Friday, February 9, 2018

Going Nuts

I have excluded the most important Coconuts and Cocoa Nuts in this discussion.
Going Nuts
If one walks along the streets of Kandy or Colombo it is quite obvious how thoughtful all our road users are? 

Both drivers and pedestrian are all in a mighty hurry? 
It looks as every body is on a hitchhike and the situation is free for all. 
Nobody seems to spare a thought for another. 
It looks as if all of them have gone nuts. 
Whether they have gone nuts or not what I would like to talk about is not the nuts and bolt inside one’s skull but the nuts that we eat with our bites. 

The amount of money we spent to keep our spirits high on holidays may be a bonanza for the exchequer but a bit of nuts with the spirits that one consumes might keep one’s health in trim condition without any help from the doctor.

All nuts come from plants and are cholesterol-free.


They are rich in mono and polyunsaturated fats and help lower cholesterol. They are high in folate (prevent hardening of blood vessels) and help lower blood homocysteine levels and more importantly blood pressure and thereby reduce the risk of heart attacks. 
Soybeans are extremely low in saturated fat and free of cholesterol. Consuming 25 grams of soy protein daily has shown to lower blood cholesterol. Beyond cholesterol reduction, soy foods may favorably affect other risk factors for heart disease (i.e., makes arteries more flexible). Therefore, soy may be helpful for everyone, not just those with high cholesterol. The B vitamin they contain helps the metabolism of alcohol and that is an added advantage for the regular users (I mean alcohol).
Eating lot of meats with alcohol is a bit of a myth that we carry on from our early days. 

Valuable potassium, magnesium and copper are all linked to heart health and probably nuts replace most of the salt losses that result from alcohol-induced diuresis. 
One can go on and on, with the benefits of these plant products which include various phytoproteins and phytochemicals (plant proteins and plant chemicals) and the antioxidant Vitamin E (also heart protective). If with the holiday consumption of alcohol cannot be cut down a bit of nuts might save one’s nut in posterity. Additionally extra sweets that one indulges in holiday time soy may be a blessing in disguise. Soy foods may slow absorption of glucose into the bloodstream. May also protect against damaging effects of glucose-induced oxidation, common in people with diabetes.  The only controversial area probably is its content of phytooestrogens and I had the belief that it may in one-day help very elderly with prostate cancer. Limited data available indicate that it may be so. For the very old who enjoy a bit of spirits having few soy nuts may be desirable after all.

Soy contains high levels of the phytoestrogens (also known as isoflavones) genistein and daidzein, which mimic and sometimes block the hormone oestrogen. 

I had my reservation of soymilk for children and this reservation may have to be extended for girls going through their puberty because of its high content of phytooestrogens. But that reservation cannot be extended to the elderly females. Apart from some beneficial effects of post-menopausal symptoms the soy protein helps conserve body calcium better than that of animal protein. Compounds in soy called isoflavones may simultaneously increase bone formation while decreasing bone breakdown.

The next question is what the best nut for the purpose?  

We have a narrow selection. 
Peanuts, cashew nuts and soy nuts are the ones available and unfortunately the cashew nuts are not within the reach of our purse nowadays. 
Since all the foreign nuts are expensive I go for the soy nuts.
It is pertinent to talk little about the soy nuts since it is comparatively cheap and readily available because of its high nutritive value (proteins).
I had my reservation about soy because of high aluminum content but 20 years ago when I was searching for the reason there was no literature available. Now it appears the aluminum came from the tanks (aluminum) used in soy preparation. It was common sense that aluminum kitchenware is not safe but why the researchers kept this as a secret for so long if not to kill the soy industry (just like the way coconut industry was sabotaged) is obvious. 

Now that the bio-diesel is emerging, if the food industry is not destroyed by it (now, before it is firmly established in the West) the price of soy nut  is going to go up since production cannot keep pace with the demand. 

Surely peanut price is going to go up.

