JUNK FOOD NUTRITION...!!!!

JUNK FOOD NUTRITION...!!!!

Humans are the only species on the Planet who actually go out of their way to feed their children CRAP.All other animals instinctly seek out the best nutrition the can find.Birds find grubs,worms and insects feed their young ,Honeybees painstakingly collect pollen & create a nutrient-rich food that gives rise to a living Queen Bee,& even dogs,cats and cows try to find the most nutrient-rich foods to offer their offspring.

But Humans...??? Most of them "REWARD" their children with junk food,sugary sodas,Candy laced with petrochemical coloring additives and refined sugars that promote OBESITY & DIABETES.Most parents dont even make any real effort to follow nutritional discipline at home..!! They simply buy whatever their children saw advertised on Television,caving in to the all powerful "NAG FACTOR" that junk food companies fully exploit when marketing to children.

As a result, Human children are the least healthy youngsters of any species on the planet.For example, Baby Dolphins are healthier than baby humans,and they are born with healthier nervous systems,fewer toxins & a lot more common sense...!!

Speaking of common sense ,Nearly all mammals have the common sense to feed their children their own mother's milk.A Kitten will drink from its mother cat's milk.A foal will drink from its mother mare 's milk like that..But humans..?? We're sort of stupid.We mostly drink cow's,sometimes sheep..!!!

Of all the mammals on planet earth , only humans are dumb enough to seek out mammary gland juice of another species while shunning the breast milk of their own species.And did we choose the milk of a species SMARTER than us that might have more brain boosting nutrients? NOPE.We get our milk from A Low-IQ species Well suited to pulling A plow cow"s milk ain"t exactly brain nutrition folks. Some people have a hard time understading that becuause they've been drinking too much of the stuff and those mushy neurons crammed into their thick skulls are firing a bit on the slow side.In that also we are not drinking the fresh milk of any other species rather we process it to powder or any other form and drink that milk...!!!

Humans by the way are not only so collectively short sighted that they feed their children crap foods and they actually still havent figured out why so many of their children are obase and diabetic..!! It's like beating yourself on the hand with a hammer and wondering why your fingers hurt.Gee, the evidence isn't that

difficult to figure out,Folks.If you feed your kids sugar, toxic chemical additives,mind altering pharmaceuticals and toxic shampoos,lotions and toothpaste,you're going to end up with mutant children who aren't exactcly NOBEL PRIZE material.

This is not rocket science.The real mystery is how the food companies keep getting away with all the denial of the evidence linking processed foods and beverages to children's health problems.I guess it helps that they influence the Government regulators and practically own the mainstream of media.they also buy all the prime shelf space at grocery stores,sponser the big sporting events,and have successfully infiltrated schools and hospitals with junk food restaurents and vending machines.

If the birds & the bees have figured out how to raise healthy offspring,you'd think that humans might have the brain power to raise their healthy children,Too. And some PARENTS ARE... There are lot of great parents out there raising kids on macrobiotic diet,A vegetarian diet or ZERO -PROCESSED -FOODs diet..Good jobs to all the parents who actually teach their children healthful eating habits!!

KEEP IT UP GOOD WORK..!!!

Unfortunately,those parents are rare.Most parents just buy whatever crap is being peddled on TV these days.And they feed their kids cancer causing processed meats,hyperactivity causing food additives and obesity promoting refined sugars.They load them up on high fructose corn syrup and then wonder why little johnny weighs 150 pounds..!!(Must be the genes,they think.because daddy's overweight too)

And even though some individuals and corporations may get financially rich by selling this junk to families,the bottom line is that
WE'RE ALL WORSE OFF WHEN WE RAISE UNHEALRHY CHILDREN IN SOCIETY
why? Because the future cost of treating disease--not to mention the loss of lifetime productivity--is jaw droppingly HUGE.It's enough to bankrupt nations,which is,coincidentally,what seems likely to happen in due course.No democracy has ever survived its citizens losing their health.

We could learn a lot by listening to nature on the subject of nutrition.Most animals eat raw foods vegetarian diet.Even the birds and bees have something important to teach us about nutrition:.But if you feed your children CRAP then your family tree becomes a dead stump in the dirt.

If you are a parent I urge you to make an effort to introduce your children to a diet of unprocessed,natural foods.If they have been on a sugared up diet of processed foods so far,they will of course whine about it.But your job as the parent is to give your children what's best for their health,not what they really really want because their taste buds tell them so.

Always breastfeeded new borns and dont believe the infant formula being JUST AS GOOD AS MOTHER'S MILK...!!!

Dont bring sugar or carbonated soda into your house,and dont reward kids with Junk food.that only trains them to associate pleasure with unhealthy foods,and that is a curse that could haunt them for the rest of their Adult life.

FEED THEM RIGHT AND YOU'LL GIVE THEM THE BEST GIFT ANY PARENT COULD HOPE TO OFFER

A HEALTHFUL ,SELF-AWARE FUTURE,

FREE FROM CHEMICALS AND DISEASE

In This New year I request all the parents to take a new Resolution that they feed their children only with the nutritious food and thus help to build the healthy FUTURE GENERATION....!!!
ALL THE BEST...!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

Eating for Balance........!!!!!!!!

Eating for Balance: Choosing Foods for an Ayurvedic Diet

According to ayurveda, every individual has unique needs for balance. Since diet is one of the most important ayurvedic tools for achieving balance, ayurvedic healers generally
design individualized diets for people they see, based on various factors such as age and gender, the doshic tendencies that need to be balanced at a given time, the strength of the body tissues and the digestive fires, and the level of ama (toxins) in the body. The place where a person lives and the season are also factors that affect dietary dos and don'ts.

