About Healthy/Unhealthy food

Of late we are getting bombarded with information on healthy and unhealthy food that we consume. We are regularly being sensitized about the five white poisons - namely, sugar, salt, maida (refined wheat flour), milk and rice. We are also becoming more aware of the problems with refined oils and heat-pressed oils, glutens, and what not? Unfortunately most of the information being shared is either half-truth or half-baked or incomplete, which is leading to a lot of misunderstanding. I will try here to clarify this to a large extent, including the information being shared about the alternatives. 

First thing about the five poisons. 

It is true that white sugar is harmful and the substitutes like jaggery or honey or date-syrup are only marginally better whereas they may also have other intended or unintended side-effects. Main reason for which white sugar is harmful is that the entire process right from growing the sugarcane involves a lot of chemicals and later processing involves more chemicals including chlorine and bleach. Comparatively, jaggery made with organically or naturally grown sugarcane will not have these harmful chemicals and it is also a rich source for fibers, iron and other minerals. However most of the jaggery available in the market is no different from sugar, except in color. Many of them can even be worse than sugar! So blindly replacing sugar with jaggery is not a wise choice. 

Next in line is white salt. There is a lot of debate involving iodized salt, natural sea salt, Himalayan pink salt and many more. While there are concerns about the additives like anti-caking agents and iodine are leaving residues in the body, iodine in particular seems to be necessary evil. Therefore iodized sea salt may be a decent substitute. But in general salt still has the same sodium which shall be taken only as a pinch! 

Now about maida/refined wheat flour. Latest name for this is "all purpose flour" in order to hide the bad reputation of "maida"! The refining process strips the flour from fibers, vitamins and minerals, making it "empty calories". There are already many alternatives in the market based on "whole wheat". While the idea in general is good, lot of these changes are only "cosmetic" and a lot of cheating is happening here. Case in point is the breads available in the market. 

Milk from cows or other animals is one of the most fiercely debated topics mostly between the vegetarians and vegans while I prefer to stay away from that in this article. In the current context, milk, as it is sold in the market has a lot of issues due to the hormones, chemicals and other things used in the dairy industry (apart from the unethical practices). That is why it is considered to be one of the white poisons. A healthy alternative is to source it from a known farmer. It is better if you can make curd/butter/ghee yourself using this milk. 

Fifth white poison is the white rice is mostly starch in a different form and gets absorbed in the blood quickly leading to sugar spikes and also makes you feel hungry quickly. Unpolished or semi-polished rice is definitely a better alternative to this considering the amount of fiber and nutrients. Partially replacing rice with millets also could be a good option.

Lastly about edible oil. The refining process of oil involves a lot of chemicals, apart from the way these oil seeds are grown. These traces in the refined oil are highly harmful for health. There are also other issues like oxidation, trans-fats, omega-6 fatty acids etc with refined and heat-pressed edible oil. But simply replacing them with cold-pressed or virgin oils is not the right way to go. Each of them has its own application and understanding that is very important. Similar to what I mentioned above regarding sugar, blindly replacing refined or heat-pressed oil with cold-pressed or virgin oil is not a wise choice. Apart from the suitability per application, we should also consider where it is sourced from and how the ingredients are grown. 

The bottom line is simple. Consume anything in moderation. Eating 3 spoons of jaggery in place of one spoon of sugar or eating more fried items just because it is fried in cold pressed oil, etc are all strict no no! Informed and wise choices combined with intake in moderation is the way forward.