Have you noticed that many things that we are totally familiar with and experience all the time are abstract and difficult to define? Life, health, happiness, beauty, imagination and technology are some examples, and several definitions – all valid, but imperfect – are possible. A lot like √2 as a number.

Sanskrit literature has a thought-provoking take on ‘beauty’:  whatever gains newness continuously or every moment (i.e. keeps changing or avoids remaining the same) is a form of beauty. Einstein is reported to have called ‘imagination’, ‘intelligence having fun’. My personal favourite for ‘technology’ is that it is ‘applied science’. Now try searching for definitions of ‘life’ and you run into words and phrases that require definitions themselves! ‘Happiness is a state of the mind’ goes one superficial simplification. Similarly, defining health is difficult but we would much rather have it than define it, right? Anyway, just consider this reality: very material ‘food’ gradually and seemingly on its own, dematerializes into health, happiness and life. Intriguing and interesting, isn’t it?

Now let’s bite the bullet and develop some understanding, if not definitions, of our own:

Life: Life is the sense or feeling of being and the ability to do. Its manifestations are: growth, ability to procreate, life cycles, ability to think and act in a coordinated way etc. Implicit in the meaning of life is certain ‘quality’; it is worth having only if imbued with health and happiness and creates positivity all around.

Health: It is an abstraction that, within reasonable limits, lets us be what we want to be and do what we want to do. We already know about psychosomatic diseases and health and hence health necessarily encompasses both mind and body. Health means robust and meaningful life and permeates all our thoughts and actions making them effective. In current demanding times, it also means reduced incidence and severity of illnesses and quicker recovery from them. It enables us to perform our duties well, enjoy life and spread positivity around us. Materially, a balanced diet, clean drinking and cooking water, hygienic living quarters and pollution-free air are the pre-requisites. Outward manifestations of good health are clean looks, a well-proportioned body and a smart mind, strength to perform demanding tasks, self-assurance, positive demeanor etc. though one can settle for an enjoyable and meaningful life as the only outcomes of health. Some abstract but important manifestations of health are: a harmonious mind-body connection, cheerful and optimistic temperament, rhythmic lifestyle, reasonable levels of physical activity including outdoor life and ability of aerobic exertions etc.

Happiness: We experience happiness thru our senses which are in our control and the states of our mind which are less in our control, though health remains a pre-requisite. Sensory happiness – the delight of a gooey ice-cream scoop or the whiff of an exquisite perfume – is intensified by health. A feeling of being in control of our lives and satisfaction from performing our societal and personal duties enhances happiness. Probably the most real manifestation of both health and happiness is the ability to go to bed with a sense of satisfaction, being able to sleep well and waking up with a feeling of excitement. It certainly goes far beyond absence of unhappiness. A healthy and meaningful life is so imbued by happiness that it often need not even be mentioned separately.

Food:  ‘You are what you eat’ was probably cooked up by some enthusiastic copy-writer in an advertising agency but that twisted exaggeration does imply a profound influence of food on ‘who we are’ i.e. our life. Capturing the essence of food in a mere definition is expectedly, difficult. A dictionary defines ‘food’ as ‘any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or one that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth’. In case of human beings, it can be something which, when ingested or eaten, is digested, absorbed into blood, transmitted to all the tissues of the body, metabolized in the cells and sustains life and growth.

For a long time, carbohydrates, proteins, oils or fats or lipids, vitamins, minerals and water have been identified as the nutrient constituents with distinct chemical identities that appear in all foods in varying proportions. The first three have long been called ‘macronutrients’ because of their mass distribution in nature (and hence in foods) and their daily requirements in larger quantities. Vitamins and minerals are ‘micronutrients’ as a corollary but this tag has relatively recently also included ‘antioxidants’ which slow down or stop oxidation-type degradation reactions in the body. Carbohydrates have turned out to be a complex group with many recent developments. Water is unique because it is always present in all the natural products providing the nutrients and continues to be a part of all home-cooked and industrially processed food dishes and products in varying proportions. Not a nutrient strictly, it makes all other nutrients work for the body and hence deserves a separate discussion along with carbohydrates and anti-oxidants.