I am relaxing my reservation little by little. For children the best milk is the breast milk and I have no reason to change that and I do not recommend soymilk for children. There is concern for mercury in soymilk and this is probably as a result of some contamination down the production chain. There should not be any concern about soy yogurt. The choice of nuts depends on the price and the availability. Cocktail of nuts is probably the best choice. For price soy beats all the other nuts in price. It is probably the best nut commercially exploited in our set up. 

All nuts have common features than not. 
A few differences set some apart from others. Walnuts are highest in omega-3 fatty acids (also found in fatty fish), popular for helping lower cholesterol. Almonds are good source of calcium. Brazil nuts are high in the antioxidant selenium, linked to helping prevent some cancers. Chestnuts have the least calories and fat, while macadamia nuts have the most. Dry-roasted nuts have the same fat and calories as oil roasted. Nut butters have the same nutritional advantages as nuts.
Peanuts are similar to other nuts nutritionally, but are part of the legume family, which includes dried beans and peas. Fortunately the high fat content of nuts makes them very filling, helping curb hunger for long periods of time. An ounce or two a day of nuts or nut butters is all you need for valuable health benefits. 

Health Canada recommends we enjoy at least two plant-based, vegetarian meals per week; hopefully nuts will find a place in your home.

2nd of January 2006


The Man, the Devil, the God and the Cook

The Man, the Devil, the God and the Cook
All beings whether man, devil or god need something for survival. 

The cook has the onerous task of preparing the food for all of them in addition to his own food requirements for his survival. 
We Sri-Lankans are known for satisfying the needs of all three of them be that may be a devil with dola pidheni after a devil dance, a god with puda pooja before an election and a man (with position) with panduru pakkudam for a favour.

What I am going to describe are three doctors all of middle age with whom I had the opportunity to live in the same cottage in Colombo. 

One doctor, I called the Deviya was a doctor who came from a very religious sect where alcohol is a taboo but started drinking with some personal reasons. 
The other is a doctor whom I called the Yakksaya who came from a habitual toddy drinking coastal town of the Western Coast. 
The third was a doctor whom I called the Manussaya who came from the hill country who had the penchant for this miracle drink for no obvious reason.

The first one I called the Deviya for the simple reason that he would religiously attend to his prayers every day in spite of his drinking problem. I believed the god had being with him all the time in spite of his drinking. With drinks he became godlier of course. 


The second one I called the Yakksaya had a deep and rough voice and even before he had high enough to call high enough would make a big racket in the garden and everybody in the neighbourhood knew that there was a drinking spree in our garden.

The third one I called the Manussaya was the one who would leave his car in the garage (which was open 24 hours) and the key in an easily accessible place so that anybody who had a driving license could drive the car away without any formal permission. Those were the days that petrol price was high and our salary was poor enough to have a juice full tank. 

A tankful was a luxury and a bellyful was a chicken feed those days.

The missing link was the cook and his driving force. When I was in charge of the chummery and took in charge of the menu, I realized that the food prepared was ordinary on most of the days but come the days the  three men in their devil or god or manly incarnation, the food was of a reasonable good taste and standard. 

The secret was the miracle drink. 
The three of them used to give him a liberal share (the taste was paid separately) and when he was high the cooking standard went up exponentially. 
So the common denominator or the virtual link was Pol Arrakku. 
Finally, I decided to give him a quarter bottle worth of money as a spare for marketing for two reasons. One reason was the food and menu was kept excellent. 
The second reason was that he would not steal money from the food menu. 
This worked well and our monthly bill was the lowest for sometime and I did not have any complaints from my colleagues. 
However, I did not disclose my secret pact with him to my colleagues. I of course gave him enough money as extras. But not surprisingly he never went home even for a holiday. He was really hooked to alcohol surprisingly enough he never got cirrhosis. We of course had the liberty of visiting all the food joints in Colombo including Union Place, Fountain Cafe and especially the seafood restaurant facing the Galle Face. 
The food was nice and not heavy on the purse but when I visit Colombo now I have second thoughts even having a glass of mineral water. 

Is this the price we pay for open economy, I wonder?

Coming back to the three men in various incarnations be that may be godly, manly or devilish, alcohol brings out best and worst of all beings. 

