Chapter 2: What to use and what to avoid (How to have better health to better serve Krsna)

Continuation of the 2nd part: Starches, vegetables, longevity, oils, etc. Many important details.

What is the best diet for longevity? (an alert about high glycemic foods)

The human body can adapt to many different types of diets. Over the centuries, populations would establish themselves in different environments and do their best to survive. In many cases, the diet would not be an option: they would just eat what was available. Nowadays, however, we have an abundance of food and we are in the unique position of being able to choose what we eat, thus intelligence and a good deal of common sense became a necessity.

There were examples of groups living on extreme diets in the past. The Innuit, for example, lived in arctic regions and based their diet on meat (especially fish) and very little else. They would still be healthy (cases of diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and other chronic diseases would be rare), but their life expectancy was low, around 70 years. Something similar could be observed in the Massai tribes in Africa: they would also have a diet based on meat, and would also live only up to 70 years.

In Japan, people would eat predominantly whole-grain rice and vegetables, supplemented by a few fermented soy products, beans, and sometimes fish. They were also healthy, and their life expectancy was higher, around 90 years. The exception was the island of Okinawa: their diet was similar to the rest of Japan, however, due to the particularities of the terrain, they were not able to cultivate rice, therefore their staple was sweet potatoes. It was also a poor region, therefore people would sometimes go hungry for several days (in other words, they would be forced to fast regularly). Despite the harsh conditions, people in Okinawa had the highest life expectancy in all of Japan (and one of the highest in the world): they would live up to 110 years!

There is also much information about the blue zone populations: groups across the world that had surprisingly high life expectancies. These groups have something in common: they all have simple diets, based on vegetables, fruits, legumes and pulses, whole grains, milk products, fruits, and herbs. Many of them would eat fish, but they would rarely eat red meat.

From these examples, we can draw a few conclusions:

1. A diet based on meat is not such a good idea for longevity. Groups that had a more varied diet, rich in vegetables, would live much longer.

2. Even without modern medicine, many of these ancient populations would frequently live past their 90 years, and diseases like cancer were practically unknown to them. From this, we can see that a diet based on refined carbohydrates, sugar, and refined vegetable oils like most people have nowadays is the worst possible option. Even the Massai, with their diet of almost exclusively red meat, would still live better than most of us! Ironically, a vegetarian can end up with a worse diet than a meat-eater if he makes the wrong food choices. Unfortunately, that’s the case for many of us.

3. Although a diet based on grains (like the Japanese) is better than a diet based on meat, when grains like rice are replaced by low-glycemic options, like the sweet potatoes of the Okinawans, people's life expectancy grows considerably.

We can convert these three conclusions into three important pieces of information for improving our health and longevity based on the diet:

1- To have a simple diet, based on natural foods, avoiding anything that is industrialized or processed.

2- To eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, making it the basis of our diet.

3- To avoid refined carbohydrates (like wheat flour), eating instead tubers like sweet potatoes, low glycemic whole grains, beans, and pulses.

Although wheat flour and sugar are the main offenders, there are other types of refined carbohydrates that are bad for our health for the same reason: they are basically empty calories; carbohydrates in a form that is very easy to digest, devoid of other useful nutrients.

It's important to spend some time checking the nutrition facts of different ingredients that we use. Two pieces of information are important: how nutritious it is (based on the amount of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, protein, and healthy fats) and how high is the glycemic index (GI).

The GI indicates how much a certain food will elevate one's blood glucose when consumed. This is important because high glycemic foods provoke a strong insulin response. Although high insulin is better than high glucose, it also causes numerous problems in the long run.

Low GI foods, also called slow carbs, are absorbed slowly due to the presence of fibers and other nutrients. They offer energy, but in a sustainable way, without the highs and lows caused by high-glycemic foods.

Boiled white rice, for example, has a GI of 73, while cooked chickpeas have a GI of 28 (pure glucose has an index of 100). Most vegetables, as well as nuts, legumes, and even certain grains, like barley and steel-cut oats, have a low GI. Others, like corn and wheat, have a much higher GI and should be used with more caution.

The best foods are the ones that combine a good amount of nutrients with a low GI. Pearled barley, for example, is much better than rice. Oats are better than wheat and so on. Another point is that whole grains are almost always better than processed grains, since the more a grain is processed, the more the nutrients are lost. Steel-cut oats, for example, have more nutrients and a much lower GI than instant oats. Whole wheat grains are completely different from white flour and so on.

