Let Food Lift Life

“I have BP”, has become a damning and, unfortunately, a common confession. Ironically, life is possible only because blood has pressure which sends the blood to the nooks and corners of the body. What we  shouldn’t have is hypertension or excessive BP. What is pressure? It is the force exerted by a fluid (liquids and gases) per unit area of a surface at right angle to it. The atmosphere exerts a pressure on everything on the earth because of the…

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Notes: 1. Do go back frequently to the previous post for reference. 2. As always, this post uses basic science and technology to simplify anatomical and physiological complexities thru ‘models’. The critical and vulnerable nature of the coronary artery: It should be clear that: 1. The coronary is the first branch of the aorta but a lot smaller in size which directly takes heart’s systolic pressure and has to bend and branch profusely as it supplies blood to the heart…

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Introduction: There is no ‘hierarchy’ of importance of our organs; they are all equal, right? But then some are ‘more equal than others’. A kidney is donated, liver and brain are lobotomized (i.e. parts cut off and removed), limbs are amputated, blood is donated, bone marrow is transplanted, reproductive cells are extracted and stored, gall bladders are removed, uterus is excised, the prostate in men is ‘down-sized’ (benign) or removed altogether (malignant)…. and life goes on. But the heart must…

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The best starter to a practical self-help obesity reduction program is to recognize that controllable obesity reduction [-m = (-dm/dt).∆t] is a direct function of your planned food intake, aerobic activity level and time span of sustaining it. (Ref. post 21, OBESITY AND FOOD – ACCUMULATION OF THE UNUSED: PART I (UNDERSTANDING OBESITY)). Obviously, a large dm/dt and ∆t will enlarge m. This m should be derived from the envisaged reduction in BMI.  It is best to adopt this approach…

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(Not surprisingly, sophisticated controls are built into our diet intake and metabolism of its products to rein in unbridled obesity. But various factors – some of them autonomous – can override and nullify these controls. Even if you find the details intricate, do grasp that continuously controlling what you can, can be life-saving as we will see in the next post). It may sound laughable that there could be any intricacy in feeling hungry and stopping eating when satiated. What…

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(Preface: This post can be simplified as detailing of digestive breakdown, absorption into the blood stream, consumption by way of metabolism and the inevitable ‘storage’ of the surplus. Remembering this ‘model’ or simplification will help.) How food sustains life, an overview: An average office-going Indian adult needs about 2000 calories per day to enable him to do everything, maintain body temperature and keep his internal organs functioning. He needs about 60 grams of proteins to repair damaged tissue and build…

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(This spell of posts stems from our desire to make you familiar with the origin of some of the mainstream disease conditions and point out that only flawed food can play a partial role in causing them; smart food can actually help keep them at bay. Do read and re-read them; you will be rewarded with very useful info. After the first 4 obesity posts, we dive straight into the disease that is closest to our heart – the Coronary…

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In the previous two posts, we have seen how the feared and hated edible oils do so much for us when used smartly and can actually be life-saving. They are less insidious than sugar and salt, less compulsively used, consumed in larger quantities and their physical and physiological functionalities and pathogenic mechanisms are different. But it is obvious that, taken together, they represent food itself. And hence smart, disease-avoiding and health-promoting use of food is our right as well as…

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The edible oils perform multiple cooking/processing roles: as food constituents, as cooking/processing aids (which also makes them a part of the food) and as value-adders to consumption experience. That is how they reach our stomach. Their physiological role begins when they reach the blood after digestion into fatty acids and glycerol and the release of its micronutrients. This ‘fat entering the blood’ looks like an impending disaster; fact is: we would be crippled without its physiological functions. We already know…

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First, let’s dispel some common misconceptions about oils. The undeserved bad image of edible oils: Given the rampant prevalence of diabetes, everyone is wary of sugar. We can’t seem to cook anything non-sweet (except roti and rice) without salt, which is probably why we are reluctant to dwell over its serious dark side – why try to avoid the unavoidable?! But its insidious nature has been described in earlier posts. (Ref. Post 3: Health, happiness, life and food, Part II…

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