Why #EatRight resonates with the Valentine’s Day

Today is the Valentine’s Day. As the world celebrates the message of love and compassion, #EatRight in 7 steps empowers each of us to take it further from ourselves to the family & friends to the community to the country to our planet. And It is so fitting for 2 largest democracies of the world – the India and the US-to be the part of this democratization by bringing Indian food to the mainstream US populace. Off course we are not donning the mantle of Columbus the explorer who like many traders of his time was sailing to India for its spices and discovered the US. So the history connects us here.

 Let me start with an incident from the last week. The health inspector of our county came calling in one afternoon. Like we do have half-yearly surprised inspection which we have had in January. So we were a bit flustered. She had come on a customer’s complaint. The complaint was about how we are serving the meat with tofu in a vegetarian item. We were taken aback. Like we do allow co-creation in which our patrons ‘make their own curry’ and we allow them to put 2 items in their choice of curry. Like goat chickpeas korma or tofu chicken kadahi.

We finally figured out what was the issue. We do offer Food Box in $5 with 5 items as a substitute for the buffet. We want to position this as a tastier and nutritious alternative to the tacos, burgers and pizzas. In fact, the Food Box is ‘Curry in Hurry’ given that Indian food may easily be the slowest food. So one day for lunch we had Tofu Chili, Chili being an Indo Chinese sauce. We mix soya chunks (Nutrela brand, not Nutella here) in this item because tofu is also made of soya. I would tell you why. I have been eating soya chunks of the same brand for the last 25 years or so and it is perfect meat substitute, please see our website. It has more protein than any meat item with almost zero fat. So we tell patrons about it and give it for sampling. So when a patron complained it about being meat, we were happy. Finally someone from the local populace confirmed it tasted like the meat. The health inspector did not know about it and we showed her what it is and how we use it.

But what distressed us was why he has to complain this to the health department. Like if we eat or get take-out and find something abnormal, we call first the restaurant, not the health department. Let me admit we do face greater scrutiny for everything and I can understand why. India is a poor country with lot of poor but there is nothing wrong with our food, culture or intellect. And yes India got independence only in 1947 after 1000 years of servitude first under the Muslim rulers followed by the British empire.

I remember talking to one patron about India having 500 million vegetarians, 65% of the world vegetarians and he thought it is because of poverty. I explained on two counts. First, only 125 million of this 500 million are ‘Eggatarian’, like they eat egg, no meat. And I don’t think the vegetables are cheaper than egg. Second, the poor in India do eat all kind of meats from the rats to the birds to the pork and beef. Don’t get surprised. India do have 85% Hindu majority population and the cow is revered, hence no beef for the majority. No sure about why we Hindus don’t eat pork, may be due to the long period of Muslim rule. Pork is strict no-no for the Muslims. So the beef and pork are cheaper than the goat and chicken, 2 most popular meats in India. What I was trying to emphasis our ‘Curry’ makes veggie eating easier and I asked him to try Tofu Tikka Masala or Chicken Tikka Masala and tell me the difference. He could not agree less.

Talking of Curry, one more thing I would bring it here. Curry is made from the base sauce of onion, tomato, or spinach, mixed with plethora of spices. Curry is liquid and trust me it is messy. Its handling and spill-over here and there make it tough to keep kitchen or the floor outside clean all the time. Most of the reviews revolve around our cleanliness. But it does not impact our food anyway. Like our curry is cooked at 200 F and it is served hot. The spices need boiling at high temperatures to get dissolved with the base sauce and also to seep in the meat or the vegetables. Same with the parboiled rice and the whole wheat bread. Only cold item we have is Rice Pudding, a dessert, served from the cooler at 40 F. Touch wood, I have not heard yet any food borne illness or recall coming out from the Indian restaurants or the Indian groceries.

Take our culture, I talk about Gita and Yoga for the mental and spiritual health as the final and 7th step for #EatRight. Gita is equivalent to the Bible and the Koran and celebrated its 5151 st anniversary two years back. I always marvel at its relevance as well as resilience if you think of onslaught it suffered almost for 1000 years. Another 1000 years was in the news last week when Pope met with the Russian orthodox church leader last week. And how their parting of the ways led to the birth of so many denominations of the church was on their agenda. Yoga is more popular in the US than India though its democratization is far away in the future.

In 2014 India sent a shuttle to the Mars, the fourth country to do so after Russia, US, and Europe. But 2 things stood out. First, only India did it in the first try. Second, it spent only $60 million whereas it was almost $600 million price tag for the US. Just for comparison, one F 22 fighter jet costs $90 million. So being poor is not always bad. It pushes you to find the ways to achieve the same result with the limited resources. 

See we humans are the social animals with lot of prejudices and biases. No surprise the most of turmoil in our community could be attributed to our mindset. Let us take the first step with #EatRight and let ‘Power of We’ do the wonders, a fitting tribute to St Valentine.

Indian food is more than just delicious

2016 started on very positive note for us as I was accepted as a leader for PreventObesity.net. PreventObesity.net, a subsidiary of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is fighting the childhood obesity in the US and we are proud to be the part of its huge network of 3800+ leaders and 300 K supporters all across the US. Also it is one of two organizations with links at Let’s Move, the First Lady’s initiative to fight the childhood obesity. So it is a kind of megaphone for our concept of ‘Disruptive Eating’ which we practice and promote at Nirmal.

When Nirmal was launched in Aug 2013, our first aim was to fight the obesity or overweight prevalence in the US as evident from the title of our blog you are reading. Though now we have broadened our canvass with linking #DisruptiveEating to the fight against the troika of global issues – the warming, the poverty and the hunger. Please read our earlier posts. We want to demonstrate that the eating may be the most mundane part of our daily routine, its impact is far reaching if we #EatRight.