Notwithstanding the individualized approach to choosing foods for balance, there are some universally applicable principles that are important to follow if you are living an
ayurvedic lifestyle:

1. Include the six tastes at every main meal
In ayurveda, foods are classified into six tastes--sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Ayurvedic healers recommend that you include all of these six tastes at each main meal you eat. Each taste has a balancing ability, and including some of each minimizes cravings and balances the appetite and digestion. The general North American diet tends to have too much of the sweet, sour and salty, and not enough of the bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.

A fruit-spice chutney or a spice-mix can provide a little of each of the six tastes if you are in a hurry, but it is ideal to choose foods from each category for complete, balanced nutrition. Just in the category of fresh vegetables and herbs, for example, you could choose fennel bulb or carrot for the sweet taste, fresh lemons for sour, arugula or endive for bitter, radish or white daikon or ginger root for pungent and cabbage or broccoli or cilantro for astringent. Click here for more on the six tastes.

The Amalaki Rasayana, made from the Amla fruit, offers five of the six ayurvedic tastes--all except salty.

2. Choose foods by balancing physical attributes
In ayurveda, foods are also categorized as heavy or light, dry or unctuous/liquid and warm or cool (temperature), and different qualities balance different doshas. A balanced main meal should contain some foods of each physical type. Within this overall principle, you can vary the proportions of each type based on your constitution and needs for balance, the season of the year and the place you live.

To keep Vata dosha in balance, choose more heavy, unctuous or liquid, and warm foods, and fewer dry, light or cool foods. To help balance Pitta, focus more on cool, dry and
heavy foods, and to balance Kapha, try more of light, dry and warm foods.

If you live in cooler climes, you'll want to gravitate towards warm comfort foods, and vice versa. Similarly, in winter, when Vata dosha tends to increase in most people's constitutions, almost everyone can benefit from including warm soups and nourishing dhals, fresh paneer cheese and whole milk in the diet. In the summer, plan on eating more cool, soothing foods to help keep Pitta dosha in balance.

3. Choose foods that are sattvic
A third ayurvedic classification of foods is by the effect they have on the non-physical aspects of the physiology--mind, heart, senses and spirit. Sattvic foods have an uplifting yet stabilizing influence, rajasic foods stimulate and can aggravate some aspects of the mind, heart or senses, and tamasic foods breed lethargy and are considered a deterrent to spiritual growth.

Everyone, whether actively seeking spiritual growth or not, can benefit by including some sattvic foods at every meal because they help promote mental clarity, emotional serenity and sensual balance and aid in the coordinated functioning of the body, mind, heart, senses and spirit. Almonds, rice, honey, fresh sweet fruits, mung beans and easy-to-digest, fresh seasonal vegetables and leafy greens are examples of sattvic foods. To get the full sattwa from sattvic foods, prepare and eat them whole and fresh.

4. Opt for whole, fresh, in-season, local foods
Authentic ayurvedic herbal preparations are made by processing the whole plant or the whole plant part, not by extracting active substances from the plant. Similarly, from the ayurvedic perspective, the most healthful diet consists of whole foods, eaten in as natural a state as possible, the only exception being when removing a peel or cooking helps increase digestibility and assimilation for certain types of constitutions. If the digestive fire is not strong enough, even wholesome foods can turn into ama (toxic matter) in the body.

Foods that are frozen, canned, refined so as to denude the food of its nutritive value, processed with artificial colors, flavorings, additives or preservatives, genetically altered, or grown with chemical pesticides or fertilizers are not recommended by ayurvedic healers, because such foods are lacking in chetana--living intelligence--and prana--vital life-energy--and will do more harm than good in the physiology.

For the above reasons, it's best to choose foods and produce that is locally grown or produced, foods that are in-season, and foods that are organic, natural and whole.

5. Rotate menus and experiment with a variety of foods
The sages that wrote the ancient ayurvedic texts would be horrified by our current fascination with the low-carb diet or the no-fat diet or the juice diet--from the ayurvedic perspective, any diet that is exclusive in nature is by definition incomplete in its nutritive value and ability to balance all aspects of the physiology. Eat a wide variety of foods for balanced nutrition--whole grains, lentils and pulses, vegetables, fruits, dairy, nuts, healthy oil or ghee, spices and pure water all have their roles in the balancing process.

If you find yourself eating the same dishes several times a week, or you gravitate towards the same produce or foods every time you shop, resolve now to start making your meals an adventure. Every week, try at least a few new foods or fix familiar foods in new ways, so that your taste buds and your digestion are constantly exposed to some new stimuli in addition to the familiar.

According to ayurveda, each meal should be a feast for all of your senses. When your plate reflects an appealing variety of colors, textures, flavors and aromas, your digestive juices start freely flowing in anticipation and your body, mind and heart are all fulfilled by the eating experience.

We constantly upgrade our site, so check back often for ideas for eating ayurvedically at our recipes and foods sections.

6. Include spices and herbs in your daily diet
Spices and herbs are concentrated forms of Nature's healing intelligence. They are particularly revered in ayurveda for their ability to enhance digestion and assimilation, help cleanse ama (toxins) from the body and their yogavahi property--their ability to transport the healing and nutritive value of other components of the diet to the cells, tissues and organs.

Spices, in ayurveda, are generally eaten cooked. Sauté spices in a little olive oil or ghee (clarified butter) and pour the mixture over cooked foods, or simmer spices with foods like beans or grains as they cook. Fresh herbs such as cilantro or mint are generally added at the end of the cooking process, just before serving.

Ayurveda recommends spices/herbs to stimulate the digestion before a meal, during a meal and after a meal. Eating a bit of fresh ginger and lemon about 30 minutes before a main meal helps kick-start the digestion. Eating dishes cooked with a variety of spices and herbs helps the cycle of digestion--absorption--assimilation--elimination. Chewing fennel seeds after a meal helps digestion and freshens the breath naturally as well.

