Every terrace holds a treasure

Many working professionals now raise their own fruits, vegetables and herbs from the comfort of home.RANJANI RAJENDRA garden-hops to trace the trend

Wouldn’t it be nice to dish up some crusty bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil from your garden when friends drop in? Or, maybe, pick a few sprigs of methi from your balcony whenever you felt like adding a little zing to your food?

Several Chennai professionals certainly seem to think so. With a mushrooming concrete jungle replacing once-green backyards, and growing reports of food safety concerns, several Chennaites are exercising their green thumbs with enthusiasm. Right from tomatoes and green chillies to beans and drumsticks, and even fruits, one can find them all in a friend’s backyard or balcony.

Take, for instance, Saimeenakshi Sankar. The software professional specifically rented an independent house because she wanted to grow fruits and vegetables. “Come home, and you will see that I have converted everything from my backyard to the terrace, into a vegetable or fruit patch. I grow everything from brinjal, okra, tomatoes and broad beans to even herbs such as basil, thai basil, lemongrass and carom seeds. Currently, I have cabbage, chillies and greens ready for harvest,” she says. Saimeenakshi grew up watching her grandmother pick fresh vegetables from her backyard in Madurai for day-to-day cooking. “I wanted to create a similar eco-system wherever I lived. I spend most mornings, evenings and weekends in my garden.”

Then, there is Sumithra Srikant, an interior designer, who, a decade ago, converted her then new home into a mini farm of sorts with all kinds of vegetables and fruits.

“For the first year or so, we had a gardener, but he’d spray chemicals to keep pests away and that disturbed me, since my family consumed the produce. Gradually, I switched to tending to the garden myself, and have adopted the organic way of growing fruits and vegetables. The idea was that I wanted to give my children fresh and healthy food. What began as a small patch now covers every square inch of free space in my house,” she smiles.

Sumithra has also begun composting kitchen waste — aerobic, anaerobic and vermi-composting. “Social responsibility must begin at home after all. I recently also launched a store called Aapti Gardening Solutions in Abhiramapuram, where I conduct workshops on gardening and composting. A lot of young professionals turn up for these sessions,” she says.

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And, when there’s bountiful produce, Sumithra shares them with friends and family. “It’s the best gift I can give,” she says.

According to Alladi Mahadevan of Green Embryo, the trend stems from the fact that people are looking to move away from pesticides and chemicals. “It’s becoming a community drive of sorts. We’re often called by individuals to service their balcony gardens. From there on, we’ve seen the word spread and entire apartment communities utilise open spaces to grow fruits and vegetables. I think people are beginning to realise the importance of knowing what food they’re consuming and where it is coming from. For example, it isn’t uncommon to see the market flooded with unseasonal fruits and vegetables. It is obvious that they’ve been artificially ripened and are probably not as fresh, since they may have been brought from afar,” he says.

These gardens are a great way to familiarise children with fruits and vegetables and teach them about pollination and butterflies. “Text books will not be able to provide this kind of practical exposure. In fact, we’ve seen schools in Chennai opt for a vegetable patch over Korean grass on their campuses. A lot of them even involve students in the procedure.”

Often, first-time vegetable growers opt to grow greens — they are low-maintenance, easy to raise and grow in even a basic trough.

Sruti Harihara of Goli Soda and Ashvita Bistro also launched a terrace garden at the bistro. She also conducts monthly garden workshops, and says that it was her childhood summer vacation at her grandparents’ in Kerala that influenced her love for growing vegetables. “There, gardens are not just about beauty but also sustainability. My grandmother would ask us what we wanted for lunch and we always had a variety to pick from our garden for her to cook us a feast. So, I’ve always been close to Nature that way and had always thought that I’d grow my own vegetables once I retired. But then, why wait for retirement when I can do the same now? It all began with a lot of trial and error; now, I have a thriving kitchen garden,” she says.