Then I came across an article from the Washington Post~ a scientific explanation of what makes Indian food delicious - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/03/a-scientific-explanation-of-what-makes-indian-food-so-delicious/ . This article talks about how Indian food has so many ingredients read spices with no overlap of flavors unlike the other cuisines. When I say your taste buds won’t be able to differentiate between Chicken Tikka Masala or Tofu Tikka Masala, I am talking about the spices in our curry, Tikka Masala here. The flavor of the spices is so dominant that Chicken or Tofu takes the back seat. ‘Curry’ is the main reason why India has 500 million vegetarians, 65% of the world.

For the last 2 years, when we launched ‘Nirmal for Disruptive Eating’, I am kind of struggling to pitch ‘Indian food’ as the flag-bearer of our concept. And the reason lies in my childhood and my grandmother’s phrase. When I was 10 and whenever I used to ask her ‘May I eat this or that’, her constant response was ‘Aprup Bhojan Parrup Sringar’ in my mother tongue Hindi. It translates to 'you eat as per your choice but you dress as per others’ choice.' But then whenever I tell my kids about their dress or their make-up, pat come their reply, you are outdated or this is the new trend. So I use to tell myself it’s time to move over from the childhood’s phrase as the world is changing fast, really? At least not the way we are eating.

But the deal clincher turned out to be the last year’s obesity report. Despite everyone’s Herculean effort, the obesity rate has inched up to 36%. Specially 56% among the African American women and 46% among Hispanics women were heart-breaking. When we launched #DisruptiveEating on the social media last year on the Mothers’ Day, it was just not symbolic. We entrusted the mothers to ensure #EatRight in 7 steps. And when the mothers themselves are struggling with their own obesity, how they could take care of kids and other family members?

See something is very wrong somewhere. Because the way we are eating now is not good for our own health or the community’s health or the Planet’s health. Let me share why?

First, here 70% population are overweight and 36% are obese. 60% of adult population does not know Body Mass Index (BMI). The #ProteinProfile is way out of ideal 25:25:50 (my take, no science involved yet), the ratio of Meat:Milk:Vegan here be 60:30:10, my guess-estimate. We are eating excess meat and excess protein, less whole grain, less veggie, less fruit.

64% of agriculture land is used for growing feed for the animals and birds what we eat eventually. Is not this absurd? Like in 2050 the world population would be 9 billion from present 7 billion. We need these agriculture land back to feed these people. Also the meat consumption alone accounts for 21% of greenhouse gases, more than all modes of transportation combined.

Then now the pattern of the world’s meat consumption is 36% pork, 31% chicken, 25% beef and 6% goat. But one pound of beef needs 1800 gallons of water, 700 for pork, chicken 500 and goat only 127. And the goat, a red meat, is healthier than even Chicken. Read MSU article on our website. Then why we don’t eat goat? Goat cheese is wildly popular in the US but we have ‘Eat Goat to Save Goat’ campaign from Heritage Foods USA. Trust me I grew up eating goat in India, I can vouch for its taste and now the science too.

So why we need Nirmal for Disruptive Eating? Because the food part of our venture revolves around 2 themes – First, You don’t need ‘Meat for Protein’ and we offer the lentils, soya chunks, tofu at Nirmal as the meat substitutes. Second, for the non-vegetarians, the goat is the best choice. And how Indian food is the best for our concept? Because both the lentils and the goat are the staple food items in Indian cuisine, India being the 2^nd largest producer in the world for both. Also our eating style, more whole grain less meat, because of ‘Curry’ is the key to achieve the ideal #ProteinProfile.

Lentils is the cheapest and the best source of protein and dietary fiber combined. How many of us know Canada is the largest producer of the lentils? Then why we don’t eat lentils here by correlation? Like it is far easy and affordable to cook lentils, parboiled rice or whole wheat bread at home.

When I talk about ‘Power of We’, I think of how we the people can change the narrative for everything. We designed Nirmal to cater to disruptive eating. Like 5000+ Nirmals all across the US can disrupt the existing US food industry. But there are 3500+ Indian restaurants in the US and you can change the way they do business. Like you can ask for whole wheat bread called Roti (from Tawa) or Parboiled rice or the goat or less dairy or vegan option for anything or ask 2 items in your curry like we do at Nirmal. How about goat tofu Kadahi? Like due to Curry, Indian food is flexible, not any rigid standard for any item.

It took us almost 18 months to discard the Naan, the white bread and the Tandoor oven, a special type of oven used to make the Naan and other Tandoori items. The article at our website ‘Why Whole Wheat’ triggered our action which tells how one whole wheat bread is equivalent to eight white breads. Let me admit Tandoori chicken could be easily the tastiest item in Indian food and it is healthier too. But the Tandoor oven consumes 3 times more energy than Tawa and it is a health hazard for the person using it specially making the Naan. Not worth the taste.

Two more things I would share. My research for how to make an Indian food chain in 2008-9 enabled me to crisscross the US from Texas to Michigan to Seattle to New Jersey. I used to ask the chefs and the owners of various Indian restaurants, why you use so much cream in Curry. Like I never saw any dairy or cream in my Mom or Grandma’s kitchen. Their answer was because the Americans like it. Then I countered how the Chinese food is the most popular ethnic food in the US without a single drop of cream in their food. Why you do the buffet, not good for business or for the patrons’ health? Like in India, only 2% high end restaurants do the buffet, here 95%. Or why you use MSG (Mono Sodium Glumate) in your food specially Biryani? MSG, commonly known in India as Azinomotto (the company who makes it) is used mostly in the Chinese food and it is not banned by FDA here. But it is not good for health, read this - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/21/msg-is-this-silent-killer-lurking-in-your-kitchen-cabinets.aspx .