Ayurvedic rasayanas such as Amalaki and Triphala offer additional ways to help nourish and cleanse the digestive system. Amalaki Rasayana helps enhance digestion, helps
balance the production of stomach acid and nourishes the body tissues. Triphala Rasayana helps tone and cleanse the digestive tract and helps nourish the different tissues.

Cooking with the Mung Bean the Ayurvedic Way

Diet and Digestion

Cooking with the Mung Bean the Ayurvedic Way

If your concept of including mung in your diet means topping off a salad with a few bean sprouts, think again. Mung beans, and their split, hulled version, mung dhal, can be used to create main dishes, salads, soups, spreads, savories, beverages and desserts. Mung beans combine well with a host of grains and flours, vegetables and greens, tart fruit, other sprouts, spices and herbs, and even rice, soy or nut milks.

Mung or moong beans (Phaseolus aureous) are small cylindrical beans with a bright green skin and yellow insides. They are eaten whole, split with skins on, split and hulled as mung dhal, or sprouted. They are used extensively in both Indian and Chinese cooking.

Ayurvedic healers consider the mung bean valuable because it is highly nutritious and delivers sustenance while being easier on the digestion that most other beans. When cooked to butter-soft consistency and combined with digestion-enhancing herbs and spices, mung beans can be digested even by the recuperating, the very old and the very young, and individuals with a weak digestive fire. Mung beans offer the astringent and sweet tastes, are cooling for the physiology, light and soft. When cooked with appropriate herbs and spices, mung beans are balancing for all the doshas.

From the modern nutrition perspective, mung beans offer protein and dietary fiber, and are a source of phytoestrogens. They also contain vitamins A, C and E, folacin, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and calcium.

Buying and Storing Mung Beans

Mung beans are available at Asian groceries, health food stores, online and even some supermarkets. When buying whole mung beans, look for whole, unbroken beans of uniform size and rich color, with unbroken skins. Store the beans in clean airtight jars in a cool, dark place. Buy no more than what will last you for about a month. Older beans take longer to cook and produce more flatulence.

If you buy your mung sprouts, look for fresh, crisp sprouts without brown stains or marks. Prepare and eat the mung sprouts as soon as you can after purchase, definitely the same day. You can also sprout mung beans at home.

Preparing

Dry mung beans and dhals can contain small twigs, stones and other foreign material. Spread out the beans or dhal on a white serving dish and pick them over carefully before use. Also pick out and discard any discolored or shriveled beans.

Dry beans and dhals should be washed thoroughly in several changes of water before use. Discard any that float on top of the water.

Cooking

Dried mung dhal does not generally require pre-soaking. Whole mung beans are cooked both without soaking and after soaking. Mung dhal and beans can be cooked in a pressure cooker, in a slow cooker or on the stovetop. If cooking on the stovetop, foam that builds at the top can be skimmed off and discarded. Dhals generally have the best flavor when they are slow-cooked for a long time. In all cases, cook beans until completely tender.

Combining with Other Foods

Mung beans can be combined with brown or white rice, cracked wheat or oatmeal to make a one-dish meal known as khicharee. They can also be cooked to a soupy texture with lots of water and spices. Stews and soups that combine mung beans or mung dhal with a wide variety of greens and vegetables and grains such as barley are also common. Mung dhal flour can be combined with whole wheat flour to make fresh flatbreads on a griddle.

Cook mung beans with lots of herbs and spices. Fresh ginger, basil, cilantro, rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, curry leaves and tarragon, fresh garlic, lemon juice, and spices such as turmeric, cayenne, ajwain, cumin, coriander, garam masala, black pepper and bay leaf go wonderfully with mung dhal or mung beans.

Recipes

Basic Mung Dhal

1/2 cup split hulled mung beans (mung or moong dhal)
3-4 cups water
Rock salt to taste
1 tsp - 1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter) (use less ghee for Kapha)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp turmeric

Sort and wash the dhal. Drain. In a heavy-bottomed pot, add the washed dhal, turmeric and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil; then turn heat down to medium/low and simmer-cook until dhal is butter-soft (about 30-40 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent sticking, and add more water as needed to maintain desired consistency. If foam forms on the surface, skim it off and discard. When cooked, add salt and stir. In a separate pan, heat ghee until melted to a clear oil. Add the cumin seeds and stir to release aroma. The cumin should turn a rich dark brown but not burn. Pour the ghee-spice mixture carefully over the dhal. Stir and serve immediately with boiled Basmati rice or other whole grain and vegetables. (In a thinner consistency, this dhal can be drunk as a nourishing soup-beat with a metal whisk to a smooth consistency and heat through).

Bitter Greens, Mung Sprouts, Avocado and Orange Salad

1 cup baby spinach leaves
1 cup mixed bitter greens (arugula, dandelion, watercress etc.)
1 cup fresh mung sprouts, cut in half
1 cup orange sections, deseeded
1/2 cup diced avocado
1 tbsp soaked walnut bits, soaked for 15 minutes in warm water
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
Rock salt to taste
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger

Heat one tbsp of the oil in a skillet. Toss in the spinach leaves and mung sprouts and stir briefly to wilt the spinach leaves. Remove to a bowl and cool. Add the mixed bitter greens, orange and avocado. In another bowl, briskly whisk together the lemon juice, rest of the olive oil, lemon zest, salt, pepper, ginger and tahini. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Garnish with the chopped walnuts and serve immediately.

Note: If using garlic, add to the oil in the skillet before you add the spinach. About 1/2 tsp minced garlic would be plenty.

