Food needs to have a soul too

Zero-calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds

https://cnn.it/3ID12NE

Quote: "Erythritol looks like sugar, it tastes like sugar," unquote

That is precisely the problem isn't it?

Food is a way of transferring life, or prana, life energy , from one organism to another. Plants store it from the sun, and our bodies thrive on those whole foods and assimilate them.

In our arrogance, we think we can manufacture foods in our factories. It looks the same, it tastes the same, but the prana is missing, and all you are ingesting is a bunch of chemicals. As if a bunch of kothmir leaves is nothing but a linear addition of a few chemicals and calories. 

The problem starts with  the thinking paradigms introduced by Western science. They are reductionist paradigms and they have their place, while, say, understanding Newtonian physics, but are entirely unsuitable for application when it comes to health and nutrition.

The entire calorie and "nutritional" breakdown labels that are printed on food packaging, on restaurant menus, and bandied about as food science,  based on which so called nutritionists ply their trade is completely useless, without any basis, and based on the wrong paradigms.

Which is why , I often say, if your MBBS trained doctor, or so called nutritionist trained in the western allopathic school, gives you any dietary advice, it is most times beneficial to do the exact opposite.

As to "looks the same, tastes the same, and hence must be the same", 

Pasteurised, homogenised milk looks the same, tastes the same, as milk, but is not milk 

As to "dairy whitener" , forget not being milk, it is an abomination.

"Refined " oil, is not oil 

"Iodised" "table" salt is not salt

"White" sugar is not sugar in the sense that "nattu sakkarai / vellum / gud" is. Sugarcane juice, for example, is good for health, even for diabetics. 

"Artificial" sweeteners are advertised as good for health because sugar is bad. So , finally, we eat a bunch of chemicals, and still feel good about ourselves.

Why do we still feel good about ourselves? Because advertisers have convinced us that all that crap we eat is food.

Like carbonated soda passing off for water, the nutritional labels will inform you it is all kosher,

Or, Hershey's Strawberry Sauce  properly FDA authorised, hygienically processed, in factories and  "GMP" certified, which does not have any strawberries! 

I am serious , check the label and see for yourself ...

MODERN DAY WONDERLAND

Where gender is fluid,

Depends on your mood,

Or even time of day,

Each  they has one  pronoun!

Where Caste is rigid,

Even obscure ones,

Of people who fled there,

Leaving it behind! 

Where your  race is your fault,

And what your ancestors did,

If you're white you can't,

Hold your head high! 

Where merit is dying,

Mediocre is in,

Showing any talent,

Is just elitism!

Where children are poached,

And brainwashed daily,

Sent by their parents,

Like cattle to the slaughter!

Where activism is in,

Under the Circus Top,

Only the clowns can speak,

Others forced to shut up!

Where all safe pillars,

Are being demolished,

So they stand rootless,

Guilt ridden and terrified!

Alice in Wonderland,

Went down the rabbit hole,

See, today's she's emerged,

In the US of A!

TARGET MATURITY PLANS

For investing in debt, one can go the direct route, or through a Mutual Fund.

Direct route involves a lot of tracking, with the onus of choosing the right instruments to invest in. It is also tax inefficient, especially for those whose annual income exceeds ten lakhs.

Debt MF's come in several flavours.

They can vary based on:

Risk: lower return lower risk funds investing in only govt securities or AAA. 

MF's that promise higher return through investing in lower rated securities. In the Indian debt market the "excess" return is very low, not enough to cover the additional risk. Hence, it is better to stick to low risk options.

Duration: Funds which invest in higher duration securities carry an interest rate risk. This is not correlated to safety, and is an independent factor.

In a rising interest rate scenario, it is better to stick to low duration funds. This was the case in the last two or three years. However, interest rates have reached a high point now, and though one can't say whether they have peaked, it is reasonable to assume no substantial increase in rates in the near future.

Read "near future" as three to five years.

If one wants to mitigate interest rate risk entirely , it is good to  invest in Target Maturity Funds.

These are funds that have a Target Date in their name, and invest only in risk free securities maturing on that date. For example , a 2027 fund, invests in risk free securities maturing on June 30, 2027.

It makes sense to invest in such a fund provided the target date is at least three years away ( for reasons of tax efficiency) and provided you expect to hold to maturity. 

Currently, these are the TMP Funds available in the market: 

IDFC CrisilIBX  ---- choose depending on target date 

Edelweiss Nifty PSU Bond Plus SDL Index Fund - 2026

Nippon india nifty AAA CPSE Bond plus SDL - choose depending on target date

Worth considering in my view. For investing in debt in the current market scenario, they are good options.