These enthusiasts say growing their own food also makes them respect food more. They’ve also devised ways to keep pests at bay using regular kitchen staples. “For instance, diluting one spoon of ginger, garlic and green chilli paste (ground with oil) in a litre of water and spraying them on your plants can keep pests away. Why pick chemicals then? Then there are other things like neem oil and pungam oil which work wonders too,” says Sumithra.

8 MYTHS ABOUT CHAI THAT NEED TO BE BUSTED

Is green tea good for you? Is milky tea that bad? We know our tea well. So should you

GREEN TEA IS BETTER FOR YOU

Green tea is offered as a healthy alternative to black, but they both have health merits. It's all the rage and claims to do so many things that you'd think it was a super tea. But actually, both varieties come from the plant Camellia sinensis and both have similar amounts of antioxidants and minerals.

HERBAL 'TEA' IS TEA

It isn't. If you're a herbal tea drinker, it means you like what is known as 'infusions' — beverages made from the infusion of herbs, spices or other plant material in hot water, and usually does not contain caffeine. In many countries, the word 'tea' may only be used for leaves of Camellia sinensis and therefore the phrase 'herbal tea' is an oxymoron and cannot be used. These beverages are therefore labelled infusion or 'tisane'.

BRITS INVENTED THE TEA BAG

Teabags were not an invention Brits came up with. It was the Americans, a race more associated with coffee. Although there are some records of loose-leaf bags being used in ancient China, the first labour-saving teabag was created by US tea merchant Thomas Sullivan — but it was sort of an accident. Around 1908, he started to send samples of tea to customers in small silken bags. Some assumed that these were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers, by putting the entire bag into the pot, rather than emptying out the contents, according to The UK Tea and Infusions Association.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEA COME FROM DIFFERENT PLANTS

Black, green — there are so many other varieties these days beside good old English breakfast. But it turns out that they're all from the same plant. It's known by its botanical name Camellia sinensis.

ADDING MILK MAKES IT WORSE FOR YOU

Milky tea is no worse for you according to studies — so get adding that dairy. Some studies have suggested adding milk to tea undoes the heart-healthy benefits — but actually, the same amount of catechins — antioxidants said to reduce risk of some cancers — were absorbed from milky tea as from plain black tea, according to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Which is a good thing too, as 98% of us take milk in our tea — with 30% taking sugar.

INDIA CONSUMES THE MOST TEA IN THE WORLD

It's part truth, part cliche. Yes, we consume it by the gallons. And so does the UK. But fact is that, per capita, it is the Republic of Ireland that consumes more cups a year. And don't forget the Chinese!

TEA BREAKS WERE INVENTED BY MODERN OFFICE WORKERS

Tea breaks are actually tradition which has been part of the industrialised and developing world for approximately 200 years. Initially, when workers commenced their day at around 5 or 6 am, employers allowed a break in the morning when food and tea were served. However, between 1741 and 1820 industrialists, landowners and clerics tried to put a stop to the tea break maintaining that tea drinking and rest made working people slothful.

TEA DOESN'T GO OFF

Newsflash — if you're crazy enough to leave your tea for a time, those little leaves won't be as fresh after six months. The flavour may not suffer, but the brew will lose its antioxidants. Make the most of the antioxidants by storing tea in a sealed container in a dark, cool place.

Why using the internet as your dietician is a terrible idea

Aashmita Nayyar, HuffingtonPost in





Do your body a favour. Don't search for dieting tips online.

