Diet trends of India

One of my favourite hobbies is to analyze search trends of popular topics using Google Trends. Since we rely on Google so much for our informational needs, the search trends give a good indication of various issues pertaining to lifestyle, health, nutrition, shopping etc. 

Given that food and nutrition is my passion, I looked at the search trends pertaining to the following diet patterns in India over the last 2 years (Jul 2015 - Jul 2017):

1. Millets (not really a diet per se)

2. Keto diet

3. Paleo diet

4. Vegan diet

5. Gluten free diet

 

 

Source: Google Trends

Overall, as you can see, interest towards Keto diet is the highest, followed by Paleo and millets. Surprisingly, vegan and gluten free diet aren't as popular as compared to the other diets.

 

Other observations:

1. Interest towards millets started increasing sometime in the middle of 2016. Karnataka, Telengana and Tamilnadu are the top 3 states where people seem to be really interested in millets. 

2. Keto diet started to spike up in the beginning of 2017. Maharashtra, Haryana, Telengana and Karnataka are the top states triggering the most number of searches related to Keto diet 

3. Paleo diet picked up steam around a year back (Jul 2016). The surprising insight for me was that maximum searches are coming from Tamilnadu and Pondicherry, with Karnataka being a distant third. I wonder what events led to this sudden rise in interest towards Paleo diet in TN

4. I was under the impression that more and more people are turning vegan (One of my life goals too). But the search trends show that the search volumes are low, steady and haven’t risen in the past 2 years. Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and Karnataka are the top 3 states interested in vegan way of diet

5. Search trends pertaining to gluten free diet aren’t as high as I expected it to be. The volumes have been low and steady in the past 2 years. But the shocking insight for me was that the maximum number of searches on gluten-free diet are coming from Haryana and Punjab - yes, the two states where wheat production and consumption is more as compared to the Southern states

The one chart that I wish to rewrite is the following:

 

It is not just the overall trend that irks me but the even distribution of quinoa related searches across the country. In the case of millets, except for the Southern States, there's hardly been any interest in the other regions of the country. 

 

If Punjab and Haryana wants to go gluten-free, then millets are the ideal alternative, not quinoa. I had earlier written about "Why Indians don't need quinoa?". If you haven't read it, please check it out.

P.S. This analysis is a reflection of the search habits of Internet users in India (Internet penetration around 30%) and doesn't cover the entire population.

Rice is nice, Eat without fear

Over the past few days, news about plastic rice went viral all over social media. If we stopped for a minute and thought whether the news made any sense before sharing, we could have stopped it from going viral.

Do take a few minutes and watch this well-explained video on 

- why plastic rice is not an economically viable option, even if it was a reason to sell adulterated rice

- why a ball of cooked rice will bounce

Our farmers are already facing issues of drought, selling below MSP and what not….Do we have to burden them more by spreading such illogical rumours and curbing the demand for rice?

Is this a conspiracy of Western corporations who are behind these rumours, in their grand plans of controlling India’s food market? Maybe, I’m not sure. But from our side, let’s be responsible citizens and stop spreading rumours about plastic rice in social media. 

Even before this rumour started, rice has been blamed for the rise of diabetes and obesity related issues.

I have been a strong proponent of millets but I don't recommend making the switch completely from rice to millets. 

If you observe the food patterns of urban middle class, 40+ aged people from South India, most of them have switched to oats for breakfast and wheat chapathis for dinner. People with diabetes strongly believe that wheat chapathis are the best dinner option for their health. I’m curious to know how this all started, what triggered people to make the shift and end up believing that chapathis are "good for diabetes".

Let's do a quick comparison between rice and wheat (Source):

1. The calories in rice (362 Kcal per 100 gms) and wheat (348 Kcal per 100 gms) are almost the same. 
2. Wheat has slightly more fibre as compared to rice (2 gms vs 1 gm per 100 gms of grain). But the commercial, packaged wheat atta we get from supermarkets is already stripped off all fibre, so the reason that chapathis have more fibre than rice doesn’t hold any value. 
3. Wheat is also better when it comes to proteins (11.8 gms vs 6.8 gms per 100 gms of grain). BUT most rice-eaters don’t eat rice as it is, we usually have it with protein-rich dals/sambhar etc.  
4. Carbohydrates in rice (78.2 gms per 100 gms) is more as compared to wheat (71.2 gms per 100 gms). 
5. Glycemic index of rice is also high as compared to wheat. BUT the typical Indian meal that is served along with rice (dal, vegetables, sambhar, rasam etc) ensures that glycemic index is lowered and it becomes a well-balanced meal. 

Keeping aside these modern nutrition metrics aside, this is what I believe in:

- Rice is predominantly grown in the South. Our traditional food principles recommend that you eat food that grows in the same region you live in. So if you are living in South India, rice should be your staple diet. The same rule applies to millets. Millets are cultivated in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu. So it makes sense to include more millets if you live in any of these three states. 

- Wheat is considered to be “heat-generating”. Typically, in the rural, dry regions of North, people consume wheat rotis with onion slices. Onions are cooling and so they balance out the heat from wheat. Same principle is applicable when rotis are served with a few slices of cucumbers, lemon or buttermilk. So if you live in Chennai and you are eating chapathis everyday for dinner in these hottest summer months, please make sure you balance the heat with ingredients that are cooling OR switch to rice which is inherently cooling.