Two links for aditional reading: 

https://www.etmoney.com/learn/mutual-funds/target-maturity-funds-everything-you-need-to-know/

https://fundsindia.com/blog/mf-research/here-is-all-you-need-to-know-about-target-maturity-funds/25911#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20IDFC%20CRISIL%20Gilt,your%20bank%20account%20post%2Dmaturity

BALLOONS IN THE SKY

The US is of late seeing a lot of Unidentified Flying Objects, including Chinese balloons, over its skies, and scrambling jets to shoot them down 

************

We all see balloons in the sky,

Imaginary Flying Objects;

They have been sent up there to spy,

And keep a watch over us!

Inimical power, foreign hand,

Trying to interfere in our lives;

They watch us by day and in our sleep,

With an aim to stop our best laid plans!

Too many accidents of late,

My generally sad and messy fate,

All that I wished for but died, 

All due to those balloons in the sky;

Shoot them down, shoot them down,

Charge in on our F22 steeds,

Send our Exorcist missiles,

Says Biden Quixote to his people! 

Everyone needs a favourite bugbear;

Every nation, leader turns senile;

Everyone sees balloons in the sky,

And shoots them, at some point in their lives! 

Ah, for a fresh chai...

The more you become well off, the more you get cut off from what matters

What matters is a hot cup of tea, with ginger, made with fresh milk. 

It is very easy to get at any roadside thapri. Guy makes wonderful tea in front of your eyes, you have it hot, and you pay ten rupees.

Now shift that scene to a hotel, imagine a few stars with the name.

You have dip dip bags kept in the room. Dip dip chai is like dishwater so let's not even talk about it.

If you order room service , by the time it comes, it will be cold. So let's go to the coffee shop.

You go to the coffee shop and order "freshly made " ginger tea. Now here's the thing. As you go up on the social ladder, the definition of "fresh" is stretched. What you are likely to get is tea made sometime in the last one hour and kept in a thermos. So you return it, and demand that they make it "fresh". 

This time they get it. They make some fresh tea and get it for you. But it is not the same. It is just not the same.

I am at a hotel in Surat now, having breakfast , and this story is repeating itself for the umpteenth time.

I intend to stop on the way to the office at a thapri.

Ah, for a fresh chai...

RHYMING WOES

I can feel the pull of rhyme,

Tugging inexorably,

It is now perhaps time,

To give in totally!

To rhyme or not to rhyme,

Is the eternal question,

Not rhyming is a crime,

To some,

And to some it isn't!

Of late my poems don't rhyme,

Does it mean I'm progressing?

That is the least of my crimes,

Say the victims crying for mercy!

As they choke on their morning coffee,

Reading my latest missive,

With a horrified fascination,

Self inflicted torture! 

I am going to take a poll,

In true Elon style,

Should my poems rhyme or not,

Let my audience decide!

ADANI VS HINDENBERG

Adani share prices highly inflated , at obnoxious pe's. Have gone up 800 percent in the last three years. 

Then comes the FPO which is at a "discount" to current prices.

Prices have been consistently propped up by shadow firms operating from overseas havens.

Banks meanwhile have lent 2 lakh crore to the group. There seems to have been no due diligence conducted except to see if it is under the rbi mandated "group exposure limit", which is what the banks are saying in their own defence. 

Some random fellow operating under the code name Hindenburg writes a report that says mostly what has always been common knowledge.

"There is an elephant in the room" says Hindenberg.

Who gave Hindenburg the right to see the elephant? Say people. 

Hindenburg is funded by anti national forces. 

This is all to do with Vizhinjam port, they don't want India to progress.

People are jealous of india.

The timing of spotting the elephant, just before the elephants' coming out parade called elephant budget, is suspect.

Who removed the purdah covering the elephant?

Pakistan is in trouble. They have no elephants.

The elephant"s owner has taken over a port in Israel.

Everyone is talking about why there should be no elephant, but no one actually wants to say that the elephant is there , right in front of them. 

Meanwhile, "family offices" of "HNI's" bail the FPO out. A few calls from the PMO may have had something to do with it. Or, maybe, all of them , doing independent research, stumbled upon the fact, overnight, that this is not an elephant, but a golden goose, and a delectable buying opportunity, which, the general public, obsessed as it is with elephants, cannot see. 

India has been saved! , Say the chorus people.

We have just defeated a plot to destabilise the country!

Jai Hind! 

This ranks among our famous victories, along with Kargil!

And the chorus goes marching all the way, singing patriotic songs ...