Just like in the case of fruits, grains are made as a package that combines carbohydrates with protein, fats, fibers, and different vitamins and minerals. This combination not only makes them rich nutritionally but also causes the starches to be digested slowly, creating a stable release of energy and avoiding spikes of insulin. If one eats refined carbohydrates (bread, cakes, biscuits, etc.) too frequently, the constant release of insulin can lead to insulin resistance, which (as previously mentioned) is linked to a long list of diseases, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, fatty liver, obesity, diabetes, inflammatory conditions, cognitive decline (lack of concentration, brain fog, bad memory), etc. Recent studies show that most chronic diseases are caused or aggravated by an excess of insulin.

Excess of refined carbs can cause another serious problem: diabetes. We can see that the number of cases of type 2 diabetes has been growing exponentially in the last few decades, following the increase in the consumption of refined carbs. We tend to see type 2 diabetes as a relatively benign disease that can be controlled through the use of insulin. However, the truth is that even when correctly medicated, diabetes causes serious complications and (apart from all costs and inconveniences) can cause a reduction of 10 years or more in one’s lifespan. Conversely, a diet rich in vegetables and low-glycemic foods can not only avoid but even help to control existing cases of diabetes, allowing one to use less insulin and avoid the most serious complications. In some cases, the diabetes may even be reversed.

Another problem with the consumption of refined carbs is caries and other dental problems. Sugar and refined carbs attack our teeth on two fronts: one is by lowering the PH in the mouth and feeding the bacteria that attack our teeth, as we all know. The second is by causing a deficiency of calcium and other minerals, which in turn forces the body to take minerals out of the bones and teeth, weakening them. Sugar especially is one of the leading causes of osteoporosis, and other types of refined carbs can also contribute to it.

Instead of using white flour, one can, for example, make bread using barley flour, mixed with different seeds, nuts, and grains (adding flax seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, rolled oats, etc), as well as ingredients rich in fibers (like the fibers left from making vegetable juices, coconut flour, etc.) In this way, we create a package, adding fibers, protein, fat, and other nutrients.

Tubers, like sweet potatoes, yams, and cassava roots are good sources of low-glycemic carbohydrates when cooked (they are not such good options when baked or fried, however, since the GI becomes dramatically higher). You can keep in mind the example of the Okinawans, who were able to dramatically increase their lifespan just by replacing rice with boiled sweet potatoes.

Just like fibers, healthy fats make the absorption of the starches slower, helping to prevent spikes of insulin. There is no need to deliberately make the food devoid of fat. The body needs fat to function properly, it should be part of the package. The main point is to eat healthy fats (like ghee, butter, nuts, olive oil, avocados, coconuts, and coconut oil, etc.), instead of refined vegetable oils, eating in moderation, and avoiding combinations of refined carbs and fats (especially fried) as mentioned previously.

If eating cakes and other foods made with white flour is unavoidable (like in social events), the best way to contain the damage is to combine it with other dishes rich in fiber and other nutrients (eating the cake after eating a plate of salad, for example). This way we also create a package and the damage is contained. The most dangerous situation is when we eat a lot of refined carbohydrates and sweets alone, like if we eat a lot of bread and cakes in a single sitting. If one overdoses it, the best is to fast or eat only fruits and vegetables on the next day, giving the body time to repair the damage.

When we read the Caitanya Caritamrta, we find descriptions of devotees taking very rich prasadam preparations, like fried rice cakes, sweet rice, fried puris in condensed milk, etc. The point we forget to notice is that they would generally fast during the whole day, performing kirtana and other physically demanding activities, usually taking prasadam only once a day. Sometimes they would perform kirtana for several days straight and forget to eat, other times they would eat only mangos, etc. One may exaggerate a little bit sometimes if he follows the principle of “fasting and feasting”, but if one just feasts constantly, the body will become quickly overwhelmed and health problems will appear.

Why are vegetables and fruits so important?

Nowadays, many have diets predominantly based on grains and potatoes, with little vegetables and fruits. In some countries, it is common for people on a budget to never buy fresh fruits and vegetables, since canned options are often cheaper, although unhealthier. As devotees we are often not much different from the general population: we eat little vegetables on the sabji (usually most potatoes), but not much more than that.

