Fads - Facts vs. Fiction
We live in a mythical world. There are too many myths around us that we hold as “truths” in our heart - sometimes that’s driven by well-intentioned advice from our near and dear, sometimes its just the junk news in the mainstream media, sometimes its just the lack of time at our end to properly research and understand the “if and why” of the excitement of other people.
I call these myths “fads”. Irrespective of the decibel of noise about their popularity or the “famous” personality endorsing it, a fad is still a lie - either a temporary one or a permanent one. I thought of writing this blog to uncover some of the most prevalent fads around us today.
Fad on Eating - Diets
All diets, unless temporary, are bad for your health. The ills of eating in excess cannot be replaced by the ills of eating in scarcity. True, some diets can get you quick results - but health is about living as long as possible with full energy and all body systems working as intended. All diets impair some body function in the rush to get temporary benefits. Keto, Paleo, Atkins - the names are endless. The irony is that they work as advertised in the short term, but the bigger tragedy is that they under-advertise or under-research the long term affects of following these diets.
The only way to make a long term change is to change the habits of excess in our life and do everything in moderation.
Fad on Exercises - Gyms, Running, High Intensity workouts, and many more
The only goal of exercises is to have our bodies develop a rhythmic usage pattern - as much of our body as possible. Anything high intensity in exercising our body is taking away emergency, vital reserves of our body. I see a lot of people doing running with very little understanding of when their bodies enter the “anaerobic” phase of running - a very unhealthy phase for the body. The same holds true for high intensity workouts also.
My recommendation on exercises - do not do anything that is “high intensity” - instead slowly build up a regular rhythm - very, very slowly. Most people will require about 12 months of consistent effort to reach there. Also only focus on doing something that you can confidently carry forward on a daily basis for the remainder of your life - not for the “fun” of doing it for a few weeks. Just that criteria will throw away a lot of options under the bus.
Fad on Cooking - OPOS
All cooking that prefers “convenience” over health is bound to create ill effects on our body. Microwave cooking is very debatable method in the scientific literature - there are no long term health studies done on its effects. But if a loved one gets cancer, the doctor will immediately recommend him/her to get off any microwave cooking. We still don’t know enough about how some of the modern cooking methods impact the nutritional and “energy” value of our foods. OPOS is cooking is another recent fad - where you cook on high heat and pressure in a matter of minutes - its the perfect way to free up your time but the most deadly way to kill all the “enzymes” in your food and render that food meaningless nutritionally.
All food should ideally be either eaten raw or “slow cooked” to make it palatable or tasty. Too many of us have forgotten the right way to cook.
Fad on Food - Exotic ingredients
Greek yogurts, broccoli meals, zucchini secrets - the fad on making an ingredient “exotic” is a half truth. Yes, some of these items are rich in nutrients, but they are in no way a panacea to our health problems. They deserve just as much space and attention in our food as anything else. In fact some of these that are 100% imported deserve no space in our food plates because the supply chain timelines render them nutritionally a failure.
The full truth is that we need to eat as much as possible of the seasonal and locally available ingredients. Follow the traditional ingredients that were being used for festival food preparation and you will get a very good idea on what to eat and what to avoid.
Half truths don’t yield half-results. Most of the times, they yield no results. Some times, they end up creating more harm than good. Let’s focus on the facts - the full truths and decide to develop our children’s habits around these universal, eternal facts.