Rice and obesity, acidity, fertility

[Guest guest]

Our group aims at sharing ayurveda related knowledge. Author would

like to share something he learnt in Indian kitchen.

 

Most recommended diet in Ayurveda is Khitchri, easier to digest being

the main reason. When this author recommends it to many patients,

they are afraid to eat or they flately refuse for interesting

reasons. Since Khitchri contains almost 70% rice and rice has more

calories, my obesity will increase or my blood sugar will increase,

or it may cause flatulence are the notions patients have. Similar

sitution was that Oil-filled nuts were like poison during the

long "fear of fat" era. But now, in the new "learning-to-love-good-

fats" era, nuts have won back their hippie-era status as health foods

and especially as heart healthy foods.

http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?

Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=10693&Section=Valley%

20Life

 

Similarly, people who are on the Atkins diet avoid all sugar (you bet

we do!), as well as so-called "healthful foods" which include rice.

http://www.commonvoice.com/article.asp?colid=3678

 

A south indian pregnant mom wrote:

"I am im my 29th week of pregnancy and i am detected with Gestational

Diabetics.The carbohydrate food diet suggested by the nutrition and Dietist are

not helping me much. I am eating less cabrohydrate and less food than before

pregnancy.Still there is little high reading .I feel i am forced to eat

fatty(nuts) food to fill my stomach I was not normal weight , was doing

regular excercise before pregnancy. But now this diet is making me less

energtic.

Can you please suggest me some good vegeterian diet for this and also any

vegetable/things that can induce more insulin to keep my Blood sugar normal.

Dietician has told me that fruits, lentils ,rice, yogurt has carbohydrates. I

dont know how to get proteins ,minerals ,vitamins if i cant eat lentils

,fruits, yogurt. Please help me here."

 

Author advised to eat Idlis and curd rice, what she had eaten from her own

birth. As a result, her diabetes remained in control and child birth was OK, a

sweet outcome of gestational diabetes.

 

This requires some discussion and author thought this as appropriate

time for such a discussion. 2006 is just round the corner and it is

better that we do some clean up of our biases.

 

India has hundreds of different varieties of Rice. India exports rice to

neighbour countries and every year the exports increase:

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?

id=186574&n_date=20051209&cat=India

 

South India, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, parts of Kashmir are states

where rice is a major part of meal. Rice has mainly carbohydrates

with negligible protein content. Fat and minerals almost nil. 100 gms

of rice will give 300 to 400 calories. The proteins in rice, when

combine with proteins in green gram, Bengal gram, mysore gram Toor

dhal, soya bean or other legumes, more nutrition results. On this

count, Khitchri is a good nutritious food. Many housewives in Gujarat

cook rice with milk to make a Payasam which is very nutritious, but

should be taken without sugar. Similarly milk products such as curd,

yoghurt, buttermilk or Gujarathi Kadhi (made from buttermilk) also

harmoniously mix with rice to increase its nutritional value. Amongst

all varieties of rice, the one polished manually is the best for

digestion and nutritional value. However, such a rice is difficult to

find in Metros. A farmer friend sends a quintal of such organic rice

to this author every year.

 

Rice, a major food in India, has sweet Vipaka. It converts to sweet

taste on digestion, becomes sugar. Being a cooling food, reduces

pitta vitiation. In villages, even today, women remove water from the

vessel when rice is partially cooked and serve it to children. This

is termed `Pej' in Marathi and `Osaman' in Gujrati language. Very

light for digestion and rich in nutrition, can be compared to mothers

milk. Give to children when they are suffering from fever, mumps,

measles, ring worm etc. It has natural gum inside, similar to cooked

rice. Author remembers using cooked rice as gum to make kites and its

thread during childhood. Post offices in villages keep a paste made

from rice floor to stick covers and stamps. Rice is very easy to

digest and pacifies pitta. It causes slight increase in Kapha and

Vata, but rice is also `Vrisya' meaning strengthens semen. Ayurvedic

texts recommend eating milk, rice, dates to increase and strengthen

semen.

 

By eating rice as a major diet, voice improves and becomes strong in

volume too. Those suffering from hyperacidity or GERD need not be

afraid of rice. It is necessary to improve digestion first. With rice

and milk, rice and curd (fermented just for 4-5 hours) will take care

of acidity as well as loose motions.

