Month: November 2010

The problem with ‘ideal’ diets

I read an article about ‘Ideal Diets’ on Lifehacker that got me thinking.

It was around 2 years ago when I’d been diagnosed with Gastritis and the Doctor I consulted in university gave me an ‘ideal’ diet. In short, the ‘ideal’ diet ruled out ALL Indian food. This, to me, was rather hilarious as my question back at her was – ‘What would an Indian in India do if he was diagnosed with Gastritis?’

That question didn’t go down too well with her judging by her response, which was something like ‘Well, you don’t listen to me means you will get an ulcer first, then a hole in your stomach, and then you’ll die’.
Anyway, my regular doctor laughed it off and suggested I conducted a physician I trusted back in India as he wisely understood that every diet had it’s share of positives and negatives, and it was important to eat in moderation.

And that brings me back to ‘Ideal Diets’ – This is a very cultural thing. What may be ideal to someone in North America would not be ideal to someone in Singapore and so on. This is primarily because some regions are rice eaters, while others are wheat eaters and so on, and it would be harsh to condemn one and praise the other. Just something to realize and not angst about is my limited experience on the matter.

I like the quote – ‘Be wary of reading health books. You may die of a misprint’

Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

‘Hunter Gatherer’ pop quiz

I have come across a whole bunch of interesting learnings from ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’, a book that traces man’s progress through time to understand why the world is the way it is.

First up, the 3 questions –

1) Would you know why kids of early ‘hunter gatherers’ were spaced at 4 year intervals?
2) Did societies always exist? In tribes of early ‘hunter gatherers’, were their politicians, armies etc? If not, why? And when did they come to exist?
3) Out of the many 1000s of species of animals, only 14 of them have been domesticated. Can you think of 3 criteria for an animal to be domesticated?

Any guesses yet? Yes, go ahead, scratch that head.. :-)

Answers:

1. Children were spaced at 4 year intervals because the 2nd kid could only be born once the 1st could walk. As hunter gatherers had to constantly keep moving and hadn’t domesticated animals till they settled down to farm, quick movement was critical!

2. It was only once humans transitioned to farming as a way of life did societies arise. Once the food problem had been solved, humans stopped living life fighting everyday fires, and could then afford ‘luxuries’ like politicians, armies etc!

3. There are 4 criteria in total – a) Large size (so they can pull heavy loads/do heavy work) b) Good temperament c) Fast growth rate and d) Green diets (carnivores are very expensive).
Essentially, the ideal candidate is a large, docile herbivore, weighing over 100 pounds and content to be part of a herd under human control. Of the fourteen, only 5 animals are common in all parts of the world. These are the goat, the sheep, the pig, the horse and our champion – the cow.

I enjoyed unraveling these little mysteries. Hope you did too.

When did you last glance through a travel agency’s brochure?

You know, the one with many many deals like that 2 weeks trip to Canada, that 5 Days and 6 nights trip to Iceland etc etc.

I found one on a colleague’s desk and as I was waiting for a file from him, I spent some time looking through it, and boy, was it wonderful. I was filled with images of many amazing places that I wanted to go.

I was filled with a desire to make enough to travel around in comfort, filled with a desire to spend some time to see the world.

A travel agency’s brochure filled me with so many dreams and inspired me to do my best. It just reminded me that inspiration is all around us. We just have to choose to see it.

Success is not a dirty word.

‘Setting goals, aligning your schedule for realizing your goals, being the best in what you do, and striving to be amazingly successful to make a difference – many people think these are all boring stuff; they think these go-getters are very tedious, taking life very seriously; they think these go-getters are incompatible with being compassionate, socially conscious and a good person! Utter nonsense.

Setting goals makes one stay focused and promotes personal growth; Aligning the schedule shows they never betray themselves; And realizing a goal gives an immense sense of achievement; being the best in what you do gives the pleasure of personal satisfaction, a job well done; and being amazingly successful awakens joy, makes us feel that we have not walked the planet in vain. Of course, not everyone knows that these go-getters get goofy and play most of the time!

Settling for mediocrity has its own sad costs and success is not a dirty word!’

—
Excerpt from ‘The Greatness Guide’ by Robin Sharma.

Reminded of this thanks to EB’s learning.