Instead of white polished silky rice, let our choice be brown rice / semi-polished rice / hand-polished rice, where most of the bran is retained, giving satiety, fibre and B-vitamins. 

“India had nearly 1,10,000 varieties of rice till 1970 and this diversity has been lost to posterity as a result of the green revolution with its emphasis on mono culture and hybrid crops. Now, only 6,000 species or varieties of rice survive. The destruction of the rice diversity of the country is a contribution of the green revolution”. (Source)

With such plastic rice rumours and falsely-believed news of rice being the sole reason for diabetes, I’m afraid we might end up losing those remaining rice species as well.  Let’s support rice and rice-growing farmers, please.

P.S. You know what makes me cringe - a few nutritionists advocating mock cauliflower rice in place of regular rice, so you get the same texture and "feel of eating rice”. 

“Mudiyala daa saami” ….Roughly translated to "I can’t take it anymore, God!” :-)

Stop cribbing and complaining

This statement is to all those selfish, complaining, irresponsible people in the country, cribbing about the country's state of affairs, corruption, poverty, bad infrastructure, poor performance in sports etc etc. All these morons know is to complain and do nothing else. I know their typical characteristics :-
They eat a chewing gum and throw the wrapper on the road.
They throw the garbage bags wherever they want.
They complain about how things are better in other countries.
They keep talking only about those countries and their leaders.
They have no respect for traffic rules.
They don't care about other unprivileged people living in the same city as they live.
Their ultimate aim in life is to settle abroad and crib about India from wherever they are.
They bash at all the sports personalities, especially Indian cricketers on their poor performance. Oh yeah, they think given a chance, they can perform better than those non-performing cricketers, hitting sixers every ball and taking wickets one after another.

I'm tired of such people. I wish I had the power to transport all of them to a island far far away from India.

Either take the responsibilities in your hand and do something about them OR keep your mouth shut. If only these people realize how much time they are wasting by constant whining about India and understand that they can invest the same time in some activity that can bring a tiny miniscule change, India would be way ahead by now.

I strongly believe that if something has to change in our country, it is the mindset of such people. Things would fall in place as soon as this change happens.

I learned this powerful thought in Art of Living session "You are responsible for everything". It's certainly true.

If my street is full of garbage, then I'm responsible for raising this issue to the concerned department and getting it resolved.

If I see a vehicle bypassing the traffic by riding on the pavement, I'm responsible for letting the person realize his mistake.

This is applicable to each and every human being. I just hope people like us understand our responsibilities and work upon them.

Few coins everyday !

One strange act I keep observing among the bus conductors these days is adding a few coins everyday to their pockets (Yes, I mean it). My home is very close to my office and I use the public transportation to travel this short distance. Many a times, the bus conductor asks for 3 or 4 rupees and never gives a ticket. When I ask him/her (there is no gender bias here !) to give me a ticket, they claim that the ticket price is 6 rupees. Initially I didn't understand this (I'm a tuby, isn't it?). Then when I thought about it for a while, I understood what was happening.

If you are going to get down within a couple of bus stops, there is no need of a ticket and the conductor pockets the few coins. That's what he claims. Given the crowd of local bus transportation in Bangalore and the absence of ticket checkers (I haven't seen one in the past four years here ! I had seen many ticket checkers in metro trains in Chennai) , I wonder what would be the total amount these conductors would be making per day, per month. It should be huge definitely.

I'm not referring to bus conductors as a whole here but to the few who are spoiling the reputation of a conductor's job. I have respect for their hard work; Standing the whole day on the bus, penetrating the thickest crowds to reach the other end - not an easy job at all. I have seen few dedicated conductors and have admired their quick act of giving tickets.

I urge all of you who are travelling by public buses to ensure that you get a ticket even if it is going to cost you two or three rupees more. Our money should go to the concerned transportation office and not to the greedy conductors.

A different experience

Have you ever met a doctor who is patient (not the noun but the adjective), friendly, humorous and down-to-earth? I had the opportunity to meet one such doctor in Mallya hospital last Saturday. I had taken my father for a health checkup and happened to meet this lovely lady, Dr.Sharada.

As we entered her consultation room, handing over the reports, she said "Tell me my dear beautiful sir, explain your problem". I started explaining in English and she interrupted me, asking in Tamil whether my father will not speak. I was taken aback. Then she explained slowly that the person who had come to meet the doctor should explain and not the one who has accompanied him. She gives a valid reason that the elder person will not be able to understand his health problem if the doctor and the person's relative have a conversation, neglecting the patient.

She perused through the reports and asked my father if he will be able to understand what she is going to explain. I was wondering how people like us would be able to understand some complex medical jargon. She drew a picture and explained in such simple words interspersed with local slang and humour that even a small child can understand. Whatever she said , be it the prescriptions or food items to avoid, she had written everything on her prescription letter in a neat and understandable writing. Usually only the doctor himself and the person at the pharmacy will be able to understand such cryptic handwritings. She is such a different doctor. Her actions show her dedication and passion towards her work. We need more such doctors in order to alleviate the fear that people have for doctors and hospitals.