Mung Bean/Herb Spread

1/2 cup mung dhal
2 tbsp almond butter or tahini
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp mild olive oil
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Rock salt to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice
Fresh-cracked black pepper to taste or large pinch sweet paprika
1-2 tbsps water if needed

Heat a skillet and dry-roast the mung dhal until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Stir constantly to toast all sides and prevent burning. Grind to a coarse flour in a spice-mill. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process to a smooth, spreadable paste, adjusting the water as necessary. Tastes excellent on crisp toast or crackers, on flatbread wedges or as a dip for vegetables.

Note: If using garlic, add one medium clove, peeled, to the ingredients.

Renew yourself This Spring

Renew Yourself This Spring

Ayurvedic healers highly recommend periodic internal cleansing as a way to maintain good health and prevent disorders from taking root in the physiology. Just like you regularly flush out the plumbing system in your home or change the oil in your automobile engine, periodically helping your body flush toxins out thoroughly is a good maintenance technique that will help organs and systems stay more efficient for a longer period of time. Especially after the age of 40, when your body's own cleansing and rejuvenating capability starts slowing down, supporting it with a cleansing regime is important for ongoing health and vitality.

The Seed and Land Theory of Ayurveda

Proper digestion is crucial for health. When digestion is efficient and complete, all of the food you eat is either converted into nutrient fluids for absorption into the body, or flushed out as wastes. When the digestive process is incomplete or inefficient, partially digested food matter is left behind in the digestive system. This substance, called ama in ayurveda, becomes toxic to the physiology if allowed to stay in the body or build up over time. Ama is not only inherently toxic in itself, it also clogs the channels of the body, further disrupting the flow of digestion and leading to an escalating cycle of toxin build-up. Ama is fertile ground for infections and disorders to germinate, take root and flourish. Ama build-up is considered the first stage of imbalance in the physiology. If not addressed, disorders invariably follow.

The digestive process leaves behind toxins either when you eat foods that are not fresh, natural or suited to your constitution and digestive capability, or when you follow eating routines and practices that are not ideal. Eating processed or artificially flavored foods and foods that are grown with chemical pesticides and fertilizers can lead to toxin build-up. Drinking iced water or ice-cold beverages douses the digestive fire and causes ama to be generated. Eating heavier foods after sundown, eating a new meal before the previous one is digested, or eating when stressed or working also impact digestion.

How to tell if you have ama build-up

It is best to visit an ayurvedic healer and have him or her assess your ama levels. The following are general indications that you may have an accumulation of toxins in your physiology:

1. Your tongue has a white coating in the morning when you wake up.
2. You yawn after a main meal and just want to curl up and snooze.
3. You feel tired and lethargic all day long, even though you eat well and sleep well.
4. Your appetite is poor or you crave junk foods.
5. You feel a general lack of motivation or zest for life.
6. You feel "spaced out" and your mind is cloudy.
7. You experience abdominal bloating and gas, especially after a main meal.
8. You feel heavy and congested or constipated.
9. You have a general sense of malaise, with vague aches and pains.

If you experience three or more of the above on a regular basis, your physiology would probably benefit from a cleansing regime.

Full-fledged ayurvedic cleansing programs, called Panchakarma, are best done under the supervision of an ayurvedic physician. Harsh sudden purges are also not recommended in ayurveda. A gentle program of cleansing, done over 45-60 days, is least stressful for the physiology, easiest to follow on a regular basis, and adequate for enhancing the digestive fire to burn off simple ama accumulation.

The best time for internal cleansing

Ayurveda recommends a seasonal routine (ritucharya) as well as daily routine (dinacharya). Each season brings with it its own challenges with respect to your health and needs for balance. The time when the seasons change is the best time to do an at-home cleansing regime, to divest yourself of the earlier season's accumulation of ama and to prepare the physiology for the new season.

Spring, especially, is considered an ideal time to rejuvenate the physiology, in keeping with Nature's own calendar for rejuvenation. With the melting of the snows and the thawing of the ground, the fluids in the body also start flowing more freely, and performing an internal cleansing routine at this time accelerates the flushing of toxins from the physiology.

The "at-home" cleansing routine: diet

The don'ts:

Start by eliminating from your diet all foods that can create ama. This includes leftovers, foods with preservatives, additives or chemicals, and foods grown in an environment laced with chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and canned, frozen or processed foods.

Eliminate junk foods from your diet. Avoid heavy desserts, heavy meats and cheeses, deep-fried foods, candy and chocolate, white sugar, carbonated drinks, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine. Minimize breads made with yeast and fermented foods.

Avoid raw foods such as uncooked salads, sprouts and cold sandwiches, because raw foods are harder on the digestive system. Avoid yogurt, as it sometimes clogs the channels of the body. If you drink milk, boil it with a pinch of nutmeg for Vata, cardamom for Pitta and a slice of fresh ginger for Kapha to enhance digestibility.

Avoid iced water and cold beverages.

The dos:

Pick foods that are best for your constitution and needs for balance, as well as the strength of your digestive agni. Stick to lighter, easier-to-digest foods from the choices you do have.Our food recommendations for Vata, Pitta or Kapha balancing diets is a good starting point.

Eat whole, fresh, natural foods, organic if you can get it. Buy your produce fresh, and consume it quickly.

Eat cooked foods, warm or at room temperature.

Drink lots of warm water through the day. Accompany meals with small sips of warm water as needed. A detoxifying "tea" is even better. Coriander, cumin, fennel and ajwain (carum copticum) are digestion-enhancing spices to choose from. Here are suggestions for detoxifying herbal waters for the three doshas:

Bring two quarts of pure water to a rolling boil. Add the herbs/spices listed below, turn off heat after a couple of minutes and let steep for about 15-20 minutes. Strain and pour the water into a thermos. Drink the tea through the day, especially 15 minutes after a meal. Throw out any that remains after 6.30 pm, and make a fresh batch the next morning.