This lack of vegetables and fruits in the diet can also weaken our health and contribute to many problems. The truth is that vegetables and fruits should be the main component of our diets, since the body simply can’t operate in an efficient way without a good quantity of it, due to the thousands of useful compounds they include. Although there is a general idea that our ancestors were eating mainly meat over the millennia, evidence shows that this is actually a myth. Human beings have been living on a diet rich in vegetables (be it due to agriculture, or to gathering) for millennia. Although meat was also present in most diets, the base in most cases were different types of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and roots. The human body is well adapted to the different compounds present on varieties of such ingredients and many important functions are compromised when they’re absent. They contain antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients. A general rule is that we should eat one to two kilos of vegetables and fruits per day (it can be even more than that if good quality vegetables are available). Vegetables are generally better than fruits because fruits contain too much sugar. Fruits are also good but as a compliment. Vegetables should be the main focus.

Recent studies show that the amount of vegetables one eats is the main indicator of one's overall health. This is not difficult to understand based on the crucial importance of different vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients for the operation of the body. Grains also contain some vitamins and minerals, the problem is that grains are very caloric, and thus you can’t consume a sufficient quantity of grains to satisfy your daily needs for such nutrients. One would need to eat 1.25 kg of whole grain rice to meet his daily needs of zinc, for example, without even speaking about the other nutrients. Vegetables and fruits, on the other hand, can be consumed in much more generous portions, and the secret to getting enough nutrients is exactly in the quantity.

With sufficient nutrients from vegetables and fruits, the body is going to operate in a very optimal way, which will be a protective factor against most sources of damage. As long as one eats a good amount of vegetables and fruits, he can do a lactovegetarian diet, a slow carb diet, a vegan diet, or even a ketogenic diet, and in the three cases, he will be healthy. However, as soon as the vegetables are taken out, practically any diet will have negative effects.

We generally tend to associate expensive foods with health, but it is not necessarily like this. Vegetables and fruits that are cheap and easily available, like beets, carrots, and cabbage are amongst the best options, and combined with other healthy ingredients they can more than fulfill our nutritional needs without the need of spending much.

Carrots and beets are inexpensive but very nutritious. They can both be cooked in the sabji or other preparations, or just be eaten raw. Ginger is always good, regardless of the combination. You can add it to salads, cooked dishes, hot milk, teas, or (if you like strong emotions) even just take it raw. Another important aid is lemon: if you can take daily the juice of a few lemons, you will rarely get sick. Nuts are also a good complement, being rich in several nutrients, but they should be eaten in moderation because most also contain too much omega-6.

It may not look so, but many vegetables are actually quite difficult for the body to digest, therefore raw vegetables are not always a good idea. The cooking may slightly reduce the nutritional value (compared to raw vegetables), but it makes it much easier for us to eat and digest them. One can compensate for the slight loss of nutrients by just eating a little more.

If one has difficulty eating a sufficient volume of vegetables, one option is to get a juicer. This way, it's possible to get the nutrients without the bulk. Two kilos of vegetables usually become around one liter of juice. When doing juices, one should check which vegetables to use. Some vegetables (especially certain leaves, like spinach) are too rich in oxalates, which in high doses can cause problems in the kidneys, therefore these are better cooked.

There are two types of juicers: centrifugal and masticating types. The centrifugal juicers are cheaper, but they are much less efficient, and therefore a lot of juice is left in the pulp. Masticating juicers end up being better in the long run, since they extract more juice and therefore you need fewer vegetables to get the same amount of juice. The upfront price is higuer, but over time you will actually spend less.

It's important to, as far as possible, get good quality vegetables. Organic vegetables are naturally much better, but there is a catch: the modern definition of "organic" is not what we would normally think. Farmers are still allowed to use a long list of chemicals and pesticides, it's just that the list is smaller. Also, organic certification does not say anything about the quality of the soil used to cultivate the vegetables. The soil is important because soil that is poor in nutrients will result in plants that are also lower in nutrients (especially minerals). Nowadays most people lack a sufficient amount of minerals and trace minerals in their diets and that's exactly because the soils have become so exhausted due to commercial agriculture that the vegetables and grains don't have the same nutrition as in the past. It’s better to, as far as possible, buy vegetables from local farmers instead of the big supermarkets: the nutritional quality of the vegetables is usually much better. Even better is if you can cultivate your own vegetables using some piece of land that was previously vacant.

Another important consideration about vegetables is that one needs to have the right gut bacteria to be able to digest them. Vegetables are rich in soluble fibers and various other compounds that the gut bacteria need to break down before the body is capable of using them. If one is eating junk food for too long, he may develop a gut flora that is rich in bacteria that feed on sugars and simple starches and poor in good gut bacteria that feed on fibers. If that’s the case, when he starts with vegetables, he may have bloating, gas, and other symptoms related to the fact that the body is not able to digest it properly.

