Personal Finance, Investments, and other things: On diet and medicine and health in general [1 Attachment]

Enclosed (at the end) is an article on why preventive medical check-ups are bad for you. And why avoiding processed foods is the first thing that you MUST do.

Nothing new here, as far as I am concerned. Am only attaching it to convince the skeptics. :-))

The entire edifice on which 'modern medical science' is based, is faulty - starting with the theory of health, to diagnosis, to treatment.

In order to arrive at decisions, it is always good to have some basic 'accepted truths' based on which things can then be fitted in, and which can aid you to make decisions. The ground rules I believe in (and have followed) are: (not in any particular order; not even complete; my top-of-the-mind list):

1) Food in its natural form contains 'prana' or 'chi'. This prana needs to be maximum for optimum health. Organically grown food has the maximum prana. Even within that, food that grows in unpolluted surroundings, where the natural prana is maximum, is best; for bangaloreans, maybe organic farm produce from the Ooty hills may be a good example.

2) When it comes to meat, the lesser you eat the better. This is not due to any moral considerations, but due to the fact that meat requires more processing, and requires the body to work harder to clean up and throw out the byproducts of metabolism. It of course, goes without saying, that the meat should be of free range animals, who are grass fed.

3) For all foods, the distance from the farm to the kitchen needs to be the minimum. Buy the raw ingredients and cook them yourself. Yes, cook. Yes, in spite of your busy schedules; and in spite of the fact that cooking is 'oh so old fashioned'; and of course we understand you are a busy person with many other commitments. Second best is to eat from a local restaurant (or darshini in bangalore) which cooks fresh food, and does not store anything overnight, primarily because they do not have cold storage facilities. By implication, food at five-star hotels is the worst, since they have all kinds of storage facilities to store the veggies, the meat, the intermediate sauces, etc. thus making the food most likely unfresh.

4) For all foods, the time taken from the cooking to the dining table must be minimum. For fresh juices, have them within five minutes of extraction. For normal cooked food, within hours; at the worst case, have it the same day and don't store it overnight. And yes, keeping cooked foods in the fridge is a terrible thing to do - you actually eat that stuff?

5) Avoid all processed food. Avoid all processed food. Avoid all processed food. This is a mantra that should be inviolate. Obviously life is all about not having rules cast in stone; you can violate this rule sometimes, but that should be, say, 10 percent of the time, or something like that. Every time you eat processed food, look into the mirror and curse yourself. Slowly, you will get out of the habit. Smoking or consuming alcohol does no harm to the health, compared to what eating processed food does.

6) What is processed food?

Anything that comes from a factory. Anything that is not 'grown'. Buy only that which grows. And no, biscuits don't grow. They are made. Neither do noodles, Or ready to eat foods; or cool drinks. Anything that is branded and needs to be advertised does not grow, they are manufactured.

7) Any intermediate products that are 'processed' are best avoided; you should preferably process it yourself. Buy fresh whole grains, and get them ground at a local 'chukki'. Don't buy milk unless you know it comes to you from grass-fed cows, and has not been pasteurised or homeginized, both of which are deadly harmful to health. Where will you get that milk in a city, you ask? Well, stop having milk then. It is actually not required - it is an entirely redundant. And no, don't believe all that rubbish about why milk is essential for calcium.

8) You should avoid refined oils; buy cold pressed oils. Avoid 'processed table salt' or any other branded manufactured salt. Buy normal unprocessed sea salt, or himalayan rock salt. And don't even start on 'what about the iodine which salt gives me' kind of argument. Iodine was never intended to be part of salt by nature; and what was intended to be part of salt (80 odd trace minerals in the right proportions for the human body) is all removed by the processing. Chemistry is partly to blame. We are taught that salt is 'NaCl' - as if you can pass Na and Cl through a test tube and produce salt!

9) Now you know one more reason why processed foods should not be bought. Apart from the horrendous amounts of chemicals and additives for various kinds of reasons, they also use refined oil, refined salt, and refined everything. Horrendous to even contemplate!

10) Chains like McD's or Pizza Hut, commit all these crimes, and more. Avoid. And you say, Subway is ok, since they are healthy? Ha! It may be healthier than McD's or KFC, but that is not saying much, is it?

11) For cooking and in general, use ghee. A lot. And I mean it. Milk and milk products are bad, but ghee is not. Ayurveda has recommended ghee from ancient times. And yes, coconut oil is good for health. Very good. As is every other traditional oil, like til oil or mustard oil. Don't believe all that rubbish about cholesterol, MUFA, PUFA and all that other rubbish that the food industry throws at you. Butter is also good for you. It goes without saying, like Krishna tells Arjuna win the Gita, that moderation is the key in everything you do.

Personally, I actually 'drink' ghee. Lots of ghee. At every meal. And am none the worse for it. And no, not necessarily because of health reasons. I just happen to love it!

12) When it comes to cooking, the heating process where water is combined to counter the heat, is best. So steaming is the best way to cook. Frying, or dry heat, like baking, is not so good. Stir fry is good since it retains a lot of goodness, etc. Use your common sense as a guide here. Obviously, using the microwave is a no-no.

13) If you have read thus far, stop and reflect on what you are eating daily. If you actually want to follow the above rules (and that is a big 'if'), then it is likely that everything you are eating is bad for you. Go back to the drawing board and reconstruct your diet!

14) Shifting the focus to medicine - most of the 'diseases' that are prevalent today are lifestyle illnesses. The only way to tackle them is to make lifestyle changes, in diet, sleep and exercise; in avoiding stress, etc. Don't even think you can 'cure' diabetes or control it by popping pills. Or for that matter, hypertension, kidney problems, or other problems of that nature. Apply some common sense here - how is it possible that you can go on abusing your body, and then pop in some chemicals most of which are potions that the body rejects, to set it right? If a stagnant pool is full of mosquitoes, do you make the water flow and expose it to sunlight, or do you douse it with DDT? Treat you body with some respect!

15) Avoid 'preventive' medical check-ups. Totally.

16) If you are caught in an accident rush to the nearest hospital. Fast. If you have something very acute, maybe you can visit the allopathic doctor to bring it immediately under control. He will give you some poisons which may help for immediate relief. Once that is done, try other medical alternatives , like maybe naturopathy, or ayurveda, or anything else. The fact that they are called 'alternative' medicine itself is a diabolical plot by the allopath lobby.

I can go on, but shall stop here. Most of what I have said here, goes against accepted conventional wisdom, or is impractical, right? Well, the first step is, think about it and see if it makes sense. If you accept that it makes sense, or least most of it does, then try slowly incorporating all this into your lifestyle.

In what way am I qualified to say all this, you may very well ask. My primary qualification is that I am not a 'doctor' or a 'nutritionist', that is a good and essential start; for the rest, you have to make your own conclusions.

Dinesh Gopalan

(article by Dr. Mercola attached)

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