Glucose, fructose, table sugar, lactose, maltose and starch which are absorbed into blood directly or after digestion are considered nutritive carbohydrates. Non-nutritive carbohydrates press their claim as essential components of food thru their varied, crucial and complex roles.  They are classified as soluble and insoluble fiber (the latter much more widely distributed in the plant kingdom and hence, in conventional diets) on solubility basis. They are not digested in the gastrointestinal tract because our tissues lack the enzymes to break them down. Therefore, they reach the colon – the part of large intestine that continues from the small intestine – undigested and hence are not absorbed into blood stream (except for a small part of the soluble fiber constituents) to become available to various tissues for promoting growth and sustain life. Precisely thru this attribute, they play crucial roles in helping sustain and improve the quality of life. In fact, this happens to be an active area of research in both physiology and food science.

The non-nutritive carbohydrates that are insoluble and indigestible are the primary dietary fiber. Cellulose is the commonest and the most abundant insoluble carbohydrate. It usually co-exists with pectin (a carbohydrate) and lignin (a non-carbohydrate) in the plant kingdom. The digestion of food and absorption of broken down constituents into the blood happens in the small intestine; the primary dietary fiber obviously escapes digestion. So what enters the large intestine is a watery slurry (a chemical engineering term for a dispersion of solid – obviously insoluble – particles in a liquid) containing undigested insoluble fiber. As it travels along the colon, most of water and solubles are absorbed across the colon wall into the blood. While this is happening, the material encounters the magnificent ‘microbiome’ – the ecosystem of billions of helpful bacteria lodged on the colon walls. But more about it, later.

At the end of the colon, almost solid residue – the feces – are left which would have shrunk a lot in volume in absence of insoluble fiber.  The residue so bulked up ‘engages’ the entire lumen – the hollow axial centre – of the colon. This facilitates the pulsations of the colon in pushing the stools down the rectum. Regular, smooth and complete disposal of the solid waste produced because of food digestion is of utmost importance, a lot like disposal of industrial wastes during manufacturing. Total or even partial absence of such disposal – commonly called ‘constipation’ – can be a debilitating irritant and a precursor to many illnesses.

Fruits and vegetables and their dishes and products like unstrained soups and pulpy juices, jams and preserves, vegetable dishes or ‘subji’, salads, milkshakes and smoothies, special yoghurts etc. are the primary sources of insoluble dietary fiber. Nuts, pulses or lentils (daals), beans and legumes (kathols), whole cereals etc. are the additional sources and constitute the primary defense against constipation. (Note: These food staples primarily provide the mainstream nutritive components of food; providing the non-nutritive fiber also is the welcome additional benefit.) However, insoluble fiber in today’s diets can be inadequate because of distorted life styles that offer opportunities for unhealthy indulgences (think fast food) and often needs support to efficiently ease constipation. Such support becomes critical when non-diet constipative factors like stress, sedentary life, inadequate water intake and arrhythmic meal times are common. The recent emergence of all shades of ‘laxatives’ is the market’s response to this ‘need’. We believe that this situation can be addressed more effectively, safely, softly and economically.

The soluble indigestible carbohydrates are relatively rare and are usually found along with insoluble fiber in smaller quantities but some sources are abundant in them.  This soluble fiber plays some extremely intricate functions and are often called ‘pre-biotic’ as they also support the growth of the intestinal microbiome. These are the good ‘gut bacteria’ entrenched in the intestines (mainly the colon), growing selectively because of the pre-biotics and constitute the dominant population that normally dictates the terms of existence to other ‘accidental’ microorganisms. This gut microbiome plays a versatile role in the physiology of the intestines and hence pre-biotics, which help maintain and grow their population (apart from other diverse useful functions), must be considered essential in our diet. We believe that the combined effect of pre- and probiotic combination is a great differentiator of good health.