There is also the question of digestive enzymes: the body uses different types of enzymes to digest carbs, protein, and fibers, as well as a multitude of specific foods. It is a quite complicated and sensitive process. The enzymes are produced according to the demand, therefore when vegetables are not consumed regularly, the gut becomes slow in producing the enzymes necessary to digest them.

The solution in both cases is to start with fruits and vegetables that one is used to eating and increase the variety and quantity slowly. To cook the vegetables longer will also help to make them more digestible. Taking yogurt or some other probiotic may also help to rebuild the gut bacteria faster.

Concluding, spices and herbs are also important since they contain a lot of very useful compounds. Certain spices, like turmeric, can even help to prevent cancer due to the elevated amount of antioxidants they contain. An important point about spices, however, is their quality. Many of the powdered spices we buy in the market are adulterated, mixed with cornstarch or other less benign contaminants, up to things like sawdust, corants, and chemicals. Such spices can do more harm than good. It’s better to buy spices in whole form, or at least powdered spices from reliable sources.

Carbohydrates, resistant starches, and soluble fibers

One important piece of information to consider when researching different types of food is both the GI and the GL. Both are information that can be easily found on the Internet. GI (glycemic index) means how fast the blood glucose can rise after eating, and the GL (glycemic load) is based on the total amount of carbs in the food, which determines how long the spike will be. The more refined a food is and the longer it is cooked the highest will be the GI.

The GI is a scale that goes from 0 to 100. Zero would mean that the food doesn’t raise the blood sugar at all (the list includes basically only water) and 100 means that the food raises the blood glucose as much as pure glucose (which is the theoretical maximum). Foods with a low GI (less than 55) raise the glucose gently, while foods with a high GI (above 70) cause violent spikes of glucose and insulin that can be harmful.

Foods with high GI cause huge spikes of insulin, leading to weight gain, binge eating, and so on. If consumed regularly they increase the risk of diabetes and other diseases. Whole grains, for example, have a much lower GI than refined grains, and refined grains, in turn, have a much lower GI than flours and starches. Foods that are low on carbs also tend to have a lower GI (legumes have a much lower GI than grains, for example) and fibrous vegetables like kale and cauliflower as well as most other vegetables and greens have a very low GI. This is another reason why we should eat more vegetables and less grains.

Another point is that not all carbs are created equal. Once I was checking the nutrition facts of chia seeds and noticed something very strange: although 100 grams of chia seeds have 41.2 grams of carbohydrates, its GI is just 1 (one!) with a glycemic load of also one. This is much lower than even lettuce, which has a GI of 15, or kale (which has a GI of 4).

At first, I thought it must be a mistake, but after checking other sources I saw it was actually correct information. How can this be? The answer, I found out, resides in the difference between starches (and other types of carbs) and soluble fibers. Although counted as carbohydrates in the nutrition tables, soluble fibers are a completely different animal.

Different from insoluble fibers (like the ones present in wheat bran and in the skin of fruits and vegetables, for example) that are just a type of bulk that is not absorbed by the body at all, soluble fibers do get digested and converted into energy, generating about two calories per gram.

However, instead of being converted into glucose, like in the case of simple starches, soluble fibers are complex starches that our bodies can’t directly digest: they can only be digested by the bacteria living in the gut. They slowly convert the soluble fibers into short-chain fatty acids, a very healthy compound that reduces the risk of inflammatory diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and other conditions. Not only that, but it can be very easily absorbed by the body and converted into energy. In other words, the soluble fibers feed the good bacteria in the gut (that’s why they are also called prebiotics), and they reciprocate by giving us a lot of different health benefits and also a stable supply of energy in the form of these fatty acids.

Due to this particularity, soluble fibers don’t raise blood sugar and don’t provoke the release of insulin at all. Quite the opposite: they make the absorption of sugars and starches much slower, and therefore contribute to reducing the GI and GL of other foods that you may eat alongside it.

Of the 42.6 grams of carbs present in 100 grams of chia seeds, 34.4 are soluble fibers. Therefore, although it also has 8.2 grams of other carbs, the presence of the fiber makes the absorption so slow that it doesn't raise blood sugar at all.

One of the secrets of good health is to minimize the ingestion of foods rich in simple carbs (like rice, wheat, corn, etc.) and to increase the ingestion of foods rich in soluble fibers, like most vegetables, berries, nuts, barley, oats, lentils, avocados, etc. and to always combine high glycemic foods (like rice or potatoes, for example) with ingredients that are rich in soluble fibers, creating a package.