Vata: 1/2 tsp cumin seed, 1/4 tsp ajwain seed, 1/2 tsp fennel seed
Pitta: 1/2 tsp cumin seed, 1/2 tsp coriander seed, 2 fresh mint leaves
Kapha: 1/2 tsp cumin seed, 1 clove, 1-2 slices fresh ginger root

If you can find fresh Tulsi (Holy Basil), add a leaf or two to the water for all doshas. Tulsi is known for its ability to cleanse the physiology of environmental toxins.

Include lots of cleansing fruits and vegetables in your diet. Barley water or rice kanjee, made by cooking a small amount of grain with a large quantity of water (1/2 cup to 10 cups) are also wonderful cleansers of the digestive system and the urinary tract. Greens, daikon radish, bitter gourd, cabbage and celery are examples of cleansing vegetables. Cooked apples and pears are a great way to get elimination going in the morning. Prunes, pineapple, papaya and pomegranate are other fruits that aid digestion and cleansing. Herbs such as cilantro, mint, fresh ginger and lemon are also helpful for cleansing and purifying the digestive system.

Cook with digestion-enhancing, detoxifying spices such as turmeric, cumin, coriander, clove, ajwain, fenugreek, dried ginger, Chinese cinnamon and fennel. Add the turmeric to foods as they are cooking, and sauté other spices in ghee or olive oil and pour over prepared dishes for the best therapeutic benefit. Digestion-enhancing lassi, made with some of the herbs and spices mentioned in this section, is an excellent choice for a lunchtime beverage.

The "at-home" cleansing routine: lifestyle

Follow ayurvedic guidelines for proper digestion. Eat three meals a day at about the same times, eat lighter in the morning and evening than in the afternoon, and eat in a quiet, pleasant atmosphere.

Get lots of rest. Sleep is important any time of year, but especially during purification, when your body needs the quiet time to cleanse itself and recharge. Go to bed early and rise early.

Meditate everyday. Stress contributes to disrupted digestion, and meditation can help reduce stress levels.

Exercise, done everyday, is important. Exercise early in the morning. Walking is excellent exercise for all body types. Practice deep breathing to draw in oxygen and cleanse the air channels of the body. Avoid napping during the day.

The ayurvedic daily massage, called abhyanga, helps loosen toxins deeply embedded in body tissues for ease of elimination.

If there is a day spa that offers ayurvedic rejuvenation treatments in the area, treat yourself to a shirodhara--a routine where a stream of warm oil is poured steadily on the forehead for 30-45 minutes, followed by a scalp massage. The shirodhara is wonderful for calming the mind and nervous system and recharging the entire physiology.

Regular elimination is important. Empty your bowel and bladder regularly to flush the toxins that have been loosened or released from the tissues, joints and organs out of the body before they get back into circulation.

The "at-home" cleansing routine: herbal rasayanas

Triphala and Tulsi together can help cleanse the physiology of internally generated digestive ama as well as toxins drawn in from the environment through less-than-ideal air, water or food.

Triphala Rasayana helps cleanse and tone the entire digestive tract, strengthens the digestion to deter further ama formation and strengthens and purifies the liver. It can be taken by all body types. For cleansing, take 2-4 tablets of AyurBalance Triphala Rasayana with warm water about an hour before bed, for 30 days. For ongoing maintenance, take 1-2 tablets every night all year round.

The ayurvedic herb Tulsi (Holy Basil) helps balance Kapha dosha, which tends to get aggravated in the spring, and helps purify the system of spring-related ama problems as well as environmental toxins. It also helps bolster your natural immunity. Drink Tulsi-infused herbal tea once or twice a day during the Kapha season to stay balanced.

After cleansing: ongoing maintenance

After the 30 days of cleansing, you can gradually add back heavier foods and small portions of raw foods into your diet if your constitution and digestive fire permit you to have these foods usually. Continue your diet of fresh, whole, pure foods and continue to drink lots of water through the day. Get plenty of rest, moderate exercise and some relaxation every day. Take maintenance amounts of the Triphala Rasayana and add the Amalaki Rasayana after lunch each day to strengthen digestion and offer nourishment to all the body tissues.

At the next change of seasons, perform the cleansing routine again to keep ama out of the system and to support natural good health and vitality on a long-term basis.

Twelve Ways to Enhance Digestion

Ayurvedic healers consider digestion a key indicator and determinant of good health. If your digestive agnis (fires) are functioning effectively, the food you eat should get completely digested, absorbed and assimilated by your body, with the wastes regularly flushed out. An efficient digest-absorb-assimilate cycle leads to enhanced ojas. Ojas is the biochemical essence formed at the end of the chain of transformation that takes place with the raw materials we take in. Building ojas is crucial to an enhanced quality of life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

On the other hand, imperfect digestion leaves behind a residue that ayurvedic healers call ama. Ama, if left to accumulate in the physiology, eventually turns toxic, and difficult to flush out. Ama in the physiology offers fertile soil for disorders to take root and flourish. Little wonder, then, that assessing the strength of your digestive agnis (there are 13 of them) is an important part of an ayurvedic health evaluation.

If your digestion feels sluggish, here are some simple dietary recommendations to help it function more efficiently:

1. Each morning, have a glass of warm water to which a tablespoon of lemon juice has been added. You can drink it straight, or with a touch of raw honey or turbinado sugar. Lemon juice is a purifier and cuts ama in the digestive tract.

2. Have a glass of digestive lassi at lunch. Lassi helps enhance the digestive flora without clogging the microcirculatory channels of the body. Lassi should not be taken after sundown.

3. A slice of fresh ginger with a little lemon juice is recommended by ayurvedic healers as a way to stoke the digestive fires and appetite before a main meal. If you can't eat the ginger root, try squeezing out fresh ginger juice and combine the juice with lemon juice and a little warm water. Drink about 30-60 minutes before a main meal.