Second, the reviews about the Indian restaurants. We get kind of nasty and weird reviews. Like the Biryani was awful, in one sentence no why. Yes because once you get used to MSG, our MSG-free would taste awful. One more reason, it is made from Parboiled rice which is 80% nutritionally similar to the Brown rice. And the white rice of any kind, Basmati or others is not even whole grain. We don’t even have Basmati rice or Naan, the white bread. Because we want you to watch out for #GlycemicIndex (GI). Or Nirmal is a restaurant or the Nutritionist’s clinic? Yes come to Nirmal, you won’t see ever the Nutritionist’s office, our guarantee. Like we are ready to fight back such ignorance come what may.

But then I started looking the reviews all across the US and I was shocked. How the same buffet or the Curry could be excellent and awful on the same day at the same restaurant? See yes Indian food has no rigid standards to follow but such a huge gap? Then I realized why and that too from my previous experiences in India. On 3 occasions, I was not able to complete my lunch or dinner because of food so alien to my taste buds. Once in Mumbai, the New York of India, for a chicken item made with coconut oil, not milk as they do in Kerala. Once in Nagaland, the North-Eastern part of India, again the chicken item. Once in Surat, Gujrat for the vegetarian food as all items had so much sugar in it. Like there are 22 languages with the pride of place in Indian constitution but as the saying goes, the dialect and the food change every 100 miles in India. So I grew up in the eastern part of India and our family eat the North Indian food with more cream once or twice a month and the South Indian food may be once in 6 months. Yah sometimes we do find some items bizarre for our taste but I never felt confident to slam those items as awful. Like for the Americans if they started eating Indian food with Punjabi (north Indian) restaurant or chef, they won’t like the South Indian food. Indian food uses 200 out of total 381 or so flavors as mentioned in the Washington Post article and not all flavors you can like. And it does not make any food awful if you don’t like it. Off course I am not talking about something being stale or not fresh.

Here is our choice! Go for Disruptive Eating and eat what the mother nature has given us. Off course we need to tweak our eating habits. Or wait for synthetic burger for its price to come down from $350 K in 2013 to $3.50 in when? No guess here!

We need all-out #WarOnObesity

Did you see the recent report on the obesity rate inching up here in the US? See link -http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/health/obesity-rises-despite-all-efforts-to-fight-it-us-health-officials-say.html?_r=0 

So many people were shocked, I was not. I would tell you why. Think of the effort CDC, other government agencies, various foundation and organizations putting in this battle. The first lady Michelle Obama is at the forefront of this battle against the childhood obesity. And the childhood obesity rate has gone down. But everything is in the battle mode not the war. A country with more than 70% overweight prevalence including 36% adults being obese and with almost $100 Billion spent every year to fight this menace, we needed #NoHolds war. And this situation is persisting for more than 10 years.

We are not doing the basic things right. Its common knowledge that the low income populace are disproportionately affected by this menace. If you see this report, the obesity rate for the African American women is 56% and for the Hispanics women is 46% and you can guess why though the report does not mention the income link. 2 things are happening here. The knowledge gap and the access to the healthy food.

The survey after survey points out that 60% of the adult Americans don’t know about the BMI, the Body Mass Index. Is it not outrageous? Like this is the first thing you should know if you are overweight or not. Because then you can think of what you should eat or how much. In the New York city, the restaurants are putting the calorie value of food items since 2005 and as per the surveys, only 30% of the patrons took notice of it. I was wondering why the people would take the notice of something which does not concern them. I mean if people know they are overweight, then they would see the calorie. So why not the BMI poster like us which we have put at the entrance and the back-page of our menu. We have BMI in our logo and the phone number too. Like if you interact with Nirmal once in any form, you can’t escape the BMI, period. See various posters at our website under ‘Nirmal at a glance.’ My point is how long our fellow citizens would suffer under the garb of some rights, or the amendment or the limited government? See being overweight is the precursor to the most of the health issues and here I am not talking about the kids being bullied for being obese and some cases ending up in the suicides.

Now take Glycemic index (GI), other critical factor in the weight watch. What’s your guess of % population knowing it? My guess is 10% plus or minus 5%. We all should eat the food items with the low glycemic index. What happens when you eat foods with high GI is that it results in the sugar spikes and the crashes. Momentarily you would feel full and in the very short period, you would again feel hungry. And you go for more food, mainly the fast food. Meats and the most vegetables except the potato have very low GI and here the majority eat meat as their main food, so no need to worry about GI.

But that leads to another issue which I mentioned earlier – the access to the healthy food. In the US, the meat is synonymous with the protein or the vice-versa. But there are 2 other sources of proteins too. The meat protein has medium to high fat and low saturated fat, the milk protein has high fat and saturated fat both and the meat or protein substitutes such as lentils, soya chunks, tofu, other legumes have low fat and zero saturated fat. The last option is the cheapest source too. When I was growing up in India, my protein profile was 50% from the milk, 40% from the substitutes mainly lentils and soya chunks and 10% from the meat (goat meat). No surprise here as India is the largest producer of the milk and the 2^nd largest for both the lentils and the goat. Now here in the US, it is almost 33% each from all three sources. And my BMI has hovered around 24 for the last 10 years, just below the overweight mark of 25. My guesstimate for the majority’s protein profile here is 70% meat, 25% milk and rest other sources. But you can ask where you can try eat lentils, soya chunks or tofu. My answer is the home cooking like most of us Indians or Asians do. You can try the lentils, other legumes at Indian restaurants, the lentils being the staple food for the Indian cuisine and the Mediterranean restaurants do carry the legume dishes. No one serves soya chunks as per my knowledge Indian or any other restaurant and I don’t see tofu dishes even in the Chinese buffet, kind of surprise for me.

