Summer project is a time to travel, meet new people, acquire new cool stuff and learn contemporary science -- doesn't that sound perfect? Study and fun combined together and that's what exactly happened to me when I got selected for a summer project in IIT, Kanpur, one of the most prestigious institutes in India. When I told my seniors that I will go there by myself and meet the faculties their jaws just dropped. As for a small summer project where they have thousands of students to select from, it was like winning a lottery. In my defense, well, someone does win the lottery right? They wished me well and conveyed to me that I will be wasting my time but guess what: I got it!!!! There is something called luck and maybe fate that helped me. Now you must be wondering what was such a big deal about a summer project? In order to complete a master's, it was mandatory by our university to have a small project in some reputed institute.
I will have to admit in the beginning it was a bit daunting to be in such a prestigious institute, amongst all the nerds if I may say so, but my focus shifted as something great happened I miraculously started to lose weight!!!! It was as if getting into IIT wasn't enough that it granted me my biggest wish of all times: losing weight. I cannot give precise reasons why this astounding 'phenomenon' took place but I think two things played vital roles: walking a lot in hot weather and avoiding rice. Now you must be wondering that a humongous population on this planet eats rice so why am I saying this? The thing is different foods are metabolized by different populations differently; in my case rice is my vice. The thing is rice is not the main culprit two things matter: portion and proteins. There are too many 'two things' in this blog it seems huh?
There is another big factor for which I might be denounced, that Indian food in general is heavy food: vegetarian or non- vegetarian. In order to make myself very clear I posted a picture from Internet of traditional food below: starting clockwise it has white rice that has been cooked in oil, you can get plain rice if you want, a samosa that is deep fried, then there are lentils that are cooked in oil and sometimes we add cream to make it highly palatable, then there is palak paneer which means spinach and Indian cheese in which spinach has been boiled and paneer is deep fried so all the nutrients are lost anyways and to top it off, it has cream. Next is some kind of vegetable which might not have cream and has potatoes probably, there is a naan which is made of all-purpose flour and some oil, in the center there is a raita which is yogurt mix with some spices and is most probably full fat and finally there is a drink that is made with mango puree and yogurt with lots of white sugar. Just to give a rough idea I am attaching a picture of a small party I gave at my home with my friends.
This kind of food is very popular in the whole of North India -- whether a small or a big gathering and by now you see it's too much oil and refined carbohydrates; it's the worst combination of food. I am not implying that you should never eat these but two things matter a lot: portion and how often we are eating these, and I avoided them altogether when I was in summer training. The biggest problem is we refer to this food as good food, traditional food, but truly, is it? Amalgamate this sort of food with no physical activity and you are adding inches to your waistline.
Now people will argue that this is not the food we make at home. My question for them is how many of us cook at home everyday? How many of us eat out everyday? And when we cook how much oil and refined sugar and carbohydrates do we use? Trust me, it will be almost the same as portions also matter a lot. Eating unhealthy and calorific foods in the garb of traditional foods when all the ingredients are artificial will not help anyone, it will just harm us. Hence before blaming Western foods, genetics, metabolism and everything else just look down at your plate and think: do I really need this and how much physical labor do I do to burn it off?