4. Don't miss breakfast. Stewed fruit and cooked cereal make an easy-to-digest breakfast that will keep your digestive fire stoked through the day.

5. Cook with digestion-stimulating spices. Ayurvedic spices such as dried ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander and ajwain not only enhance digestion, they also help flush toxins out of the body and help improve absorption and assimilation of nutrients. Foods that are harder to digest, such as lentils, should always be cooked with digestion-enhancing spices to help prevent discomfort and flatulence.

6. Replace caffeinated and carbonated beverages with herb-spice teas. A cup of fragrant fennel tea after lunch helps aid digestion. If you enjoy the taste of fennel, you can chew on a few seeds after lunch or dinner.

7. Minimize snacking between meals, as your digestive system needs a rest-and-recharge time to function efficiently at mealtimes and after. If you do feel hungry during the day in-between meals, eat fresh fruit--it's easy on the digestive system. Fruit is not recommended after sundown.

8. Soaking grains, lentils, nuts and seeds for 30-60 minutes in warm water helps make them easier to digest.

9. Eat heavier foods, such a paneer, at lunch. Your digestive fires peak around the middle of the day, and are less bright in the evening at dinnertime.

10. Avoid iced beverages, because they have the effect of dousing the digestive fires. Sip a little warm water or room temperature water with meals. Drinking warm water through the day, especially warm water spiked with digestion-enhancing spices, helps digestion as well as purification.

11. Cut down on raw foods because they are more difficult to digest. Steaming covered, or sautéing briskly can help make foods easier to digest without too much loss of nutritive value.

12. Buy fresh whole foods, and prepare and eat food fresh. According to ayurvedic healers, foods that have been sitting around and processed foods are taxing on the digestion and more likely to create ama.

OSHO-Terrorism...

TERRORISM

Osho, Would you talk on terrorism?

Osho : Everything is deeply related with everything else that happens. The event of terrorism is certainly related with what is happening in the society. The society is falling apart. Its old order, discipline, morality, religion, everything has been found to be wrongly based. It has lost its power over people's conscience.

Terrorism simply symbolizes that to destroy human beings does not matter, that there is nothing in human beings which is indestructible, that it is all matter ― and you cannot kill matter, you can only change its form. Once man is taken to be only a combination of matter, and no place is given for a spiritual being inside him, then to kill becomes just play.

The nations are irrelevant because of nuclear weapons. If the whole world can be destroyed together within minutes the alternative can only be that the whole world should be together. Now it cannot remain divided; its division is dangerous, because division can become war any moment. The division cannot be tolerated.

Only one war is enough to destroy everything, and there is not much time left for man to understand that we should create a world where the very possibility of war does not exist.

Terrorism has many undercurrents. One is that because of nuclear weapons, the nations are pouring their energy into that field, thinking that the old weapons are out of date. They are out of date, but individuals can start using them. And you cannot use nuclear weapons against individuals ― that would be simply stupid. One individual terrorist throws a bomb ― it does not justify that a nuclear missile should be sent.

What I want to emphasize is that the nuclear weapon has given individual people a certain freedom to use old weapons, a freedom which was not possible in the old days because the governments were also using the same weapons.

Now the governments are concentrated on destroying the old weapons, throwing them in the ocean, selling them to countries which are poor and cannot afford nuclear weapons. And all those terrorists are coming from these poor countries, with the same weapons that have been sold to their countries. And they have a strange protection: you cannot use nuclear weapons against them, you cannot throw atom bombs at them.

They can throw bombs at you and you are suddenly impotent. You have a vast amount of atomic bombs, nuclear bombs in your hands ― but sometimes where a needle is useful, a sword may not be of any use. You may have the sword; that does not mean that you are necessarily in a superior position to the man who has a needle, because there are purposes in which only the needle will work ― the sword will not be of any use.

Those small weapons from the old times were piling up, and the big powers had to dispose of them ― either drown them in the ocean.... That meant so much money, so much manpower, so much energy had gone to waste; economically it was disastrous. But just to go on piling them up was also economically impossible. How many weapons can you gather? There is a limit. And when you get a new way of killing people more efficiently, then the old simply has to be got rid of. It was thought that it would be better to sell them to poor countries. Poor countries cannot create nuclear weapons ― it costs too much. And these weapons were coming cheap ― as help; they accepted it, but these weapons cannot be used in a war. In a war these weapons are already useless. But nobody has seen the possibility that these weapons can be used individually, and a new phenomenon ― terrorism ― can come out of it.

Now, a terrorist has a strange power, even over the greatest powers.

He can throw bombs at the White House without any fear, because what you have is too big and you cannot throw it at him. And these are the weapons sold by you! But the phenomenon was not conceived of, because human psychology is not understood.

My understanding is that the way he has lived, man needs every ten to twelve years ― a war. He accumulates so much anger, so much rage, so much violence, that nothing short of a war will give him release. So, war after war, there is a gap of only ten to fifteen years. That gap is a kind of relaxation. But again you start accumulating, because the same psychology is working ― the same jealousy, the same violence.

And man is basically a hunter; he is not by nature vegetarian. First he became a hunter, and for thousands of years he was just a meat-eater, and cannibalism was prevalent everywhere. To eat human beings caught from the opposing tribe you were fighting with was perfectly ethical. All that is carried in the unconscious of humanity.

Religions have imposed things on man very superficially; his unconscious is not in agreement. Every man is living in a disagreement with himself. So whenever he can find a chance ― for a beautiful cause; freedom, democracy, socialism ― any beautiful word can become an umbrella to hide his ugly unconscious, which simply wants to destroy and enjoys destruction.