Type `diet' in the Google search bar, and you'll be rewarded with a zillion results, each more bizarre than the other. If one diet programme advises you to have just cucumber and unsweetened curd all through the day , another tells you that having raw papaya will make you lose a little more than two and half kilograms a day . However, they all promise instant results within an impossibly short time.If you have a friend's wedding around the corner and you want to squeeze into that tiny Deepika Padukone choli, it's hard not to buy into them.More so when you consider how much cheaper and convenient it is as compared to visiting a nutritionist's office.Yet, experts ask you to exercise a little caution.There's no harm in doing some research before you drown yourself in a sea of dahi. Lawyer, Abhiroop Dutta lost 16 kilograms by charting out his own plan after discovering Loseit (a weight loss application). His start wasn't so good: Dutta initially went off salt for six weeks, which he admits in retrospect was not the best move.Luckily for him, he discovered he was harming his own body , and chartered a sensible plan that eventually worked for him. “Monitor everything.Know what you are putting into your body . Read every label, and have a chart,“ he says.
Unfortunately , there are many people out there, like Dutta, who initially try to cut convenient corners despite knowing better. Needless to say , they and end up facing ordeals of a more severe nature. “Following a weight loss programme online isn't just concentrating on a particular diet. It requires a holistic lifestyle change in your eating and exercising habits,“ says Ritika Samaddar, regional head of clinical nutrition and dietetics of a hospital. “Most clients only concentrate on the diet, and are disappointed by the weight gain when they discard it.“
It appears ignorance isn't always bliss -certainly not when it comes to looking up diet programmes online. “There's a lot of mixed information out there, and you could be doing some severe damage to your body without even knowing it just for the sake of a shortcut,“ says Dr Shikha Sharma. She has along with other nutritionists, explained why online diets won't always work for you.
YOU CAN NEVER BE SURE OF CORRECT DOSAGES
A lot of content online won't always prescribe the right amount of food your body requires unless you're consulting with an online dietician. “ Amla for example is a dicey food to eat -it will improve your metabolism if taken in the right dosage. But an overdosage has repercussions like diarrhoea, and dehydration,“ says Dr Sharma. One also has to consider the possibility of conflicting health disorders.An individual with a cholesterol problem will only do more damage to himself herself by going on the Atkin's diet.
IT'S NOT RELEVANT IN YOUR COUNTRY
“Many diets that are available online cater to our Caucasian counterparts,“ says Samaddar.“But their metabolic rates and fat and protein distribution content are hugely different as compared to the needs of an Indian body type. For example, the Atkins diet was a huge hit in the US. But an average Indian might land up with kidney failure, simply because our bodies cannot accommodate such high quantities of animal protein.“
IT'S EASY TO CAVE IN TO TEMPTATION
Crash diets or extreme changes are not easy to get used to. When Charlene Hendricks attempted the General Motors diet, she could only survive for four days before dropping it.“The online diet was crazy restrictive. No matter how much they said you'd feel full on fruits and veggies, it just doesn't work that way ,“ she told HuffPost India.“Many people in India enjoy heavier meal,“ says Dr Sharma. If you ask someone to drop from consuming approximately 3,000 to 1,500 kilo calories, that person is more likely to binge and will end up consuming more than he she normally would.
YOU'RE RELYING ON UNREGULATED, UNTESTED INFORMATION
Unlike your family doctor who is familiar with your family history , and will cater to your needs accordingly , there's a lot of vague information out there. “A lot of people think it's a quick buck and quick money . The nutrition profession in India is very unregulated (forget about the thousands of weight loss articles that are pouring in from all other parts of the world),“ says Dr Sharma.“People don't usually look for the source of the content they are reading. Much of the content is picked up conve niently from other areas and stitched together with out detailed research,“ she says.
“Seventy per cent of the content written online is by non nutritionists as fads to follow. There's a lot of double checking to be done, which can be avoided if you find the right nutritionist: for instance, peo ple with a cholesterol problem should not attempt an Atkins diet.“
YOU REGAIN WEIGHT FAST
Atika Singhal Jain attempted a vegetarian version of the General Motors diet to fit into her shorts for a holiday in Goa. “I lost a cou ple of kilos. But it seemed that the minute I had my first lunch at Goa, the extra weight was back,“ she said. Hendricks also gained the weight she had lost within the span of a week.“It wasn't until I started consulting a nutritionist that I started keeping the weight off,“ she said. “The first thing anyone loses on a diet is water, especially when you are off carbs,“ says Lalitha Subramanyam, chief nutritionist associated with a weight loss website and app that caters to clients individually. “It's easy to lose, and one is encouraged by the results. But the minute you start eating carbs, the weight will come back.“
YOU BECOME PRONE TO SUFFERING FROM NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES
Samaddar reveals that most of her patients who've gone on DIY crash diets come back to report severe deficiencies, particularly calcium, vitamin D and iron. (Vitamin D deficiency is on a steady rise in the country , an alarming phe nomenon as this pro-hormone helps in 26 body functions.) “Protein deficiencies are also very common, as many Indians are vegetarians,“ she says. “Vegan diets are now the in-thing, but need to be monitored carefully so you don't miss out on any nutrients. A lot of this infor mation is not available online.“
YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT
Eventually , in any diet plan, an individual will hit a stagnant phase. “Your body needs a change to hit the next level and overcome this plateau,“ says Subramanyam. “But if you've following random online advice, you won't know what the next level of natural progres sion is.“
WHAT WORKS FOR SOMEONE MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU AT ALL
“People have different needs, different diet requirements, based on their age and many other things,“ says nutritionist Ishi Khosla. A proper diet needs to be tailor made to suit these requirements.
THERE ARE NO CAUTIONARY NOTES
“Professionals who really know the field will always include cautionary notes about the items you are putting in your body , and how precisely it will work,“ says Dr Sharma. “There are some crazy diets out there, like the wine and cheese diet or a starvation diet, which don't work, and don't include any fine print on the damages. If something is published, people think it's validated,“ she says.
Samaddar cites the example of a nutri tionist who has been trending online for encouraging the inclusion of ghee (clarified butter) in everyday meals. “What's not mentioned is that she's talking about people who exercise every day . So much ghee cannot be ingested by a person with a high cholesterol level. But people will only read what they want to read,“ she says.

