we two just looked at each other with tears in our eyes. Our hearts cried."

"It pains when I see my girls from far and when they want to hug me. My heart sinks but I stay afar."

These doctors and nurses, they too are humans and they all are very tired and scared. They are crying and nervous but not many are there to listen to them. They are trying to help each other. They are reaching, if not already, their breaking points. They need help. Thankfully, there are few blessed people in this world who have come forward to help them in various ways like providing proper food to eat, place to stay / rest, donations, etc., but that is still not enough.

"I know I am exposed and have exposed my family too"

These nurses and doctors are quarantining / isolating themselves from their families for us. Their families also need to be thanked, because truth be told, if your family supports you, then you can fight the world and that’s what these doctors and nurses’ families are doing, supporting them to save us. The scene is not much different from when a soldier leaves home to fight a war and the family does not know if they would see their beloved again, it is similar to when these doctors and nurses walk out of their doors every day to protect us, trying to save us.

"I saw a nurse stitching the strap of her N95 mask. On enquiring, the string had snapped while attending to a patient and there aren’t enough N95 masks."

Let me highlight the other gory and morbid side of this Coronavirus. This is an infectious disease and can happen to anyone regardless of what lifestyle one has been following. This is a virus, and as we saw whatever protection we take, we can be exposed to this virus, a good and healthy human being can die within few days. People with stronger immunity can overcome or recover, but then it also depends on how much one is exposed to this virus. Our doctors and nurses are seeing, these once healthy people being admitted and their health deteriorating with every hour and then suddenly dying. There are cases where one has recovered but within few days, there is a relapse and person dies of pneumonia or cardiac arrest. There is not enough space to bury or cremate the dead, hence they are being kept in morgues. But morgues are also running out of space, hence these bodies are being kept in makeshift places in the hospitals. And unlike other times, these are infected dead people, hence they are (sorry to use the terms here) packed in plastic bags (not sharing more details of how they are being packed). Imagine piles of these dead people lying in rooms, which you once frequented, like your meeting rooms, teaching rooms, etc. It will shiver anyone just looking at these plastic bags, because these are human beings, we are talking about who are in there. The waiting time to cremate or bury is averaging between 5-7 days. Then there are belongings of these dead, which have to be kept safely till their family or relatives would come to claim after this pandemic is over. Non-infected people are not allowed to visit these hospitals.

"Today, I am seeing; healthy man becoming sick...sick becoming worse...man struggling to catch each breath...I am attending calls."

 "Why can’t people stay at home and watch Netflix, Amazon Prime and stay away from getting exposed."

I definitely call these angels in white as our real superheroes.

It is true that we are aware of this virus and how deadly it is. Also, it is nice to try and lighten our moods when the outside environment is so morbid. But are we so insensitive that we don't think twice before making fun and memes on Coronavirus, not realizing the emotions we might be hurting of not just these doctors and nurses who are fighting them, but of family members who lost their loved ones because of this virus. Coronavirus is NO JOKE and let us not become so insensitive that we make fun of it and hurt the ones who have lost or are fighting this virus. Try interacting with these doctors and nurses, or even with the lucky ones who fought and won the battle with coronavirus or what they went through. I am sure your heart will cry. Yes, we all are scared, and we all are searching for answers and whoever has some knowledge of medicine, is being approached. There are gynecologists, dermatologists, dentists, anyone who has a “Dr.” prefixed to their names, are being approached for help and these doctors are scared of what to share, what to advice… our doctors and nurses are scared, even more because they are in the profession of saving lives. Their one wrong move can literally destroy someone’s world forever. The famous quote from movie Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility”, yes this is a great responsibility which these doctors and nurses are shouldering and today they are scared.

"You should see my nurses when they see me, there is a relief on their face."

"All my nurses are scared. I am scared but I cannot show my emotions. I talk to my nurses and ask them “what can I do for you”, and they start crying, knowing that there is someone out here for them too."

I have always respected the medical field and there is a special place in my heart for doctors and nurses. It was unfortunate that I could not become one, it was my dream, which I regret till date and more so during this time when I wish I could have been out there fighting this battle along with other doctors and nurses. Today, there is a shortage of doctors and nurses and government is requesting the interns and retired doctors & nurses to come forward and help. I wish I could have been there to help. Least we can do right now is to stay indoors, maintain hygiene, maintain social distance, avoid making fun of this virus, empathies our frontline workers.