 

Bengalees eat much more rice along with fish curry and south Indians

will die if they are starved of rice. Many south Indian sweets cooked

on festive occasions use rice. They eat Idli, dosa and so many

different varieties of rice, that even their mention salivated this

authors mouth. Having spent one third of life in south India, author

adopted their food style too.

 

Despite eating so much rice with Rasam, Sambhar, Buttermilk, the

proportion of obese people is very less in these communities as

compared to North Indians and Gujratis in India! And if you compare

smartness in movements, supple bodies, proportionate muscles, South

Indians and Bengalees will outsmart North Indians.

 

Due to industrialization, following western culture, fast life style,

the process of removing water while cooking rice is being forgotten.

Pressure cooker does not permit this. Another food item getting

outdated is use of butter milk or whey. Ayurveda has books written on

just buttermilk alone. The number of families where Rice bread is

being eaten is also declining. Basmati rice is well known all over

world. But this rice, if taken excess in cooked form with ghee (as in

Pulao) along with Chapati, Paratha, or rice bread (Bhakri) the

digestion reduces causing gas, acidity. Pulao is maximum consumed in

Cities, where sedentary lifestyle is predominant.

 

While calorific value of rice and wheat is similar, their structure

differs. If one eats wheat in the same manner as rice, 72% glucose

one obtains from wheat. The phosphorus in wheat gets removed if floor

is ground in electric mill. Vitamin B1 (thiamine), a nutrient is

found in brown rice but not polished white rice:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/051217005431.htm

It is recommended that whole grains such as rice may be added to diet

to correct mineral deficiencies:

http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/11839/

 

Those who eat rice, should remember that the true benefit can be

obtained only by chewing rice to fine paste. Mothers who see their

children swallowing rice without chewing much, they over-cook it so

that less chewing will digest. Though such rice becomes very soft,

its nutritional quality reduces. Similarly when we add Toor dhal,

spices such as chillies, tamarind, jaggery, sour items, the

nutritional value of rice reduces. Extra cooked rice may be useful

only to elderlies with most of teeth missing.

 

Gujaratis often mix floors of Jwar, Bajra, Maze etc in rice floor,

add curd for fermentation and make Vadas by frying next morning. Such

a ready mix sells as `Gotano Lot' in Ahmedabad. This is unhealthy.

Similarly, left over rice during night is given a sauting next

morning and given to family members so that it need not be thrown as

waste. But this type of rice induces acidity, as experienced by many.

It tastes good while eating, but burning in food pipe or stomach

after an hour is what one has to bear with. Tasty items such

as `Bhajiya', `Muthia' are popular items in Gujarat, made from left

over rice. If eaten infrequently, they may not cause problems, but

those suffering from pitta disorder, be careful if you are served

these items.

 

Gujarati Dhokla is well known even in U.S. and Canada where motels

run by Patels from Gujarat serve it. It is made by fermenting rice

and steaming it like Idlis. If taken freshly made along with raw

oil, ghee, it is easy to digest and nutritious. One can add a a

little turmeric, ginger, green chilli, Saindhav salt to make it

tasty and salivating. And finally a tip for boosting male fertility:

Idlis amd Meduvada, due their content of Urid dhal is a good `Vrisya'

food, as is `Adadiya' laddus, a gujarati item, right season for them

being winter, running already.

 

Dr Bhate

[Guest guest]

ayurveda, Guru Khalsa <greatyoga>

wrote:

> A few months ago, a couple who were both overweight

> asked me to recommend something for losing weight. I

> recommended kitcheree and also triphala. They both

> said they gained weight. They said they did the

> kitcheree but did not get the triphala. They did cut

> out the junk foods they were eating and said they felt

> a little better but were dismayed that they gained

> weight. Both tended to be pitta. Would you know why

> they would gain weight on this diet?

 

Dear Guru Khalsa

 

The answer to your querry is provided at much more length in message#

3820. No diet or slimming medicine will reduce obesity till liver is

made fat burning rather than fat generating organ. This is especially so when

the patient has 'Pitta' unbalance, as mentioned in message#3820.

 

Dr Bhate