It's difficult to overstate the importance of good gut bacteria for our health. Not only do they help with the digestion process and protect us from the proliferation of bad gut bacteria, but they produce a good chunk of the vitamins and other important nutrients that the body needs.

In the Ayurveda it is mentioned how vitamins are created by the fire of digestion. It may seem absurd at first, but it's actually scientifically correct. The digestion process in fact produces vitamins and other compounds that are not originally present in the original food, and the reason this happens is because of good gut bacteria.

One who has his population of good bacteria destroyed due to a bad diet or the use of antibiotics can have all kinds of problems, not only related to digestion. An imbalance in the gut bacteria can affect even our mood, ability to focus, and productivity. That's yet another reason why soluble fibers are so important.

Finally, there are the resistant starches, that can be considered a third type of fiber. The main characteristic of this type of starch is that it’s resistant to digestion. As a result, it’s digested slowly, also not contributing much to raising the blood sugar. Resistant starches are found in legumes, certain grains (like barley and oats), seeds, roots, etc.

The problem with resistant starches is that they can be easily converted into simple starches if they are heated for long enough. The higher the temperature, and the longer the cooking, the more they break down, resulting in a progressively higher GI and GL.

Potatoes, for example, are normally accepted as a starchy food. However, raw potatoes are actually very rich in resistant starches. If one would eat raw potatoes (this is not recommended, due to the antinutrients, but just for the sake of example), it would not raise the blood sugar at all, almost like chia seeds. When potatoes are boiled, the GI rises to 59 (or 78 if mashed), but if they are baked, it rises to 85! Cooked sweet potatoes have a GI of 44 (lower than white potatoes) but when baked their GI skyrockets to 94, almost as high as pure glucose.

From this, we can see that not just the individual ingredients, but also the way they are combined and prepared, should be taken into consideration. In general, the more the food is cooked and crushed into small particles, the higher their GI becomes. That's why, as far as possible, we should try to take grains and tubers as close to their natural state as possible, cooking for a shorter time, and prefer whole grains instead of polished or refined options.

How to cook when we don’t have time to cook

One of the most fundamental changes we need to do in order to be able to maintain a healthy diet is to start to cook what we eat. As long as we are eating outside, we are going to be eating what everyone else eats, and in most cases, it will not be very healthy.

People in previous generations would understand the importance of home food for one's health, and therefore the mother or grandmother would spend hours every day cooking for the whole family. This cooking was an expression of love and care that would maintain the family healthy and united. Even if it’s just a couple or two friends living together, they can take turns in cooking. Even if someone is alone, it's still possible to cook simple dishes without spending much time.

This point about cooking at home is so important that it's difficult to stress it enough. Each one of us needs to take time to solve this problem, otherwise, it becomes practically impossible to maintain good health. Beg, borrow or steal, but find a way to cook at home and eat fresh food every day. Therefore, one very important asset is learning how to cook simple meals quickly.

The best example of something one can cook with very little time is kichiri. In India, kichiri is called “the sadhu’s meal”, because it offers a full meal, in an easy-to-make and easy-to-digest package. Not only can it be cooked quickly with just one pan, but there is also no hard and fast recipe: you can make it by combining different types of grains, dhal, spices, and vegetables, according to which ingredients are available.

This is a basic recipe of kichiri:

150 grams of parboiled or basmati rice

100 grams of split peas or lentils

Half a kilo of different vegetables, peeled and cut

50 grams of ghee, butter or coconut oil

750 ml of water

One teaspoon of turmeric (optional)

Half a teaspoon of cumin powder (optional)

Other spices you like

Salt to taste

Mix everything in a pan and cook for 30 minutes. Leave it to cool down a little before eating.

To make kichiri can take as little as five minutes of your time: you just need to put the grains in the pan, wash them quickly, add vegetables, salt, spices, and ghee, add water, and put it to cook. While it cooks, you can do other things. The kichiri can then be combined with fruits, nuts, milk products, or other ingredients that are available to make a satisfying meal. Similarly, other simple dishes can also be done very fast if you learn the art. If one learns how to cook simple meals quickly, he can keep a healthy diet wherever he is, without being dependent on others.

A tip if you have a full-time job is that it is possible to make a “delivery” version of the same recipe using some hermetic sealed thermal container. Just cook it normally in the pan for 10 minutes and put the half-cooked stew in the thermo before leaving for work. It will finish cooking by itself and it will be ready (and still warm) by lunchtime.