Soul Souffle, a newly-launched meal-delivery service, focuses on wholesome foods

Offers only Soul Boxes on their website, they also accept phone orders for just smoothies or energy bars. The service also offers diabetic boxes and vegan options. “Considering we use a lot of nuts in our food, we encourage people to give us a meal specification if they’re allergic to something while placing the order.” With both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, Soul Soufflé has found quite a few takers in its launch week. Deliveries are done in two windows: 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 pm

For orders, look up www.soulsouffle.in or call 99402 55666.

Straight on sugar

Why do we have this love-hate relationship with sugar? Do we need to delete it from our diet completely? Read on and make your choice

Sugar is a hot topic for anyone today. We hear sugar is evil, so try to give it up completely. But within a few days or weeks, we find a reason to eat a little bit. That opens the flood gates and we’re back to square one. This cycle repeats itself over the years and we end up confused, deprived and, unfortunately - fat.

The first step in breaking this cycle is knowing what contains sugar and what doesn’t. Most of us, though we mean well and plan on keeping sugar to a minimum, aren’t quite sure what we should and shouldn’t eat to get closer to our goals. So we end up eating a few too many sweet things, assuming they don’t contain sugar, probably because it is natural or because it says sugar-free on the box.

Here are five simple points that will make you smarter about sugar

1: Whatever it is, if it tastes sweet, it contains sugar or sweeteners. This applies to everything that is edible – cookies, cakes, ice cream, juice or even just fruit. The sugar contained may be natural or processed, but it is still sugar. Also, where do you think processed sugar comes from? From natural sources.

2. If a food tastes very sweet, it contains a lot of sugar and vice versa. So, if you have a super-sweet apple on one hand and a tart apple on the other, they are both different foods and act differently in the body. The sweet one loads you up with sugar, while the tart one doesn’t.

3. As far as sugar is concerned, it doesn’t matter where it comes from. White sugar from sugar cane is the powdered sugar we’re all familiar with. But jaggery, honey or other sweeteners used instead of white sugar do not magically make the food healthy. It is just sweetened differently, but still sweetened.

4. A banana, weighing 100 grams, contains about 15 grams of sugar and 85 grams of other things (mostly water, some fibre and tiny amounts of other nutrients). This ratio of sugar to other things limits the total consumption of sugar (i.e. you can only eat so many bananas a day). But once you start blending the banana into a shake or making dried or dehydrated fruit, creating recipes like banana bread, or extracting sugar from the fruit, you’re changing the ratio to more sugar and less of other things. This is why dried fruit, fruit juices, jams, pastes and concentrates taste much sweeter even though they are made with just fruit. You get the same deal with the all-natural, no-sugar-added organic dried fruit balls or bars.