Pro-biotic bacteria need to be supplied externally either as live bacterial mass or foods containing them to compensate for natural losses. Such losses are pronounced during antibiotic treatment and when strong laxatives are taken frequently for the perceived need for a cleanup. Such bacteria in a carefully dried powder form are a stand-alone pharma product conventionally prescribed during and after strong antibiotic treatment. Some formulators prefer to make them a part of the antibiotic formulation itself. While they are still need-based in India, they are popular purchases in the US enclosed in capsules, to be popped like vitamin and mineral suppliments! Somebody needs to come up with prebiotic-infused yoghurts with fresh/dry fruits for breakfast or dessert.

The foods that carry probiotic bacteria are called pro-biotic foods, the commonest example being the dairy curd which is not heated after fermentation and setting and hence contains ‘live’ bacteria. This is a prerequisite for being labeled ‘probiotic’, hence fermented foods cooked at high temperature (e.g. idli, dhokla, kadhi) do not qualify. The probiotic foods containing live intestinal ‘guests’ must be considered the new age essential components of diets. Their role in the health of both mind and body is varied and complex but always positive.

Natural ‘antioxidants’ are an ever-expanding and loosely defined and understood group of chemical compounds found in minor proportions in the plant kingdom. As the name suggests, they help slow down and reverse the effects of oxidative reactions in our body. Oxidation of ldl-cholesterol in arterial walls is an example and it initiates the formation of the plaque that begins to block the blood flow. We have all experienced oxidative rancidity of refined edible oils that happens even without heating. It is the commonest manifestation of staling of oils.   A lot of metal corrosion is oxidation. Note the ultimate irony: we can’t live without oxygen but the same oxygen causes a lot of damage as well, most of it unnoticed. A coin cannot exist without two sides, perhaps?

Why oxidation is such a highly pervasive degradation reaction in nature  and how antioxidants help – undoubtedly to a limited extent – may be the subject of a separate blog post. But the thumb rule: inhale oxygen by all means to make it available to blood thru the lungs but otherwise keep it at bay. Keeping your food containers filled to the brim and capping them as far as possible will help. So will not storing powdered coffee and dry spices for long and refrigerating them when they are to remain unused for long. Stuff un-dyed cotton cloth into such bottles if  half-filled. These are all trivial-looking preventive measures that cumulatively and subliminally do a lot for you. Many natural antioxidants impart various colours to fruits, vegetables, legumes, oilseeds and cerals and hence are called plant pigments which appear in their products and food dishes like juices, oils, salads, jams and preserves, soups etc. Thru varied and complex mechanisms, they have been credited with the ability, within limits, to help fight, inter alia, cardio-vascular diseases and cancers.

Here is a closer look some prominent plant pigments which are also potent antioxidants. Beta carotene, a prominent plant pigment and precursor to Vitamin A (and hence also called Provitamin A) is an orange-coloured pigment in most fruits and vegetables, typically, carrots. It is a part of ‘Carotene’ pigment group which, in turn, is a part of ‘Carotenoids’. Xanthophylls are another group under carotenoids of which ‘Lutein’ is a member. It is found in green leafy vegetables and is essential for the health of macular region of retina in the eye where the image of what we see is formed for the optical nerve to pick up and convey to the brain for vision. With age, macular region (or macula) degenerates (Age-related Macular Degeneration or AMD) – a process that can be slowed or even reversed with intake of lutein. Lycopene is the most prominent pigment of tomatoes and has been credited with the ability to help fight prostate cancer in men. With a ‘personality’ like this, antioxidants make a strong case for inclusion as essentials. Interestingly, some vitamins are antioxidants themselves which is their additional functionality e.g. Vitamins A, C and E.

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Next post: Health, happiness, life and food (Part II)

(Defining ‘food’ and using it smartly)