Anuradha Sridharan

 For those of you wondering whether this blogger lady does anything else other than trashing processing foods, this post is for you! :-) Yes, I have a life outside food and in the next few posts, I plan to share a few snapshots from my life. One such snapshot is my insatiable love for Tamil film music. A couple of days back, I was watching this interesting Tamil movie named “Maayavan”. The movie opens up with a scene from 2037 with Illayaraaja’s classic “ Keladi Kanmani ” from “Pudhu pudhu arthangal”. Such a soulful melody it is, that I’m sure many music lovers of today would listen to it even in 2037. I’m both a Rahmaniac and a Raja fanatic. Both of them are equally brilliant and have been giving us soulful music that will stay with us forever.  I remember this conversation that I had with a colleague at work vividly. It was sometime in Nov 2006 and the music of “Guru” had just released. I was so excited to buy the CD and had written this blogpost on the ...

I recently spotted this quote in a WhatsApp forward - "We just get one life. Don’t waste it on dieting”. It was more in the context of “eat pastries and whipped cream, don’t deny yourselves such yummy food”. I can’t help but wonder how ridiculous this quote is! First and foremost, avoiding unhealthy, processed, junk foods is NOT dieting. It is a sensible decision that you take towards better health.  The quote should rather be rephrased as “Don’t waste your life eating food-like edible substances”. Food manufacturing companies and pharmaceutical companies have mutual collaboration -  The former makes attractive, unhealthy processed foods loaded with chemicals; That would eventually make you sick and you end up with one or more of lifestyle disorders; After which you will be dependent on life-long medications manufactured by the latter. Pharma companies cannot earn their profits from people who are healthy OR from people who have died. Their main sour...

Green leafy vegetables are a nutrition powerhouse, packed with vitamins and minerals. Our grandmothers had always insisted that we eat our “keerai” when we were kids. I remember in the 80s, an old lady would walk past our street, shouting “ keerai venuma keerai ” and my grandmothers would pick up a bunch or two. Local greens are fresh, easily affordable and very nutritious for all age groups.  In modern nutrition terms, these local greens are rich in the following nutrients: Drumstick greens - calcium, iron, beta-carotene, Vitamin C Agathi greens - calcium, protein, beta-carotene, Vitamin C Ponnanganni greens - calcium, beta-carotene, Vitamin C Amaranth greens - calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc Mint - iron Coriander leaves - calcium, iron Curry leaves - calcium, iron, magnesium, protein Methi greens - calcium, Vitamin C Palak - folates (Vitamin B9) Gongura leaves (sorrel greens) - iron They are also helpful in addressing constipation and other di...

We are living in an age where we pop pills for every minor ailment or a slight discomfort, without worrying about the side effects or taking time to understand the root cause. Home remedies using natural products (herbs, spices and greens) are considered “old-fashioned”. Even if people believe in such home remedies, they find it tedious or time consuming to make a herbal concoction and drink it. Quick-fix solutions are sought out to move on with our busy lives. Around 4-5 years back, I decided that I wouldn’t take painkillers or paracetamol tablets for minor ailments like headache, migraine, fever, cough, cold etc. I stopped taking antacids as well. Regular readers of my blog (or Instagram feed ) would know how much I rely on home remedies. Dry ginger coffee for cold and fever, jeera ajwain tea for bloating and indigestion, lemon water for migraine and many such simple, effective herbal home remedies work brilliantly. And I’m always on the look-out to learn more such natural ...

  A couple of months back, my daughter got an eye infection. I messaged her pediatrician and was asked to give eye drops. After 3-4 days, the redness was reduced but didn’t clear completely. So we wanted to meet the pediatrician to ensure that it was just a viral infection. It turned out that the doctor was extremely busy and we couldn’t get an appointment that day. When we met her the following day, she mentioned that she was in her clinic from 9AM to 6PM the previous day with non-stop appointments. I’m not sure about other cities in India but in Bangalore, kids are falling sick often these days. Is it because of the changing weather conditions or the increase in pollution levels? Given that most such illnesses are viral and contagious, they spread faster to many children. Cold, cough, running nose, flu, wheezing, fever - young kids get affected with one or more such issues almost on a monthly basis. Pharmaceutical companies and packaged food manufacturers are well awa...