5. The sugar-free foods you see – sugar-free biscuits, juices, shakes, ice creams – are all sweetened with artificial sweeteners which don’t help the cause. They confuse the body into releasing insulin without the presence of sugar, and can have long-term effects that are unfavourable to say the least.

But do you need to give up sugar completely? Obviously not!

Sugar is not bad. As itself, as a thing, as a taste, as a nutrient that provides energy, sugar is not bad. It provides super-quick energy and is pleasant to taste. That said, it is not ‘necessary’ for the optimal functioning of the human body and over-consuming sugar hurts us in more ways than one. Too much sugar is bad, just as too much of anything is bad. Protein, spinach, salt, oil or anything else when over-consumed will hurt us in some way. But not many things are over-consumed like sugar is today, and very few things can hit us as hard as too much sugar can.

So quit trying to love, hate or ignore sugar. Instead think about fixing your relationship with it. Once you have a healthy relationship worked out, you can decide when to consume it and when not to. The ball will be in your court.

heart health in numbers

Though numbers are an integral part of our lives — phone, PIN, stocks and other numbers — not many of us understand numbers much when it comes to heart health. A lot of people would not know how to read 140/<90 mm Hg and 100-199 mg/dL unless explained. Making sure that you can decode these numbers will help you immensely to keep your heart health in check. Doctors recommend that one must get frequent check-ups done. Here are a some numbers you must know more about...

Blood Pressure <140/<90 mm Hg
The force of blood against the blood vessel walls as the heart pumps blood, is blood pressure. It is measured by a device that uses Hg or the height of a column of mercury, to show the circulating systolic and diastolic pressures. The first number systolic pressure is the peak pressure in the arteries, and diastolic pressure is the lowest pressure. Systolic measures artery pressure when the heart is contracted and diastolic measures it when the heart is relaxed. Normal is around 130/80 mm Hg though, for some, it may
be lower.

Total Cholesterol 100-199 mg/dL
Cholesterol is a factor that increases your chances of developing heart disease. But since it has no symptoms, one must keep a check. There is good cholesterol, HDL, and bad cholesterol, LDL and the combined levels should be around 100-199 mg/dL. The HDL should be above 45 mg/dL and the LDL below 130 mg/dL.

Exercise 30 minutes, daily
Reams have been written about how regular exercise essential. Experts state that every day spending at least 30 to 40 minutes exercising (aerobics, swimming and brisk walking) can reduce your risk of developing a heart ailment.

Blood Sugar <100 mg/dL
The sugar in our blood provides us our daily energy and to allow it to enter cells insulin is needed. Too much sugar in your blood, however, can lead to diabetes and heart disease. The blood sugar levels varies widely from person to person. The general recommended level is fasting sugar less than 100mg/dl.

BMI 18.5-24.9
One of the strong risk factors for heart disease is obesity. The BMI or the body mass index is one way to measure it. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is healthy. Anything less or more could indicate a problem.
*The figures mentioned apply to an average adult. One should always consult the doctor for the most accurate information that applies to you.

Dr. Madhaviamma Free Diabetic Clinic

To ensure that individuals suffering from diabetes and belonging to the underprivileged and economically disadvantaged segment of the society receive modern diabetic care, Prof. Viswanathan established Dr. Madhaviamma Free Diabetic Clinic in memory of his mother Late Dr. (Mrs.) Madhaviamma. The clinic has grown rapidly and more than thousand patients attending the clinic receive the same treatment as the other patients who are able to pay. The necessary laboratory investigations and drugs including insulin are provided free of cost to poor patients. The entire expenditure is met by the Dr. Madhaviamma Charitable Trust.
Free foot test & advice  from 3rd to 9th October 2016 at M V Hosptals for Diabetes, Royapuram, Mylapore, Velachery. to avail regiter 98415 16318 / 96000 08586 / 98401 98880