A very healthy option is to use pearled barley or steel-cut oats instead of rice. Different types of millets can also be added to make it even more nutritious. Another option is to just cook some vegetables with ghee and turmeric and combine it with nuts, cheese, olives, and other ingredients that are available. Just as with the kichiri, you can make a delivery version using the thermo.

Another option is to use buckwheat. Buckwheat is a very healthy type of seed that offers a complete protein and is rich in nutrients. Even better is the fact that it doesn’t have to be cooked: If you leave some buckwheat on hot water inside the thermo, it will be ready to eat in a few hours. You can mix buckwheat with spices, salt, and ghee inside the thermo and pour hot water before leaving to work, and it will be ready to eat by lunchtime.

Salads are also a good option that you can prepare in the morning and eat at launch time. We tend to imagine salads as something very light and low on calories, that is not going to satisfy one’s hunger, but it depends on the ingredients used. A salad can be very satisfying if you add a good amount of protein and fats (in the form of beans, nuts, cheese, and olive oil, for example).

Another advantage of being able to cook quickly is that we can cultivate the habit of cooking only the quantity that we are going to eat and cook again in the next meal, instead of storing cooked food and eating the same thing over and over again. Cooked dishes tend to quickly lose their nutrients, therefore eating something that was cooked several hours ago can be unhealthy.

Cooking our meals ourselves works better in combination with intermittent fasting, something we will discuss in detail in the next chapter. To cook two or three meals every day takes too much time, it's just impractical for most people. That's one of the main reasons people start eating industrialized food: they want to eat three times a day, but don't have time to cook.

If instead one goes for two meals, one light and another more substantial, things become much more manageable. The light meal can then be a combination of ingredients that are easily available, without the need for much preparation, like milk, fruits, nuts, and soaked grains. In my case, for example, I frequently eat some soaked grains (usually pearled barley or rolled oats), with ginger and fruits. With this arrangement, one just needs to cook one time, for the main meal.

Actually, eating simple food is better for our health than a sophisticated diet. The main point is to use nutritious ingredients, like vegetables and fruits, healthy fats, milk products, whole grains, nuts, and herbs. Anything that has a barcode printed on it is usually not such a good idea.

How to make healthy oil at home

In India, ghee (and oils in general) are associated with eating pleasure. People like to eat, and most of palatable preparations use a lot of ghee or other types of oils. Thousands of years ago, Carvaka Muni was already advocating that a person should get a sufficient stock of ghee (beg, borrow, or steal), so he could enjoy his senses. In the West the scenario is not very different: most palatable food uses a lot of oil.

In general, overconsumption of any type of oil can cause adverse effects. Chemically extracted vegetable oils are the worst, but even ghee can cause some bad repercussions if consumed in excess. On top of that, the combination of oils and refined carbs should be avoided, since this is the most harmful combination in terms of obesity and cardiovascular disease. One can eat a moderate (or even a little bit exaggerated) quantity of ghee every day and still be healthy, but only if this ghee is consumed in combination with vegetables and other low-glycemic foods. If the same ghee is used to make puris, hallava, and other high-glycemic foods, it can be harmful even in moderate quantities. We can see that people in traditional societies would indulge in such food only at festivals and other special occasions. Even our grandmothers knew that one should not eat sweets and fried foods every day. It’s not a big problem to indulge in hallava and puris sometimes, but if it becomes a daily occurrence, then it can quickly become a problem. Deities can eat opulent food every day, but we are not deities.

Another problem is that nowadays it is very difficult to get pure fat of any kind because most products in the market are adulterated with cheap vegetable oils with the goal of increasing profits.

As previously mentioned, most of the olive oil in the market is mixed with soy or canola oil. Many brands sell a mixture of soy and canola oil, with just a little bit of olive oil (accompanied by chemicals) to mask the taste. The reason is just economics: Pure olive oil is a very expensive product and people want cheap products in the aisles of the supermarket. People who can find creative ways to make counterfeit olive oil that can cheat the government tests can make a lot of money.

However, adulteration is not limited to olive oil. Most of the butter in the market nowadays is adulterated with vegetable oils. Sometimes palm oil is used (if one is lucky) other times some unknown blend of different oils may find its way into your plate through the apparent innocent butter. Sometimes the adulteration is relatively easy to spot (the vegetable oil starts to separate when the butter is melted and allowed to sit, like when we make ghee) but on others, the adulteration may be harder to notice. There are even cases of butter being mixed with pig fat (!!), an adulteration much harder to discover, since the two types of fat are similar in terms of chemical properties. Even perfectly honest, well-intentioned devotees often end-up selling adulterated ghee because they inadvertently make their products with such adulterated butter.