Now the world war has become almost impossible; otherwise there would have been no terrorism. Enough time has passed since the second world war; the third world war should have happened around 1960. It has not happened. This has been the routine for the whole of history, and man is programmed for it.

It has been observed by psychologists that in wartime people are more happy than in peacetime. In wartime their life has a thrill; in peacetime they look bored. In wartime, early in the morning they are searching for the newspaper, listening to the radio. Things may be happening far away, but they are excited. Something in them feels an affinity.

A war that should have happened somewhere between 1955 and 1960 has not happened, and man is burdened with the desire to kill, with the desire to destroy. It is just that he wants good names for it.

Terrorism is going to become bigger and bigger, because the third world war is almost impossible. And the stupid politicians have no other alternative. Terrorism simply means that what was being done on a social scale now has to be done individually. It will grow.

It can only be prevented if we change the very base of human understanding ― which is a Himalayan task; more so because these same people whom you want to change will fight you; they won't allow you to change them easily.

In fact they love bloodshed; they don't have the courage to say so. In one of the existentialist's novels, there is a beautiful incident which can almost be said to be true. A man is presented before the court because he has killed a stranger who was sitting on the beach. He had never seen the stranger. He did not kill him for money. He does not yet know how that man looked, because he killed him from the back, just with a big knife. They had never met ― there was no question of enmity. They were not even familiar; they had not even seen each other's faces.

The magistrate could not figure it out, and he asked the murderer, "Why did you do it?" He said, "When I stabbed that man with a knife, and a fountain of blood came out of his back, that was one of the most beautiful moments I have ever known. I know that the price will be my death, but I am ready to pay for it; it was worth it. My whole life I have lived in boredom ― no excitement, no adventure. Finally I had to decide to do something. And this act has made me world famous; my picture is in every newspaper. And I am perfectly happy that I did it."

There was no need for any evidence. The man was not denying ― on the contrary, he was glorifying it. But the court has its own routine way ― witnesses still have to be produced; just his word cannot be accepted. He may have been lying, he may not have killed the man. Nobody saw him ― there was not a single eyewitness ― so circumstantial evidences had to be presented by the police.

One of them was that possibly this man has killed according to his past life and his background. When he was young, his mother died. And when he heard that his mother had died, he said, "Shit! That woman will not leave me even while dying! It is Sunday, and I have booked tickets for the theater with my girlfriend. But I knew she would do something to destroy my whole day ― and she has destroyed it."

His mother has died and he is saying that she has destroyed his Sunday! He was going to the theater with his girlfriend, and now he has to go to the funeral. And the people who heard his reaction were shocked. They said, "This is not right, what are you saying?"

He said, "What? What is right and what is wrong? Couldn't she die on any other day? There are seven days in the week ― from Monday to Saturday, she could have died any day. But you don't know my mother ― I know her. She is a bitch! She did it on purpose."

The second evidence was that he attended the funeral, and in the evening he was found dancing with his girlfriend in a disco. And somebody asked, "What! What are you doing? Your mother has just died."

He said, "So what? Do you mean now I can never dance again? My mother is never going to be alive, she will remain dead; so what does it matter whether I dance after six hours, eight hours, eight months, eight years? What does it matter? ― she is dead. And I have to dance and I have to live and I have to love, in spite of her death. If everybody stopped living with the death of their mother, with the death of their father, then there would be no dance in the world, no song in the world."

His logic is very right. He is saying, "Where do you draw the demarcation line? After how many hours can I dance? ― twelve hours, fourteen hours, six weeks? Where will you draw the line? on what grounds? What is the criterion? So it doesn't matter. One thing is certain: whenever I dance I will be dancing after the death of my mother, so I decided to dance today. Why wait for tomorrow?"

Such circumstantial evidences are presented to the court ― that this man is strange, he can do such an act. But if you look closely at this poor man, you will not feel angry at him; you will feel very compassionate. Now, it is not his fault that his mother has died; and anyway, he has to dance some day, so it makes no difference. You cannot blame this man for saying ugly things: "She deliberately died on Sunday to spoil my joy," because his whole experience of life must have been that she was again and again spoiling any possibility of joy. This was the last conclusion: "Even in death she will not leave me."

And you cannot condemn the man for killing a stranger... because he is not a thief; he did not take anything from him. He is not an enemy; he did not even see who was the man he was killing. He was simply bored with life and he wanted to do something that made him feel significant, important. He is happy that all the newspapers have his photo. If they had published his photo before, he would not have killed; but they waited ― until he kills they will not publish his photo. And he wanted to be a celebrity... just ordinary human desires.

And he was ready to pay with his life to become, at least for one day, known to the whole world, recognized by everybody. Until we change the basic grounds of humanity, terrorism is going to become more and more a normal, everyday affair. It will happen in the airplanes, it will happen in the buses. It will start happening in the cars. It will start happening to strangers. Somebody will suddenly come and shoot you ― not that you have done anything to him, but just, the hunter is back.

The hunter was satisfied in the war. Now the war has stopped and perhaps there is no possibility for it. The hunter is back; now we cannot fight collectively. Each individual has to do something to release his own steam.

Things are interconnected. The first thing that has to be changed is that man should be made more rejoicing ― which all the religions have killed.

The real criminals are not caught. These are the victims, the terrorists and other criminals. It is all the religions who are the real criminals, because they have destroyed all possibilities of rejoicing. They have destroyed the possibility of enjoying small things of life; they have condemned everything that nature provides you to make you happy, to make you feel excited, feel pleasant.

They have taken everything away; and if they have not been able to take a few things away because they are so ingrained in your biology ― like sex ― they have at least been able to poison them.

Friedrich Nietzsche, according to me, is one of the greatest seers of the Western world; his eyes really go penetrating to the very root of a problem. But because others could not see it ― their eyes were not so penetrating, nor was their intelligence so sharp ― the man lived alone, abandoned, isolated, unloved, unrespected.