"I went home after two weeks. Sat outside the gate. My Wife made tea and put on a disposable plate along with few biscuits. I saw my wife and kids having their tea while I had mine. I smiled at them which they couldn’t see because of my mask. They gave me an assuring smile and nod saying everything is okay with them. Their tears told me they are proud of me. Today I learnt the non-verbal language... language of heart."

Before I conclude, when all this is over and it surely would be, we would return to our normal and routine life, soon we all would forget these days, we would forget all the learnings which we are stating right now. This pandemic too will get in our history books like all the other past such pandemics and epidemic outbreaks, and we never implemented what we learnt. We all are praising and sharing pictures/videos of clean air, clear skies, low pollution levels etc., but soon all this would come back. Like one of the forwards states, world is right now in cleanup / reboot mode, but what happens after it has rebooted, we would fill it up again with our filth. We never keep our promises, we never learn from our mistakes. Fortunately, Gods are not like us, for when they brought the Great Flood to reboot this world, they cried on seeing the plight and promised never to repeat, and they have stood by their word. Wish we humans could too.

“All our emotions are processed once the work is done and we are driving back home, because there’s not even a second to think about these emotions at work... and that’s when the reality strikes.”

“While I am in my gear and attending to my patients, there is no time to think about myself, food, water or coffee. But when I finally leave for home, remove all the protective gear, specially the mask, and see my face in mirror, it’s full of wrinkles. It is so physically exhausting that by the time I reach home, I can barely stand in the shower.”

Respect... High Regards and Respect for You All... THANK YOU.

DOES SUGAR MAKE US FAT?

Depending on the serving size, rice can be both weight loss friendly and fattening. Almost any food can cause weight gain if eaten in excessive amounts. 

Eating food from large plates or bowls may unknowingly increase calorie intake without people perceiving themselves as full. Hence, rice and wheat, and all the other forms of grains, off late have gained a lot of negative publicity… poor grainees.

But here I am going to discuss something more controversial. My absolute favorite and super weakness and many peoples favorite, whose consumption has dual property; Complete blissful satisfaction but also brings in lot of guilt. Let me try and make this food item guiltfree and sweet… Sugar. Yes, I am going to talk about this innocent little baby called sugar or sweet which people love but hate to love too.

Does Sugar Make Us Fat?

Let’s see how we can make sugar safe & non-fattening.

It is a favorite and an ongoing discussion and debate, which I have with others that Sugar per se does not make you fat. It is important to know the important role it plays in our health.

We have all heard and repeated ourselves that sugar which one had, has made us gain so much weight. All weight watchers need to avoid all types of sugars, etc. So, what is it about sugar that causes such dramatic weight gain, year in and year out? Is all sugar dangerous? Or is there a way to make eating sugar safe? And that’s what (the latter) I want to discuss today through this blogpost of mine.

I did bit of research to help me prove my point and I shall be using inferences of these researches from experts, here.

Let me first introduce you all to this magic hormone called Leptin; the 'satiety hormone'. Not

sure how many of us have heard of this hormone, but it is an interesting hormone to study and this magic hormone will help prove not just my point but also enlighten many of us about few fat and weight related challenges.

Let us proceed. The reason sugar is so detrimental, and many even consider it as toxic to our bodies has to do with its effect on leptin (the 'full' hormone) and insulin. But let us first understand what is Leptin; it is one of the many hormones which is in our body but this one is made by fat cells (this is very important point to note and I shall refer to it later in this article too) in response to energy deposition. Interesting right, now listen to this, it is released in our bloodstream and goes to various organs in the body to tell the organs that there is enough energy in our body and it is safe to engage in high metabolic activities. In other words, it communicates to our organs that the person has consumed food, which has provided enough energy and it is safe to engage in energy-expensive metabolic processes, i.e. leptin ensures the body is not starving. (I suggest you read this paragraph again).