Nowadays there is a huge industry of “dairy fat substitutes”, which is becoming a serious concern for the ones interested in maintaining good health. This loft term refers to blends of vegetable oils that can be used in milk products in place of milk fat. As one can imagine, these are very unhealthy, heavily processed compounds often made from hydrogenated fats. If you are not eating margarine, you will not want to eat these also.

The problem is that the industry fell in love with them because they are so cheap, and thus offer the possibility of greater profits. One can now produce all kinds of milk products using a combination of powder milk, soy protein, dairy fat substitute, and different additives: cheese, yogurt, sour cream, butter, the sky is the limit. According to an expose from the website Fontanka published a few years ago, 80% of all cheese sold in Russia was adulterated. The situation is not much better in India and other places.

Theoretically, manufacturers in the US and Europe are forced to specify on the label when they use such ingredients in their products, so the first stop is to check what is on the label. You will be amazed to find how few brands actually sell real products. However, even in first-world countries, it's common for unscrupulous manufacturers to slip adulterants into their products. In third-world countries, where the control is lax, the situation is scary. The problem is obviously worse with cheaper products.

The best one can do, in my humble opinion, is to find one particular brand that is honest (ask people, research on the internet, visit their plant, etc.) that you can be sure is trustworthy and stuck with the products of this particular brand. Make your own ghee from the butter of trusted sources, and pay what is necessary. If you don't have money, then consume less. If you can find some honest small producers that's even better. Otherwise, be prepared to consume soy protein and hydrogenated fat instead of milk products.

Similarly, many cold-pressed oils in the market are mixed with canola oil to increase profits (just like in the case of olive oil), and coconut oil is frequently mixed with coconut fat (a cheaper type of oil that doesn't have the same properties), and so on. If you want to have healthy oils the only sure way is to buy from some trusted person who is producing the oil himself or to make your own.

Oil pressing machines can be quite expensive, but there is an affordable option from Piteba, a small company from the Netherlands that sells a simple, reliable manual oil pressing machine for just 80 Euros (just google for “Piteba oil expeller”). With a little bit of experience, you can start making oils from different types of nuts and seeds with relative ease. One can get about half a litter from one kilo of walnuts, or about one-third from a kilo of linseeds. Making cold-pressed oil however demands a little bit of dedication, since there are many small details involved.

On the other extreme, it’s also possible to ditch the oils completely and go for an oil-free diet. At first, a diet without samosas or puris may look scary, but many actually do it quite successfully. Fats are essential for the body, but one can get all the fats he needs from natural sources, like milk, nuts, seeds, and fruits like avocados and coconut. A bottle of olive oil doesn't contain anything you can’t find in olives, and a glass of coconut oil doesn't contain anything you can’t find in a coconut. Even the healthy fats we find in ghee are also present in milk. By just eating a natural and assorted quantity of such natural ingredients, one can live quite a healthy life, without having to be concerned about adulterated oils.

When we were living in Russia, for example, we were getting fresh, raw milk from a group of pious people who had a few cows. Their milk was quite expensive compared with milk from the supermarket, but they were treating the cows well and not sending them to the slaughterhouse when they stopped giving milk. From this raw milk I was making cream (which is quite easy to obtain, since it floats on top when the milk is left to sit for a few hours in the fridge) and from this cream, I was making sour cream and butter, and from the butter, I would make ghee. In this way, we didn’t have the need for buying any oil from outside. From the skimmed milk that is left, I was making yogurt, paneer, and other products. The best thing about milk is that it can be used to make different products and in the end, nothing is lost.

Raw food?

Our intelligence tends to work like a pendulum. We want to go from a platform of decadent indulgence to the opposite extreme and then all the way back. This is also true when we speak about diet. Many times when we understand that our diets are not good, we want to go to the opposite extreme, trying to find the healthiest possible diet, even if it is very difficult to maintain.

One popular question about diet is raw food. In theory, raw food may seem to be the best possible diet, since by eating everything raw, we get all the nutrients, enzymes and so on, but actually the question is not so simple.