I have mentioned in my earlier posts how the veggie protein misses just one item-B12 as compared to the meat protein and B12 is plenty in the milk and egg. Vegans do need the supplement. If you have any other doubt about the efficacy of the veggie protein in deciding the intelligence quotient or the academic prowess of you or your kids, you have to watch out for the Asians or Indians in your city or the neighborhood. Not the CEOs of Microsoft, Google or Pepsi. Let me admit I don’t find many vegetarians among the sports persons. I remember reading one report long time back how Viswanathan Anand, the only world chess champion from India, became the meat eater while living in Spain from a staunch vegetarian. And mind you the chess is not physical sports, right. But my point is how many of us earn our livelihood from the sports.

Asians have the obesity rate of 12% as compared to 36% for the others as per this report. We Indians could be easily the flag-bearer of the vegetarianism as India has 42% of population as the vegetarians, almost 500 million, 65% of the world total. Asians do eat plenty of meat as for example China has just 5% population as the vegetarians. But one thing is common, our eating style. Like we eat rice and/or bread as the main item and the meat or veggie entrée as the side dish. Let me explain. When I came to the US, I had never cooked before. So I used to have the lunch at the school cafeteria. And my favorite lunch was the chicken dish which came with 2 Oz of rice, some mashed potato and almost 15 Oz of chicken breast. This is 400 gms of chicken with almost 120 gms protein where a male adult needs just 56 gms and female 46 gms. Compare this with our lunch food box. It has 8 Oz of parboiled rice, one whole wheat bread of 3 Oz, 2 entrees of 5 Oz each and one side fruit or raita of 3 Oz, total 24 Oz. (1 lb = 16 Oz) Even if you take both entrees as Chicken, it would be 10 Oz of curry which contains just 6 Oz of Chicken and around 50 gms of protein.

Are the people eating excessive protein here? I don’t think the excessive protein is a problem for most of us, But the accompanying fat is. Specially the meat and the milk products have plenty of fat. Am I asking you to eat Asian or Indian style? Yes, if this changes your protein profile and reduces your fat consumption. Like if you want to eat lentils, soya chunks etc, you have to eat them in Indian style, not as the salads or soups. Basically I am pitching for the home cooking which gives you much better control and choice of what and how much you eat.

We made switch to only whole wheat bread (called Roti) and the parboiled rice in Feb 2015 in tune with our mantra of Eat Healthy, Save Energy, Save Our Planet. The Naan bread, made from all purpose flour, is made in Tandoor oven which consumes 3 times more energy than the Roti made on Tawa, the way we make at home and eat daily. So we discarded Tandoor oven as well as Naan, almost synonymous with Indian cuisine here in the US. Some patrons got upset and we lost some business too. But is it worth? Yes as both whole wheat bread and parboiled rice have much lower GI and very high dietary fiber in comparison. Like 1 whole wheat bread is equivalent to 8 white breads. Please read our website blog ‘Why whole wheat’ to get more reasons to make switch. But the issue again is where you would find the whole wheat bread and the parboiled rice. I don’t see the whole wheat flour and the parboiled rice at the Sam’s club and GFS in our locality, the two biggest suppliers for the restaurants. So I can guess there are not many options for you.

Did you come across the recent WHO guidelines about the processed and red meat? See this link - http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/11/23/456654768/turning-down-the-heat-when-cooking-meat-may-reduce-cancer-risk

The Indian food and our style of cooking is the slowest. One reason is the usage of plenty of spices which take its own time for absorption. Now I think you have plenty of reasons for the home cooking specially the Asian or Indian way. Give it a try, see if it makes the difference or not and then decide.

One thing for sure, if you #EatRight in 7 steps, see my earlier post, you are making a global impact helping millions, not just yourself.

Now to summarize, the tools for #WarOnObesity:

1.   Know BMI and let others know, try Nirmal’s way

2.   FDA to label the food items for GI

3.   Change the protein profile of your food intake

4.   Home cooking and try the slow food

5.   #EatRight, not just #EatHealthy

Is the Veganism anti-dote to the Vegetarianism

Why I chose to touch this issue now? October is very happening month for the veggie world. First, this month is being celebrated as the Vegetarian Awareness Month. It started with the World Vegetarian Day on Oct 1st and would end on Nov 1st, the World Vegan Day. Also Oct 16 is celebrated by UN as the World Food Day which deals with the food security for the global population. But I have struggled with this issue since my college days almost 25 years back. Off course that time I have no inkling of my future as a food entrepreneur and positioning Indian food as the flag bearer of the vegetarianism. Also the recent debate about #BeefBan in India did play a role in my take here.

If I would mention my first brush with the Veganism happened way back in my college days that too in India, you would laugh me off. Like even today there are 500 million vegetarians in India, 65% of the world but the vegans may be 1-2 million, my guesstimate though. The reason is simple- we Indians get most of protein from the milk, India being the largest producer of milk in the world. I would blame this on the sweet tooth of Indians too. Like if you think of US, out of approx 16 million vegetarian population, 4-5 million are Vegans or may be more. 

In 1989 Mrs Maneka Gandhi, an ultimate vegan crusader I would call her, was a minister in the Federal govt of Mr V.P. Singh, then Prime Minister. Incidentally she is now also a minister in the present Federal Govt. Leave aside politics part of it.  I came across a news item one day that she had persuaded Mr Singh to give up the milk altogether. It was a big news for us Indians. Like in those days if I eat three meals a day, all meals would have milk or yogurt or the sweets made of milk. It helps that India is the largest producer of the milk and it is the primary source of protein for millions of family along with the lentils. Now I may eat the milk product once during or after the dinner. Mind you it was an era when the internet had started to bloom and there was no TMI  (too much information) factor.

I was struck by her 2 arguments for the Veganism - why no other mammal drink milk of others like Lion cubs drinking milk of elephant given that Lion is the king of the forest. And why we humans don't have teeth of the meat eating animals like Lions or even the dogs. Like if we consider Chimps or monkeys as our ancestors, they are still vegans, right. But yah we humans are the smartest creature on this planet and we figured out the ways to do something which other creatures don't do naturally. And we made our pets dogs or cats alike to do what we do. That is one part of the story.