For instance, during puberty or pregnancy or for making our bones stronger our body requires lot of energy, these are examples of "expensive" bodily processes. Another interesting fact, if you don't have leptin, you don't go through puberty or you can't get pregnant and you can't make strong bones. Leptin allows all these things to occur because the rest of the body, whether it's the brain or bones, seize leptin which is the "hunger hormone". The way leptin works is when leptin rises, your appetite diminishes, which means leptin is crucial in controlling how much you eat. Let me explain this, when your brain sees the leptin signal, it says “I am not starving, I don't need to eat so much” and your body can procreate, menstruate, have a baby, build strong bones, have a normal immune system and so on. When leptin does not transmit this signal, then the brain says “I am starving, I need to cut down my expenditure and start storing up my food intake in order to source energy and be able to make leptin". Basically, leptin regulates your metabolism and the rate of fat breakdown. As leptin levels rise, your metabolic rate increases. As leptin levels fall, your metabolism slows. Consider Leptin like a thermostat; when the thermostat reads the temperature in the house to be too cold, it turns on the heat, and if it's hot enough it turns off the heat.

Now that you have understood what Leptin is and its role (very important, right) let me move ahead. 

Okay so you might have a question in your mind, what has leptin got to do with Sugar, wasn’t that the topic of discussion? Well yes and allow me to now introduce another hormone which am sure all are aware of, Insulin. Why am I introducing Insulin here along with Leptin, well it comes across that these two are friends who were not meant to be friends 😊, because insulin blocks leptin. How sad is that ☹.

Let me now explain what happens to our friend leptin when it comes in contact with sugar and insulin. So, basically what we eat (sugar) can negatively affect our leptin (our metabolism and appetite) levels, this is called Leptin Resistance. That is, there is plenty of leptin in our system, but the brain is not responding to it. That could either be because the receptor has a mutation, or there is something downstream of the leptin receptor that's causing something to not work right. That's what, unfortunately most of the obese people have. Why does this happen and what should we do? This happens because the villain hormone called insulin blocks leptin… Insulin, the hormone that converts food into glucose. The reason insulin blocks leptin is because insulin tells our fat cells to store energy and that my friend, leads to weight gain.

Insulin shunts the energy that you eat (sugar, if you will) into fat. The fat cells turn that energy into fat, fatty acids and triglycerides, and then the fat cell makes leptin (remember I mentioned earlier how Leptin is made). So, what’s wrong in that, right? Well too much of anything is BAD and so in here also too much of insulin can stop leptin from doing its job -- to keep us feeling full.

Now it starts to get bit confusing, let me try and simplify. If insulin's job is to store energy, then it makes sense that it's the thing that stops leptin from working. Otherwise we would not be able to store the energy, as we would stop eating because the leptin is working.

Important question to ask is what made the insulin? Why is everybody's insulin 2-4 times higher today than it was 40 years ago? That's the problem?

If you have started to think that leptin resistance is a problem, well no it is not. Leptin resistance is the symptom of the problem. What made the leptin resistant? That's where sugar comes in. Sugar (glucose and fructose), it is in most of our favourite foods -- biscuits, doughnuts, cakes, pastries, chocolates. Let us now try to understand Sugar. Sugar is made of two molecules, one is called glucose and other is called fructose. We all know or are aware of that, right? Glucose is what I call as the energy of life. Every living cell of a human (not sure of other living beings and creatures) on our planet Earth (discounting alien species for now, let me encounter and befriend them to study their cellular structure before commenting on them) needs glucose for energy. Now see the beauty or magic of Glucose, it is so important that if we don't consume it then our body makes it. For instance, there are no plants in the north pole, right? So then how do Eskimos get their share of Glucose, well from whale blubber, which is rich in protein and fat. They don't eat carbohydrates, but they still have a normal glucose level, why? This process of turning fat into glucose is called gluconeogenesis and occurs in our liver.

Glucose is in starch or rather it is what starch is made of. Bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, lentils, quinoa, beans, these are rich in starch which is all glucose. When you consume glucose, for example, a slice of white bread, only 20 percent of the glucose ends up in the liver. Eighty percent of it ends up in the other organs because all the cells of your body can use this glucose for energy. So, what’s the issue here, well nothing, except that the problem is in the combination of glucose and fructose, of which our today’s diet is full of; this is found in fruit juice, soft drinks and syrups. Let’s spend some time on this to understand. Sugar, the sweet stuff, is glucose and fructose. Remember, fructose is not glucose. Fructose is sweet and is the reason we like and crave for sugar. It's the addictive compound in sugar, glucose is not. Fructose is not metabolised by our organs in the body. Only the liver can deal with fructose. When you consume sugar, 20 percent of the glucose will go to the liver, but 100 percent of the fructose. And if you over strain your liver's capacity to metabolise fructose, which happens relatively easily, then that extra fructose will get turned into liver fat. This is a process called de novo lipogenesis. And that is how, my friend, your body turns sugar into fat.