Many foods are very difficult to eat raw (imagine a cabbage, for example) and some include anti-nutrients, or even mildly toxic compounds, which can cause indigestion or reduction in the absorption of nutrients if we don't first break them down by cooking. Spinach, for example, is very rich in oxalates, which can cause kidney stones or (in extreme cases) even intoxication. Theoretically, by eating 4 kilos of raw spinach one could ingest a fatal dose. However, when the spinach is cooked, most of the oxalates are dissolved and it becomes perfectly healthy to eat. Similarly, most beans need to be cooked to destroy toxins present in them. Eating raw beans can cause serious problems.

We can see that it is not a black-and-white issue. Some vegetables and even a few grains are better when eaten raw (imagine lettuce, for example), but others become easier to eat, or even more nutritious when cooked. Thus, to simply rejecting the use of fire with religious fervor is not such a good idea. Better to try to understand the pros and cons in each case.

The way many try to do raw diets nowadays, eating only fruits, and vegetables (excluding grains and milk products) can actually be detrimental to their health. Raw diets based on fruits and vegetables are very high in vitamins and other micronutrients, the problem is that fruits and most vegetables are very low in protein and especially on essential amino acids. Many raw food eaters end up getting health problems related to a lack of essential amino acids and essential fats after a year or two and that’s not a coincidence.

It’s possible to avoid eating cooked foods (and the trouble of cooking) by having a diet based on milk products, vegetables, fruits, seeds, soaked grains, and nuts. Milk has all the amino acids and most vitamins and minerals that the body needs, therefore by drinking a good quantity of milk, combined with fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts we still provide the body with the necessary nutrients. A raw vegan diet is also possible (since it’s possible to get the amino acids and other nutrients from nuts, seeds, and other sources), it just demands a little more thinking. To follow it, one needs to take the time to study a little about nutrition and be wise enough to listen to the signals of his body. Raw food diets based on religious fervor instead of careful research and observation can be quite dangerous.

How to stop snacking between meals?

One of the problems many of us face nowadays is binge eating. For many, it's difficult to not snack many times during the day, and most of the time we snack unhealthy food, which in turn leads to weight gain and other problems.

The central mistake is that when we feel the need to eat something in between meals, we immediately think of something rich in carbohydrates, like biscuits, cakes, bread, samosas, etc. The problem is that such snacks are highly glycemic (they make the body inject a great deal of insulin in the bloodstream) and insulin is actually a hormone that makes us feel hungry. The discharge of insulin prepares the body to eat more. If we eat just a small snack we just feel tired later because the insulin lowers the blood sugar. Carbohydrates have their function in the diet, but it's better to consume carbs as part of a large meal, one or two times per day, when the body can go full circle, going through the different circles involved in digesting the food, releasing, and using the energy contained in it.

Most are going to agree that eating just two or three meals without snacks is better for health, our grandmothers were teaching us that. But what to do if one feels the need to eat something in the middle? Actually, there are a few good options. One option is to drink chia water. It's very easy to make: Take one liter of some herbal tea (any tea you like but without sugar) and add two tablespoons of chia seeds. Shake well and let it sit for a few hours. The chia seeds absorb the water and become a kind of gel that takes away hunger without provoking an insulin response at all. You can keep this chia water in the fridge and drink a cup or two every time you feel the need to eat something.

You can also eat raw vegetables, like carrot sticks, make a salad with tomatoes and cabbage, and so on. Raw vegetables provoke practically no insulin response and have few calories.

Another option is to make a broth from vegetables. Get a big pan, cut some cabbage, beetroot, cauliflower, tomatoes, eggplant, or other non-starchy vegetables you have around, add lots of water, and make a soup, adding salt and any spices you want, but without oil. Let it cook for half an hour and strain the liquid, leaving the solids aside. This broth is very rich in nutrients, but with very few calories. Again, you can keep it in the fridge and drink a cup or two every time you feel hungry. The nutrients are going to satiate hunger without the need to eat something heavier.

A third option is to make butter tea. This is a type of tea largely consumed in Tibet, where you take some regular tea (any herbal tea, lemon tea, or any other type of tea you like, without sugar) and add one spoonful of butter. Mix well so the butter can dissolve and drink. It may taste a little strange the first time, but it gets better. The idea is that butter has a lot of good fat, but no carbs. In this way, butter has a lot of energy and is very satiating, but it doesn't provoke a huge insulin response in the body like a few biscuits would do. In this way, we eat something and feel satisfied, but without the downsides of creating an insulin response in the body outside of the time of a meal. The result is that we feel satisfied and have energy, without feeling sleepy and lethargic afterward, and without the need of snacking more later. The main point is that it should be just tea and butter. If you put sugar or even milk there is going to be an insulin response and the result will not be so positive.