Another part is where are we now in this journey of being the smartest? We humans consume 250 million tons or 550 billion pounds of meat. and almost 800 million tons of milk every year. 1 ton = 2200 pounds. Every year almost 20 billion animals and birds are killed for the meat, approx 60 million a day. So say one day we all wake up and by some magic the whole world turns Vegan, then what happens to these birds and animals. Assuming on average 30 days stock of meat is ready, we are talking about 2 billion animals and birds, which are alive or grown up at any point. 

let me share one more story here. Have you heard about Heritage Food USA ' campaign for 'Eat Goat to Save Goat' or 'NoGoatLeftBehind'. Why? Goat cheese is wildly popular in the US but there is no demand for the goat meat. So the male baby goats are killed within a week of birth or so as there is no usage of them. Heritage Food connects the goat farm to the restaurants so that at least male goats have some usage and they get to live a bit longer. Sounds weird, right? But I would tell you why it sounds more weird.

Goat meat is healthier than even chicken, please see 'Nirmal at a glance' at our website. Also it is the most sustainable meat. One pound of goat meat needs 127 gallons of water, beef 1800 gallons, pork 700, chicken 500, tofu 300, soya 200. On top of it, the goat milk is better than other milks we consume. Please see the link - 

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-gallons-of-water-to-make-a-burger-20140124-story.html

Besides that goat consumes 1/3 of grass consumed for the same amount of beef and 1/5 of grain for the pork. And goat could be reared anywhere from the Himalayas to the sub-Saharan Africa. Mind you 60-70% of the world agriculture land is used for the animal feed. Then why the world meat consumption consists of 37% pork, 31% chicken, 24% beef, 6% goat and rest other animals and birds. Also the meat consumption alone accounts for 21% of the world  greenhouse gases, more than that emitted by all modes of transportation from the airplanes to the auto-rickshaws. You don't have to believe in the climate change for that matter but the pattern of meat consumption now is not sustainable, period. See other posts for why.

Now let me share a brief background of the beef debate in India. India has  a population of 1.3 billion out of which 85% are Hindus. In the Hinduism, the cow is considered sacred and we Hindus don't eat beef. Though the cow is not national animal of India, the cow slaughter ban is in place in 24 out of 29 states in India. Article 48 of the Indian constitution mandates the states to prohibit the slaughter of the cows and other cattle. In 2005, Indian Supreme court upheld the constitutional validity of this article. India has 12% Muslim population and Muslims don't eat pork. Also India is the 2nd largest producer of goat, hence majority of restaurants in India don't serve beef or pork rather they serve chicken and goat. But then why India is 5th largest producer of the beef and 1st in the beef export. Because India is so corrupt that it boasts of 3600 legal and 30000 illegal slaughter houses as per one estimate. So I always wonder why there is such a hue and cry over the beef whenever the BJP, the Hindu Nationalist Party in the US media, comes to power at the federal level. Recently this debate came to the world stage when a Muslim was killed by some Hindu fanatics on the suspicion of keeping or eating beef at home. I am not much in the politics but I know the Indian history well. As per my knowledge BJP (its previous avatar Jansangh) or its so called mentor RSS had no role in the drafting of the Indian constitution. Article 48 represents the aspirations and beliefs of 85% of population. 

Let me share my story finally. I grew up in a village in India in the early 80s. Actually India lives in its villages as still now 60% of population live in the villages mostly engaged in the agriculture, way down from 80% in my time.  Our family was well-off in the sense that we have had some agriculture land as well as 5-6 cows and buffalo. Then our neighbors who did not have land, used to rear the goats, rightly called the poor's cow. We had the cow-shed outside to house our cattle whereas the goats lived like the pets in their homes, no shed required.  I remember as a kid I was trained to respect or I would say revere the cow, not so much for the female buffalo though she used to give more milk. The adult male cows (Ox) were used in various capacity - to plow the field, still relevant as the average land holding in India is still 1/2 acre, to drive carts to transport materials on the mud roads connecting the villages, still useful, to be used in 'Kolhu' to produce the oil, not relevant now. Then the dung from the cattle were dried and used as fuel, still relevant for the poor in India. The dung could be stored underground to convert them to the fertilizer and subsequent gas production, still relevant. I never came across or heard about the killing of any cattle. On the contrary, the baby male goats were castrated at the age of 2 -3 months to let them grow big and fetch better price as a meat item at the age of around 2 years. So they don't have to die young like here in the US. Our family used to have meat only on Sundays and that too only goat. Like the male goats have no other use except  as the meat. And despite treating them like the pets, it was OK for us to eat them. Like we humans do have perfect quid pro quo. In India, the cattle is additional source of the economic independence for the farmers or the people living in the villages. 

I would frame this debate in 2 categories - the developed countries like US, European Union and the developing and other poor countries like India, Latin America and Africa.

In the developed countries, the meat and milk consumption is so high that everything is commercialized, the factory farming.  Has it killed our compassion as PETA calls it? Yes very much. Like the US would be easily the most pet friendly country in the world with 65% of the family having some kind of pets. Then why people don't have compassion for other animals? Very valid question, right. But this meat consumption is not sustainable. We don't need to wait for the California drought to understand it.  No surprise that the Vegan or vegetarian movement is the strongest in the US and Europe. The biggest myth which has been perpetuated so long in the US is you need 'Meat for Protein.' It has caused havoc with the public health with 70% of the population being overweight or obese. We want to dispel this myth and Indian food has plenty of vegetarian and vegan options with lot of protein. Like people can't go on eating salads and soups whole life and it is asking too much from them.