Either the liver will release the fat into the bloodstream, which will raise triglycerides (a risk factor for heart disease and obesity), or the liver won't release it and it will stay there and precipitate into fat or what we also know this as fatty liver disease. 

Let us now connect all the dots which we discussed earlier. Your pancreas has to make extra insulin to make the liver do its job. Now you have got high insulin levels everywhere. You are gaining weight and your insulin is blocking the leptin in the level of the brain making you hungrier. So, you see how you have got into a vicious cycle of consumption and disease.

Don’t get disheartened, there is hope. Let me introduce a wonder kid called Fibre, which would make sugar consumption safe. There is a way to make fructose and glucose safe. And our knight in shining armour here is fibre. In other words, fruits, which have fibre.

There are two types of fibre: soluble and insoluble fibre. Soluble fibre is like the pectin (a soluble gelatinous setting agent used in making jam), and insoluble fibre is like cellulose (like the stringy stuff in celery). Our body needs both and fortunately fruits have both of them.

When you consume both (a piece of fruit), what happens is the insoluble fibre forms a net on the inside of your intestine. Then the soluble fibre plug the holes in the net. Thanks to this fibre, you don't have to fear fruits. What you end up with is a whitish gel that coats the inside of your intestine and acts as a barrier so that you don't absorb all of the sugar fast but absorb it slowly, and this protects the liver and so it won't make that liver fat. Now pay attention here, this is where fibre gets really cool: when we eat fibre, it feeds our gut bacteria. We don't absorb it for our own use or storage. In addition, since you didn't absorb it fast, what you ate will go further down the intestine. There's something in the second part of the intestine that's not in the first part, called bacteria, the microbiome, and these bacteria’s must eat to live. When you consume your food with fibre, your bacteria get more to feed on, which lets the good bacteria to grow, which means the bacteria chew up the energy instead of you absorbing it. So even though you ate it, you didn't get it, the bacteria did. That's a good thing. Essentially, fibre is the antidote to sugar and Fibre is the reason fruit is okay or rather good to eat.

But the problem is when you take the fibre out of that fruit, then you just have the sugar. That's what is not okay. For example, fruit juice. That's the difference between real food and processed food. Real food is low sugar and high fibre, while processed food is high sugar and low fibre. People have been told their entire lives that processed food is food. It turns out it's not. Processed food is how we go into this mess. Instead, I recommend you stick to whole foods, good starches, lean protein, good fats, and cut out processed sugar(processed sugar like those white granules you add to your tea/coffee and other desserts) and processed foods. And thanks to fibre in fruits, vegetables and unprocessed complex carbohydrates, a calorie is not a calorie if it comes with fibre. Let me also tell you that calories are not the issue. The primary reason is because if you're consuming the food with fibre, even though you ate the calories, you didn't absorb the calories, so the mass is irrelevant because they weren't yours, it was the gut bacteria's. Hence, that's the reason why I say that counting calories is an unsuccessful way to lose weight and get healthier. Probably that’s why we have 40 years of unsuccessful obesity therapy around the world. If you believe calories are part of the problem, then I think you are part of this problem.

So, friends, next time you fill your plate with desserts, check if it is with Glucose or with Sugar or with Fructose?  Besides, if you have good amount of Leptin and it has direct access to your brain cells, then go ahead and grab those sugars. But if all fails, then I suggest our age-old trick works… “Eat and Burn”, i.e. Eat till your stomach bursts, then Burn till your lungs cry”; Remember, for every pound of dessert, run a mile.

Does Consuming Soy Make You Gain Weight?

Does consuming Soy make you gain weight?

Off late I have been hearing and asked by many people, “does eating Soy make you gain weight”, besides the other common notion that Soy makes men, feminish. Initially my reaction used to be, look at that person with a straight face and try to understand if she/he is seriously asking me this question or is it a joke. But then when these questions became more frequent, I thought of writing a blog on Soy.

