Lessons from the Tirupati Laddoo case

How can you get pure cow ghee for 500 rupees per kg? 

Good question. 

Let's ask the same question for oils, the vegetable oils that we routinely buy for cooking. 

The price at which, say  coconut  oil is sold is less than the cost you will bear if you buy coconuts and crush them at home or at your nearest oil mill. 

What's the secret? There is no secret. The oil is adulterated with liquid paraffin. The cold pressed oil manufacturer near my house says he gets routine visits from salesmen offering to sell liquid paraffin along with additives to make the oil look and smell like whatever oil you want. 

 "Refined" oil further goes through processes which make it completely unhealthy. The factories that process them are finally industries that work for profit. 

Now if you are a halwai / mithaiwala, which oil will you use? I don't even want to go down that path, it is distressing to even think about. 

And we order food casually from "cloud kitchens"! 

And then wonder where our health has gone. The litany of ailments if listed would only be cause for further depression. 

There is no alternative to tracking all your food to the source. Meaning: tracking each ingredient to the source. 

And buying from people you know who buy from people they know. 

And buy only things that grow from the supermarkets, only cold pressed oils, raw unprocessed sea salt. 

And cook your own food at home. 

I am not presenting this as a case to be debated, I am making the case that there is no alternative. 

And learn to cook. It's a life skill, and increasingly essential in the modern world where you cannot trust the sources from which you get your food. 

If you have a better idea on how to ensure that the food you are eating is actually food, let me know. 

And we have not even touched upon the chemicals, additives and preservatives that are added in our foods. We don't need to go so far, it's an open and shut case even before we go there

From the Sacred to the Profane

The recent controversy over the Tirupati laddus is extremely shocking and distressing. Beef tallow and pork fat were used in making the laddus! The ghee for the laddus was procured on "lowest tender" basis, and the supplier who quoted an unbelievably low price got the order. The price is lower than what it is possible to manufacture ghee at. That this person who got the order happens to be a crony of the erstwhile Congress government and supplies ghee to many other temples as well is grist for the scandal mill, but I shall ignore those aspects for the point I am trying to make. 

The underlying reason why this happened?  Distance from farm to table, and it holds a big lesson for all of us when it comes to daily life as well. 

What do I mean when I say "distance from farm to table"?

Food is sacred. It is fundamental to us, and it impacts our body, mind and soul. We are what we eat. 

Food needs to be grown in soil with natural inputs, in other words, it  needs to be organic. 

It needs to be harvested in the right way. Now this may sound bizarre to today's readers but in some cases there are guidelines on how to harvest the food. For example, turmeric was never harvested by women when they were menstruating; certain crops  are plucked only at a certain time of day for maximum effectiveness, etc. You may or may not agree with some of it, but I am making a larger point - that there are vital energies that are transmitted through food to the human body and these energies were given attention to. 

Ayurveda recognises foods as satvik, rajasic and tamasik, based on the effect they have on the human body and more importantly, the mind. Also, as "heating" and "cooling". These classifications recognise the effect that food has on the body and the mind. 

That food, grown with good inputs, and harvested with care, is then cooked at home. Instructions for cooking? The lady of the house takes a bath, and immediately proceeds to the kitchen to cook for her family with feelings of love and with "bhakti". If the food is meant as "prasad", additional care is taken. But the main point is, all food is Prasad, and needs to be treated as such. 

And then the food is to be eaten fresh, within hours of cooking. While sitting down to eat, one has to be in a good frame of mind. 

Grace is said before eating, thanking God for putting the food on the table. This practice exists across cultures and religions. 

Let us assume that you are the farmer who grows all the food that you consume. Your distance from "farm to table" is the least. That is the only way you can ensure that your food remains "sacred". 

Contrast that with today. We don't know who grows our food. It is grown in industrial farms with industrial processes using industrial chemicals called fertilisers. 

It is then transported to industrial factories where it is stripped of its nutrients and mixed with a chemical cocktail of preservatives, additives, colorants, etc. 

The factory is most interested in reducing costs. Each ingredient and sub ingredient in the food is broken down and replaced with cheaper alternatives. Like the beef tallow in the Tirupati Prasad, that is just one example. 

And then it is transported across large distances over a period of months. This is cooked in industrial kitchens who couldn't care less about quality or sacredness of the food. 

And that is what we order and eat,  when we order from Swiggy or Zomato. Thus, the journey from the sacred to the profane is complete. 

How to ensure that you eat good food? Reduce the distance from the farm to the table!  Both in terms of kilometres and in terms of time. Also in terms of the people involved. 

Buy directly from the farmer, or from trusted organic stores who buy directly from the farmer. 

Buy only what grows, not what is manufactured. 

Cook that stuff at home yourself, with an attitude of love and gratitude. 

Eat it within hours of cooking. After offering it to God in an attitude of thankfulness. 

Reduce the distance from the farm to the table. Remove the profane, and reclaim the sacred in your life!

On peanut allergies and the like

https://www.wsj.com/health/how-pediatricians-created-the-peanut-allergy-epidemic-952831c4?st=HhQZsU&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

See the article above on peanut allergies. 

peanut allergy is a peculiarly Western problem. 

"Exposure builds immunity", that is basic common sense. 

So you want to escape all flu viruses ? 

A) you can't 

B) you are told to practise social distancing which goes against evolutionary biology, basic immunology, and simple common sense. 

Btw, on the peanut allergy, I suspect there is one more major reason. All allergies increase due to the chemicals and preservatives in food, which also compromise your immune system. 

Recommendations of scientists and allopaths are often like weapons of mass destruction. They cut a wide swathe of destruction across the populace, and have permanent long term debilitating consequences. 

The best part is, you don't have to be a doctor or even have studied science to figure all this out. In fact, those qualifications are probably deterrents to clear thinking