For the developing and poor countries, the cattle would be a source of the economic upliftment as well as the nutrition for the majority of population. India is a fit test case. India has almost  42% of population being vegetarian but per capita per day meat consumption is mere 12 gms as compared to US's 330 gms, Europe 220 gms and China 160 gms (1 lb=454 gms). The reason is majority of meat eating population in India eat meat once or twice a week like we used to do. Our 'Curry' or usage of spices makes veggie eating easier, tastier and affordable. It has potential to kill or reduce the factory farming.

So back to the Veganism Vs the Vegetarianism debate. More and more people would switch to the vegetarian eating in the long term whatever be the reasons, from the obesity to our Curry to the drought in California to the climate change debate. We humans have lived with the cattle for the millennia and can co-exist happily. There has to be some sort of quid pro quo with the cattle population like they are not wild animals like the lions, tigers or elephants and just part of our food ecosystem. So the Veganism sounds elitist as it leaves the billions of poor and the animals in the lurch. The poor may find another source of cheap protein but what happens to the billions of cattle and the birds either to be culled or sterilized like we do for our pets here. Or we may have to find a way to stop or limit producing the male cattle. Remember we humans are the smartest and we can control the lives of our fellow animals.

Yah, it is the anti-dote to the Vegetarianism. 

7 steps to make the world better place

One afternoon in 2013 while driving on the highways, I was struck with the word 'disruptive eating.' LIke I was toying with so many words or phrases to define what we were trying to do at Nirmal. Think of an Indian restaurant if you have had exposure to Indian cuisine. What comes to your mind? Buffet, Tandoori Chicken, Naan bread, full service, afternoon closed, may be in not this order. At Nirmal, we did away with all 5 off course with a purpose or a reasoning. Part of it came from our pursuit to find a model to build the first Indian food chain in the world. Another part was how Indian food could fight the obesity and the overweight prevalence in the US. Later we realized that 'Nirmal with disruptive eating' can disrupt the food industry in the US and beyond if we manage to have the wider footprints. How? In 2 years, our concept evolved to bring other things under the umbrella of 'disruptive eating', 7 steps to be specific. Because only healthy eating to achieve good physical health is not enough for general well-being of a person or actually very few would be able to sustain good physical health without other aspects.

Step 1 - Know Your Body Mass Index (BMI)

This is step 1 and from our logo to our phone no-844-KNOW-BMI or the first poster at our entrance blares this message. I am aware of some patrons' comment that we are overdoing the things. A country with 74% overweight prevalence and 33% obesity and $116 B in annual expenditure to fight these still wants to wait for launching a war against is not comprehensible to me. Perhaps some people have not come across the kids who have low self-esteem or bullied all around because they are obese or well overweight. See we all know being overweight is precursor to most of the health issues or being obese makes your day-to-day life tough. Then why this non-chalance? Trust me once you know you are overweight or obese, your eating habit would change subconciously. I am not talking of people who dont give a hoot to the society, community or the country. 

Step 2 - You don't have to eat 'Meat for Protein'

If you read other posts on this blog, you would see how we try to dispel so many myths and how 'Curry', the integral part of Indian food, makes veggie eating easier. But the question remains  here in the US how people would eat veggie and where? Like veggie here means salad or some baked vegetables or potato sandwich. Let me share some facts.  At Nirmal, we do serve lentils, tofu, soya and other vegetables.

Think of it. Canada is the largest producer of lentils and the lentils may be the cheapest source of protein as well as the dietary fiber. Then why it is not popular in this part of the world. India is the second largest producer and it is staple food item in Indian cuisine.

Lentils with any whole grain is complete protein. We discarded Naan bread (made from all purpose flour) at Nirmal so as to serve only 'Whole wheat bread' called Roti. Most of us may know how beneficial whole wheat or whole grain is. But you wont find whole wheat flour at Sam's club or GFS, the two biggest suppliers for the restaurants. That shows why you won't find whole wheat bread for burgers or tortillas at most of the restaurants?

Take Tofu, processed food made from Soyabeans with low protein and low calories. It comes from Chinese cuisine and you won't find or rarely find it in Chinese buffet here. I did not eat Tofu in India, honestly did not hear about it. But then I can see the reason.

We in India eat Soya chunks, high protein and high calorie food. See the 'Meat for Protein' poster under Nirmal at a glance. Please visit www.nutrela.com to know about soya products and I can say abashedly we treated soya chunks as a meat substitute as it is complete protein on its own. Then why no cuisine whatever I see in the US use soya chunks. That is baffling. It could be cheap source of protein but it may have stigma of poor's protein. Or there are so many myths with the soya products here. In India, there are 500 million vegetarians, 65% of the world vegetarians and Nutrela soya chunks is one of the most popular options for all rich and poor everyone. As for myths' part, ask any Indian here and most of us grew up eating soya chunks. Even we are non-vegetarians, it is once or twice a week meat meal. For India, meat consumption per day per capita is mere 12 gms as compared to 330 gms in US, 220 gms in EU and 160 gms in China.

Meat is not sustainable, period. The link below details one part of story. How one pound of beef needs 1800 gallons of water as compared to tofu needing 300 gallons, Soya 218 gallons, lentils less than 100 gallons. Add this to the fact that 70% of the agriculture land we use now for the animals feed and think how long majority of us would be able to afford the cost of meat.

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-gallons-of-water-to-make-a-burger-20140124-story.html

 Step 3 - Eat Goat if you are non-vegetarians

How much PETA wants us to turn vegetarians, it is not going to happen in our life-time for sure. 1 billion populace out of 7 billion are engaged in the meat production, processing and delivery. If you talk of compassion for the animals, the factory farming has killed our compassion. So what is next best option, the goat meat. Why?