I shall start this blog too with the same adage that anything in excess is harmful. Similarly, any food, eaten in excess, will make you gain weight, which includes foods made from soy too. That doesn't mean that soy has inherent fattening properties. Many people are misinformed regarding this plant protein and its role in health. Soy has numerous health benefits, it is a rich source of calcium, iron, and fiber. Soy also contains all essential amino acids (meaning it’s a “complete protein”). One research states that a 3/4 cup of cooked soybeans contains as much protein as 1/2 a cup of cooked meat. Many soy-derived foods have nutrients that actually help with weight control. But it is very important to note that no single food will make you gain weight or lose it. It all depends on how many calories you are eating each day as compared to how many you burn; Eat more than you burn, and you'll gain weight, eat less, and you'll lose.

For example, a slightly active 37-year-old man who is 6 feet tall and weighs 84kgs needs about 2,900 calories to maintain his weight. So, if he eats daily more than that, say, 3,400 calories, or an extra 500 calories daily, he would gain about a half kilogram each week. If he eats less than that, like 2,500 calories daily, or 500 calories fewer than he needs, he would lose half kilogram a week. (Shhh, I just shared a secret to lose weight)

Individual calorie needs depend on one’s size, activity level, gender and age. There are quite a few calorie calculators available online, go ahead and check your optimum calories intake per day. Depending on what you are looking for, add 250 to 500 calories to your daily diet for safe weight gain or remove 500 to 1,000 calories for safe weight loss.

This leads me to calories in Soy-based foods. Soy foods are moderately high in calories, which means they can help you gain weight, but they could also become an important part of your restricted-calorie weight-loss diet. For example, 2-cups of soy nuggets/granules will give about 360 calories. If you add a cup of soy nuggets to your daily diet, you get enough extra calories to gain about 250gms per week. However, if you control the calories for the soy nuggets in a restricted-calorie diet, you won't gain weight.

Another example is eating a cup of firm tofu, and you'll take in about 176 calories along with beneficial nutrients like protein, calcium and iron. Soybeans also supply calories and nutrients; a cup of green hulled edamame beans (immature soybeans in pod which are boiled or steamed and consumed) contains 376 calories and more than your entire vitamin C needs for the day, while a cup of cooked mature soybeans supplies 298 calories and around half your daily iron needs. Drink a glass of soy milk, and you would get 131 calories, plus protein and essential minerals like manganese and selenium.

Soy-based foods are high in protein, which makes them beneficial for weight loss. Protein-rich foods have a high heating effect, which means you would burn more of fat and calories during digestion; more than you would in digesting fat or carbohydrates. Soy is just as beneficial for weight loss as other sources of protein.

Further eating soy increases your fiber intake; edamame, for example, has 43 percent of the daily value for a cup. Fiber makes your food more filling and controls blood glucose levels, which prevents blood sugar crashes that trigger hunger pangs. Mature soybeans supply 41 percent of the daily value for fiber per cup; tofu contains 8 percent of the daily value; and soy milk contains 6 percent of the daily value per cup.

With all these benefits, still why do some people stay away from soy?

The issue is with soy protein isolate, which is soy protein that’s been extracted from soybeans, and reaches you through bread, cereal, soup, and energy bars. If you are constantly seeing the words ‘soy protein isolate’ on the ingredient lists of the foods you eat, it might be a wake-up call that you’re eating too many processed foods, which can pack on the Kgs or Pounds

The problem is less with soy protein isolate and more with processed foods, which it’s always a good idea to stay away from as they are often loaded with sugar and salt.

Less processed soy foods include tofu, edamame or soy beans, and soy milk.

Besides the misguided belief soy can cause weight-gain, people also avoid Soy for two other reasons. Some claim it’s an “estrogenic,” meaning it can increase the amount of estrogen hormone in your body, which will make you more feminish. Others worry about it being genetically modified.

Research has also shown two to three servings of soy per day can prevent breast cancer (this doesn’t pertain to soy supplements), and two servings of it per day is safe for breast cancer survivors.

Daily consumption can also help reduce one’s risk of cardiovascular disease and alleviate symptoms of menopause.

The other reason is the taste, there is a section of people who state that they do not like the taste of Soy. What they are referring to are soy nuggets, which are available in the market as isolated soy or processed soy. Besides like many other foods, one needs to develop taste for Soy Nuggets.

Soy milk is also an excellent alternative to milk, specially for those who are lactose intolerant

So, feel free to add soy milk to your daily coffee without fear that it’ll wreak havoc on your waistline.