The question of normal Diet is yet to be decided beyond dispute.
Dietary requirements vary depending on Countries,Culture,Sex,Work patterns,Individual needs and climate.
Blind imitation of Diets recommended by the West is no solution to India.
I hold the view that out ancestors have tried by trial and error the present system of Food habits.
In India we have various food patterns in various States and I feel that it the best.
For instance South India being hotter than North one needs immediate release of energy by Carbohydrates, that is Rice.
In North you need more of protein to withstand the extremes of Cold and heat.
You take more of Wheat.
I have personally experienced the effects of the food system recommended to us by our ancestors for each region and I can vouch that it is the best than anything else.
I also have tried the Diet prescribed by the Sastras for Mahalaya Paksha for the entire 15 Days.
I found my Mind to be calm, Unperturbed and body light.
I was feeling very fine Health-wise.
It is a simple Diet.
For Lunch around 1230 pm , you take food which excludes certain vegetables like Potato, Tomatoes,Garlic,Onion,
You use more of Moong dal.
You take a light snack of 2-3 Idlis,or Dosas or Rice Upma or Fluffed Rice(Aval) and Fruits at night.
That’s all.
No Breakfast no munching in between.
Hindus do we have a fasting day once in Fifteen Days,Ekadasi, on the 11th Day of the axing and waning Moon.
On the next Day Dwadesi, one is expected to take diet in stages with a Gooseberry Chutney in Curds and Rice with fresh Greens (Agathi Keerai)
Now I came across a news item that Starvation Diet may actually be good.
Story:
Pinned to my mother Shirley’s fridge on yellowing, curled paper is a handwritten copy of a two-week crash diet. It has been there since 1979, the year she decided she wanted to shed a stone in a fortnight. Its survival is testament to the faith she holds in it.
Among other tortures while on the diet, she allows herself no more than half a grapefruit and a slice of dry toast with black coffee each morning. Lunch is a few cold cuts of meat and a side of vegetables, and dinner is similar. On a typical day this will amount to about 650 calories.
Now 78, you would have thought she’d have deserted this gruelling regime and allowed herself to go into diet retirement.
But like so many women of her generation, she believes the occasional fortnight of eating little is key to a svelte figure and good health.
Such extreme slimming plans have drifted out of fashion in the past few decades. Crash diets are supposed to slow your metabolism down, leading to more weight gain when you stop.
These days, the mantra recited by the medical profession is steady weight loss rather than starvation. And being curvy – a la Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks – is in vogue.
Science reporter Michael Mosley speaks to scientists who have discovered that periods of eating very little or nothing may be the key to controlling chemicals produced by the body linked to the development of disease and the ageing process. This backs up recent studies on animals fed very low-calorie diets which found the thinnest (without being medically underweight or malnourished) are the healthiest and live the longest.
The key, say researchers at the University of Southern California’s Longevity Institute, is the hormone Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1). Mosley explains: ‘IGF-1 and other growth factors keep our cells constantly active. It’s like driving with your foot on the accelerator pedal, which is fine when your body is shiny and new, but keep doing this all the time and it will break down.’
According to Professor Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute, one way to take the foot off the accelerator, and reduce IGF-1 levels dramatically – as well as cholesterol, and blood pressure – is by fasting.
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