See our poster. Goat meat is healthier than even Chicken and it is far more sustainable meat. One pound of goat needs just 127 gallons of water as compared to 468 gallons for 1 pound of chicken, 576 gallons for pork and 731 gallons for lamb. Goat could be reared anywhere from the sub-saharan Africa to the Himalays. It needs 1/5 of grain needed for pork and 1/3 of grass for beef. 

Then you may ask why there is almost no demand for goat meat here in the US? Why the Heritage Food has the weird slogan of 'Eat Goat to Save Goat.' Why Chinese restaurants here dont serve goat meat as China is the largest producer of goat. Few Indian restaurants do serve goat meat like us, India being the 2nd largest producer.

Too many whys, same nonchalance.

Step 4 - Avoid Food wastage at any cost

The US alone wastes $165 Billion of food, 40% by the consumers and 60% by the stores. But for the global scenario, see this link – http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/food_waste_the_facts 

We discarded the Buffet on this very ground as we used to throw lot more food than the customers leaving on their plates. Buffet is meant for the introduction of any cuisine and we now have $5 option in the form of Food Box with 5 items. Food box has far more varieties than the buffet. In Europe, you get fined for leaving food at your plate, see this link- http://www.ibtimes.co.in/swiss-restaurant-imposes-fine-customers-wasting-food-600131

The fast food culture has played a role in this food wastage too as most of the foods are now ready to be served. And if it does not sell, it needs to be thrown away. At Nirmal, we make 90% of our food as per order and our patrons have to wait longer for their food. Indian food is not fast food and we make our food as we do at home.

Step 5 - To make healthy food affordable, Home cooking key

Majority of populace here in the US wont be able to afford so-called veggie, nutritious food and needless to mention why tacos, burgers, pizzas are the best selling items in the US. You dont have to be a NASA scientist to guess that majority of overweight population are the low income people. So we provide $5 lunch or dinner but for a family of 4, it is still costly. Hence the home cooking is the key. We share at the social media how to make the basic Indian food or now people have so many options to know what and how to cook the healthier options. Home cooking is a habit and it would take time to inculcate. But worth doing it. Most of us Indians grew up with the home cooking specially by the ladies of the house as per our culture. It strengthens the bond of the family and saving the money is an added bonus.

Step 6 - Self-Gratification, you make global impact

The meat consumption alone counts for 21% of the green house gases, more than that caused by all aeroplanes, trains, vehicles combined all over the world, the main culprit for the global warming. I don't think Pope and the 90% of the world are stupid who believes in the global warming. So if you eat less meat or skip meat once a week, you do make a contribution. Say you start eating goat meat instead of other meats, you are helping in fight against the global hunger and poverty, see our last post. Just sharing our message of 'disruptive eating' through mouth to mouth or the social media (Twitter, Facebook or Instagram), you are doing a favor to make the world a better place.

Step 7 - Physical health tied to mental n spiritual health

If you think just eating the salads or the healthy food and spending some hours at the gym is enough, you are missing something. Mental n spiritual health sustain your physical health. My personal choice comes from the two pillars of Indian culture - Yoga and Gita. The UN sponsored the first celebration of #InternationalYogaDay on 21st June this year finally according the Yoga a status it deserved for so long. 'Gita' celebrated 5151st anniversary last year and this is a book technically. Please visit www.gita4free.com to have a look. But you have so many other options just a click away. 

We launched our campaign for #DisruptiveEating on the Mothers' Day this year at Twitter handle @NirmalCurry. It was just not symbolic as we believe the young kids need to get informed, guided from step 1 to 7 and the mothers have all important role to play.

Join our campaign 4 #PureMHealthyM if you are in Michigan. We are looking for the partners who can join us in our endeavor to take our message all over the Michigan and the US.

Lentils and Goat hold the key to fight the global hunger and poverty

Are you surprised by the Lentils and Goat combination? For the people in US and other developed countries, both are almost alien food items, not used frequently. For Indians, both are much familiar as India holds the 2nd position worldwide in the production of both and the lentils is the staple food. Canada is the largest producer of the lentils and China for the goats.

Lentils and goats are 2 essential components of the 'disruptive eating' which we practice and promote through Nirmal. Please read our earlier posts. The 'disruptive eating' connects the healthy eating to the climate change. Both are the most glaring issues of our generation.

The healthy eating component has 2 parts - one, you don't have to eat meat for protein and second, for non-vegetarians, the goat meat is far better option. Just to give an idea, the meat consumption alone produces more greenhouse gases than that of all aeroplanes, trains, automobiles combined, 21% of the total. The lentils combined with the rice or any whole grain is the complete protein. In bonus, the lentils is the excellent source of the dietary fiber. See the link - http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/foods-mixed-lentils-provide-complete-source-amino-acids-1195.html

 Also the veggie protein has one component missing as compared to the meat protein -B12. One can get plenty of B12 in the dairy and the eggs. The vegans need to get the supplement from the other sources.

We believe that the whole world population can't turn the vegetarians overnight, not feasible either as per the food chain point of view or the employment wise. Almost 1 Billion people are engaged in the meat production, transportation and the distribution. Out of 7 Billion of the world population, now there are just 750 million vegetarians, 500 million in India. Percentage wise, India has 42% vegetarians as compared to 10% in the US and 5% in the China. Such high percentage of vegetarians in India could be attributed to our cultural moorings as well as the Curry based food. The Curry uses the plenty of the spices whose taste is so dominant that it makes the presence of veggie or the meat item almost redundant. Like if you eat soya curry or chciken curry, your taste buds would get almost the same pleasure. The India was well known for its spices since the time immemorial and still is the largest producer of the spices in the world. That's why the Indian cuisine is the integral part of the 'disruptive eating.'

