Tuesday 26 January 2010

What is the best, most nutritious, healthful food; price per unit of nutrient (weight by benefit) out there? What is the best, most economical choice with the same criteria?

Experts Are Thinking About What You Eat. Maybe You Should Join Them.

Edited content by Jennifer Huget for Washington Post

It is quite a challenge even for a registered dietician to plan a day's meals based on the standard dietary recommended daily allowance (RDA) guidelines. If a professional finds it hard to wrestle all those RDA’s and Adequate intakes into a reasonable meal plan, how on Earth amateurs can?

However, help is on the way…

A panel of scientists, nutritionists, epidemiologists and physicians is working to revise “the document known as the Dietary Guidelines”, which is updated every five years. Assembled late last year, the panel of 13 were mandated with reviewing the best scientific evidence and using that information to craft the 2010 guidelines.

The Dietary Guidelines can help form nutrition policies, including school lunch programs etc too.

Among the experts invited to address the panel was Adam Drewnowski, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington's Centre for Public Health Nutrition. Some of the question asked were answered by Adam Drewnowski were related to ongoing efforts to devise a new food-labelling system that takes into account not only calories and nutrients but also the price per unit of nutrient.

1. What major change would you like to see in the guidelines?

My hope is that they will at least take the economics of nutrition into account, really think through about real foods for real people. Dietary choices are economic decisions, like everything else. Many good foods cost more -- but they don't have to. I'd like to see a focus on affordable, nutrient-rich foods by category. They do exist; not everything nutritious is expensive. For instance, with vegetables the focus has been on fresh salad greens. But there are cheaper vegetables that provide a whole range of nutrients: cabbage, carrots, potatoes. Potatoes have been completely ignored, but they're very nutritious, low-calorie, full of potassium and fiber, and low-cost. And it's hard to beat the nutrients-per-cost of beans, eggs and milk, especially powdered milk, soups. . . . We need to advise people what those foods are, where you can get them and how to cook them. Foods we've always known are good and nutritious -- and inexpensive.

2. What about delicious?

Unless we aid the public in identifying foods that are nutrient-rich and affordable -- and are enjoyable in the mainstream diet, there's no point telling people to buy lots of lentils and eat lentils for a week. Or recommending that people eat Brussels sprouts. That's very nice -- I love Brussels sprouts. But will most people eat them?

Not every food you consume has to be [the most nutritious], but the combination [of some more nutritious foods with others], we hope, will lead to a better diet. When we want to change the population's diet for the better, everybody says stop eating oils, sugar, and go with leafy greens. That's dramatic. Instead, nudge your diet toward foods that are more rich in nutrients of interest.

3. Is steering people toward affordable, nutritious foods enough to get everyone eating healthfully?

No. You have to know something about nutrition -- and you have to know how to cook. It takes a bit of time, but not an inordinate amount. In addition to time, though, it takes some education, cooking skills, culinary culture and infrastructure: pots, pans, a stove. For a lot of people, those things are slipping out of reach.

Some people assume that everyone makes a decision about what to put in their mouth. But after a day's work, coming home to their apartment, some people have no decisions left, so they take junk out of the freezer. It is said that most of them don't have options!

Eating well is a matter of knowledge, money and time. Some people are zero.

You may subscribe to the Lean & Fit newsletter by going to http://www.washingtonpost.com and searching for "newsletters." Go to Wednesday's Food section to find Nourish, a weekly feature with a recipe for healthful eating.

Monday 18 January 2010

STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH: Is it the mantra?

Yesterday afternoon my daughter Nimisha came home for a short vacation from her technology institute at New Delhi, where she is finishing her BTech (Manufacturing Engineering). She is also an IIM’s hopeful and this winter she also took the much hyped online CAT. She was one of the spared without an scratch kind after the great pandemonium associated with the online CAT. But all the galata was worth it in the sense that was like a free awareness raising mega media event to many countrymen who are neither offline nor online!.

Since the book titled “STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH” was written by an IIM-A graduate and also presented to me by my daughter I decided to go through it. I also felt a little obliged to read it because I am also a so called “Alumni”  of the IIM-A institute after having done a residential course on management development.

STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH is basically a nonfiction book by a former IIM-Ahmadabad student, Rashmi Bansal. She lives in Mumbai where she works as an media entrepreneur and journalist. In this book she studies 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates, who chose to become entrepreneurs and hit the rough roads instead of more conventional and comfortable option of high-paying corporate jobs which comes as perk of being an IIM graduate. These 25 inspiring graduates are quite diverse in age, in their outlook and the industries they ventured but all have one thing in common and that is they believed in the “POWER OF THIER DREAMS”, selected their own path and started their own venture to wrote their own fortunes.

This book will help young talent from our colleges to believe in their dreams and and inspire them to see beyond good placements and 5 figure salaries.

I felt that its is a welcome read for young generation which has been forced to think vertically leaving little scope for creativity or as de Bono’s would put it “Lateral Thinking”. If your young son or daughter is travelling far and has spare time on the way, this book will not be boring companion to him. In this book there are some interesting case studies which is also a standard teaching method of IIM-A and Harvard business school.

Overall it is an well written, short and simple travelling companion English book. It’s more or less interview kind of book. However, it doesn’t require one to be a Management student to be able to imbibe the message the author is trying to sell. I found that the language was not very sophisticated at places but that’s what the language of today’s IIM’s and IIT’s!

I can recommend this paperback which has an affordable price of 125/- to all those who are starting out on their career path to read it at their leisure during travel.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Happy Makar Sankranti: Its meaning and importance


Thursday 14th January, Makar Sankranti 2010 will be celebrated by Hindus around the world. This festival is celebrated each year as a Festival of Harvest. The festival is also celebrated in Gujarat as the kite flying celebration. and Pongal in South India states. It is also celebrated as begining of Hindu New Year.

makar sankranti

Hindus will fast and cook the famous Kichiri. For the insight, Makar means Capricorn and Sankranti means transition. In a nutshell it means the Transition of the Sun to Capricorn.
What many people do not know is that each month there is a Sankranti! That is a transition to another zodiac sign. However the two famous ones are the Makar Sankranti and the Mesh Sankranti. Makar Sankranti is a bit like the Thanksgiving of the western world. It is harvest time and harvest celebration. Different cultures in India celebrate this festival but each one has his own traditional touch to it. On Makar Sankranti, the Gayatri mantra is chanted and prayers to the Sun is performed to ask for blessing.
Legends also says that on Makar Sankranti, the Sun God meets his son Saturn. These two are generally not in good terms based on Hindu mythology. Well that was a little brief about Makar Sankranti.
Happy harvest festival and Happy New Year 2010 to everyone.

Friday 8 January 2010

Questions & Answers | The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Questions & Answers | His Holiness The Dalai Lama