Blaming alcohol is a lame excuse for lapses in man's own nature. 
That is something I never buy or accept.

All of us left the shores within year and strangely enough I never met them there after. 

They were in the land of liquor with so many varieties available they probably would have found better companions than Pol Arrakku. 
When I  returned some years later, I went looking for the cook and I was told that he suddenly disappeared and never returned. 
I am sure that he must be in the company of one of the three above, since he did no have any savings for his alcohol spree.
 

This I call a form of discrimination on the  ground of the brand name of alcohol one drinks and enjoys.  

Kassippu or Whiskey and the Five Star democracy. 

The voter drinks the adulterated stuff and the winner and the champions drinks the champagne.

13th of March 2006.

Sonic Boom

Sonic Boom
 

Sound of music
Of the mosquito type
Is the sonic boom
Of the supersonic age
Of disposal and conquest 
Of this planet Earth

Presumed twelve hour vigil
With the incandescent coil
May have been designed
For another planet
Of a different orbit, revolving
On another dimension

Why it does not
Last the said duration?
Of the label and the guarantee
God the creator
Only knows for certain

TV the latest in the media hype
Audio sounds of the ‘Santhush’ type
Mosquito music
And their electric hits
Keep me up
All night long

Neither howls of the fox
In a moonlit night
Nor the cold night draught
Of the December chills
Keeps me awake

But the boom,
Boom beats of the
Mosquito nights
Keeps me awake
All night alone


Carbon dioxide boom
Of the industrials needs
If not arrested now
Will cause
The global warming
Of titanic magnitude
Thus
Would be a boon
For the needs
Of the mosquito deeds

Until and unless
We go for the age of ice
The rhythms of nights
Of the mosquito breeds
The menace and indulgence
Of the electronic age
Would continue at tandem
Day and night

Peter Principle

Peter Principle
Peter principle is an instrument that is used in banking management (for that matter any management) to weed out incompetent individuals out of the main stream and isolate them in their own islands of safety without embarrassment to the individual or to the institute.
The underlying principle is that individuals go up the ladder of promotions to the level of their competence (some reach this very early in their work cycle) and once they reach the optimum level of performance there is no way of promoting them higher without substantial risk to the institute. Unfortunately they are not at the age of retirement and the management has to device ways and means of getting them out of the main stream. In that scenario what the management does is to create a glamorous looking (high-sounding) post and sidetracks the individual horizontally in the management structure. This side tracking exercise keep the management and the individual happy mutually and the customers (spectators) do not see this as a fact unless they are privy to the internal dynamics of the institute.
I believe this principle is applicable to our politicians. 

For an example when a politician is running out of his or her own steam they need some recuperation somewhere and in the parliament the post of speaker satisfy the Peter Principle scientifically. Even though he is called the speaker he cannot speak on his own as long as he occupies this chair. 
What a characteristic of democracy? 
I thought democracy is to voice ones opinion. It is quite an aberration?
My concern is what we do with the aging population of politicians who do not want to retire from the limelight and the TV glamour? 

In good old days we had the senate for them to come and socialize with the rest of those who have had reached the level of competence. My belief is that our politicians reach their level of competence or incompetence in the kindergarten itself and some of them become very childish in their likes and dislikes.
Why this is so I do not know for certain but my concern is what shall we do with them? 

We cannot keep then in cold storage like Stalin and Lenin.
Shall we make them actors and actresses in the local tele-dramas? 

After all acting is a glamorous job and most of them were very good in acting in their real life they need not have any training. 
That is only one option.
But I have another option. 

Why can’t we make them peace monitors? 
They had been talking about peace so much in their political life they must be having a real love for peace. I believe they would really enjoy the challenge of peace keeping and traveling all over the world at no expense to them.
The third option is to send them to space. 

They can scan the entire world from outer space with an advantage none of us will have with a camera that enlarges an ant to an elephant size. 
Looking for trouble spots.
Hope few of the readers would have better options than mine for enlightening the voters who are without any entertainment after the elections.
 

Cricket? Or No? No cricket please.

15th of December, 2005