The goat meat despite being the red meat is healthier than even Chicken. See the link from the Michigan State University, one of the top agriculture research universities in the US -     http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/eat_goat_it_is_a_healthy_choice  

But that is not the biggest advantage of the goat meat. Once you go through this link - "http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-gallons-of-water-to-make-a-burger-20140124-story.html#"-story.html# , you may get shocked. One pound (454 gms) of the beef uses 1800 gallon of water (1 gallon=3.78 liters). Compare this with the pork needing 576 gallon, Chicken 468, Lamb 731 and the stupendous Goat needs just 127 gallons. I know the beef supporters always forward the argument that for the grain fed beef, the water requirement comes down by 75%, so 1 pound beef would need 450 gallons, still 3.5 times of the goat. One reason to combine Lentils with Goat is its water requirement, less than 100 gallons for a pound. Actually the scientists have developed the drought resistant varieties of the lentils.

Let me share some more facts. How many of us know that 70% of the agriculture land in the world is used for some form of feed for the meat producing animals, the pastures or  the grain. See the link -http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/meat-and-animal-feed.html . Here the goat scores too as they are called the browsers not the grazers. As matter of the fact, for the same quantity of the meat, the goat eats 1/3 of the grass needed for the beef and 1/5 of the grain needed for the pork. Also the goat could be reared anywhere from the Himalayas to the Sub-Saharan Africa. In India, the villagers keep the goats as the pets due to its small size. Goat is also good source of the milk and its milk is more tolerant or digestive than the cow's milk.

As of now, the global meat consumption has share of the Pork 38%, the Chicken 30% and the Beef 24%, Goat 6%, total 98%. All other meats fit into 2% including the lamb, the turkey and other meats. And that baffles me. Like if you try our goat curry or goat biryani in Indian Cuisine, it beats hand down any preparation of beef or pork. Off course you need to get used to the spices.

So the goat meat is healthier, far more sustainable than any type of meat, could be tastier in due course, then why its usage is at the bottom of the rung.

We believe that the lack of information is the primary reason. That's why we have started a campaign to ask the UN to declare the #WorldsLentilsDay and #WorldGoatDay on Oct 16, the World Food Day. Let people all over the world focus on the lentils and the goat. We are also pitching for the UN supervised program for #LentilsLand and #GoatLoan. There is so much barren land or the unused government or private land in each and every country. Can UN help in leasing these lands to the landless poor people and help them grow the lentils, called the poor's protein? Also the UN can arrange the goat loan to these or other poor families to build an extra source of income in the form of goat rearing.

The UN sponsored International Days are very effective. Just last month the International Yoga day was celebrated on 21st June. It was observed by 190 countries out of 205 countries or so. I was following the #BeefBan issue in India. Everyone pitched in from the central ministers to the leaders from the other parties to the twitter world. I did not hear a single word from anyone about how the beef is not healthy neither sustainable. I know people would argue that the beef is far cheaper than the goat. It is because there is not very high demand for the goat, a red meat though healthier than Chicken and most of the goat meat produced in India is exported. Once the people start eating the goat meat, the supply would go up too. And with the goat loan, the Indian villages with 51% of population would become the goat farm land and that would bring the price down. In India, there is no need for the beef ban once the people know about the goat.

I am banking on Indian Prime minister Modi Ji to take the cause of the lentils and the goat this year at UN General Assembly like he did for the Yoga last year. I know he is a vegetarian and frequently talks about the lentils production in India. But both things have potential to change the Indian economy. And India needs it more.

Say after the sustained effort of UN and the countries like US, India, China, say by 2050, the goat meat share reaches 50%, Chicken 40%, other meats 10% and 25% of the world population turn the vegetarian, imagine the savings in the grain and the pasture land. This has potential to eradicate the global hunger and the poverty problem.

Why 2050? By then the world population would be 9 billion. Whatever progress we make in the space technology, we won't be able to send more than 10K people to the Mars or the Moon by 2050. So we have to fit in another 2 billion people on our planet and provide food for them. From where?  We have to take back the land from the meat animals, remember 70% of the agriculture land. And only way out is to reduce the meat consumption in general and gradually the goat to replace the beef and pork as the global brand. The forest cover depletion is no longer the option for the human habitat.

And yes, the water is not unlimited what we drink and use for bath, cooking etc. If you think the sea water which covers almost 70% of our planet is an option, forget it. We need to think before we eat anything. Sorry, the Chocolate too.

Recently we launched the campaign for #PureMHealthyM here in the Michigan. Let us take our message to all over the US and beyond. We bank on your participation.

References

http://science.time.com/2013/12/16/the-triple-whopper-environmental-impact-of-global-meat-production/

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/05/meat_eating_and_climate_change_vegetarians_impact_on_the_economy_antibiotics.html

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/poverty-in-haiti-2  

 

 "http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitnessResource/super-healthy-vegetarian-protein-sources/story?id=16477525"16477525

 "http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/30/1240661/-Feed-an-extra-4-billion-Grow-crops-for-humans-not-animals#"-billion-Grow-crops-for-humans-not-animals#

http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/meat-and-animal-feed.html "http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2009/04/the_kindest_cut.html"/the_kindest_cut.html

 "http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/10/how-much-water-food-production-waste"/how-much-water-food-production-waste

 "http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/14/the-coming-global-domination-of-chicken/"/the-coming-global-domination-of-chicken/

 "http://www.businessinsider.com/how-we-eat-meat-around-the-world-2014-1"2014-1

 "http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/goat-meat-the-final-frontier/2011/03/28/AF0p2OjC_story.html"OjC_story.html      

"http://www.americashealthrankings.org/reports/annual#sthash.m6R4Xju2""

 "http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-gallons-of-water-to-make-a-burger-20140124-story.html"-story.html"

http://www.pacsindia.org/key-themes/sustainablie-livelihoods/revenue-land/land-use-ownership

http://www.cgiar.org/our-strategy/crop-factsheets/lentil/