He says in one of his statements that man has been taught by religions to condemn sex, to renounce sex. Religion has not been able to manage it; and man has tried hard but has failed, because it is so deeply rooted in his biology ― it constitutes his whole body. He is born out of sex ― how can he get rid of it except by committing suicide?

So man has tried, and religions have helped him to get rid of it ― thousands of disciplines and strategies have been used. The total result is that sex is there, but poisoned. That word poisoned is a tremendous insight. Religions have not been able to take it away, but they have been certainly successful in poisoning it.

And the same is the situation about other things: religions are condemning your living in comfort. Now, a man who is living in comfort and luxury cannot become a terrorist. Religions have condemned riches, praised poverty; now, a man who is rich cannot be a terrorist. Only the "blessed ones" who are poor can be terrorists ― because they have nothing to lose, and they are boiling up against the whole of society because others have things they don't have.

Religions have been trying to console them. But then came communism ― a materialist religion ― which provoked people and said to them, "Your old religions are all opium to the people, and it is not because of your evil actions in this life or in past lives that you are suffering poverty. It is because of the evil exploitation of the bourgeois, the super-rich that you are suffering."

The last sentence in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto is: "Proletariats of the whole world unite; you have nothing to lose and you have the whole world to gain."

You are already poor, hungry, naked ― so what can you lose? Your death will not make you more miserable than your life is making you. So why not take a chance and destroy those people who have taken everything away from you. And take those things back, distribute them.
What religions have somehow been consoling people with ― although it was wrong and it was cunning and it was a lie, but it kept people in a state of being half asleep ― communism suddenly made them aware of.

That means this world is now never going to be peaceful if we don't withdraw all the rotten ideas that have been implanted in man.

The first are the religions ― their values should be removed so that man can smile again, can laugh again, can rejoice again, can be natural again.

Second, what communism is saying has to be put clearly before the people ― that it is psychologically wrong. You are falling from one trap into another. No two men are equal; hence the idea of equality is nonsense. And if you decide to be equal then you have to accept a dictatorship of the proletariat. That means you have to lose your freedom.

First the church took away your freedom, the God took away your freedom. Now communism replaces your church, and it will take away your freedom. And without freedom you cannot rejoice. You live in fear, not in joy. If we can clean the basement of the human mind's unconscious... and that's what my work is. It can be cleaned away.

The terrorism is not in the bombs, in your hands; the terrorism is in your unconscious.

Otherwise, this state of affairs is going to grow more bitter. And it seems all kinds of blind people have bombs in their hands and are throwing them at random.

The third world war would have released people for ten or, fifteen years. But the third world war cannot happen because if it happens it won't relieve people, it will only destroy people.

So individual violence will increase ― it is increasing. And all your governments and all your religions will go on perpetuating the old strategies without understanding the new situation.

The new situation is that every human being needs to go through therapies, needs to understand his unconscious intentions, needs to go through meditations so that he can calm down, become cool ― and look towards the world with a new perspective, of silence.

Osho: Beyond Psychology, #18

Reality Check

REALITY CHECK

FOOD AND NUTRITION

* Myth: Bananas are fattening.

Reality: Banana is a low-fat, low sodium fruit packed with potassium, magnesium and vitamin B6. One medium-sized banana has only 105 calories, which comes mainly from the sugar, making it a wonderful snack bar for refuelling before, during or after exercise.

* Myth: Milk is good to counter hyperacidity.

Reality: Although milk neutralises stomach acid, the calcium and protein in milk stimulates the production of more acid. Cow’s milk creates a rebound effect. So milk may help relieve symptoms of hyperacidity in the short run, but in the long run, it aggravates the condition.

* Myth: Honey is a low-calorie substitute for sugar.

Reality: Honey is a sweetener with a chemical composition slightly different from sugar, hence the difference in taste. However, the calories in a teaspoon of honey are equivalent to those in a teaspoon of sugar.

* Myth: Drinking hot water with lime burns fat.

Reality: If that was true there would not be a single overweight person in the world. Hot water with lime just helps to clear your stomach but it cannot help you burn fat — only exercise can do that.

* Myth: Rice and potatoes should be totally avoided.

Reality: Potatoes by themselves are not bad; it’s what you do to them that can make them so. They are generally fried and they absorb a lot of oil. Rice need not be totally avoided, though it has starch, it also provides protein, and if combined with dhal becomes a complete protein.

* Myth: We must drink at least eight glasses of water daily for good health.

Reality: Drinking water should be dictated by thirst, your physical activity levels, and your environment. Besides, excessive water intake can lead to health problems, which may be as bad as dehydration.

* Myth: Vegetarians suffer from lack of protein.

Reality: Vegetarians who eat a balanced diet do not suffer from lack of protein. Pulses, soya, paneer, nuts and seeds, cereals [wheat, oats, and rice], dairy products [milk, cheese and yoghurt] are good sources of vegetarian protein.

* Myth: Going vegetarian is a sure way to lose weight and be healthy.

Reality: Whether you are vegetarian or non-vegetarian, if you always opt for food cooked in high fat or if your meals are low in fibre then you will definitely end up eating more portions at each meal, which will add to excess calories and cause weight gain.

*Myth: Having too many cold drinks can give you a cold or sore throat.

Reality: A cold happens only because of exposure to specific cold-causing viruses, not otherwise. The cold weather seems to cause more occurrences of cold, because people spend more time indoors, and infections are likely to spread faster inside.

*Myth: Eating sugar causes diabetes.

Reality: This is one of the most common misconceptions about diabetes. A study published in Diabetes Care reconfirmed that sugar does not cause diabetes. If you have diabetes though, you do need to watch your sugar intake.

HAIR CARE

*Myth: Scalp massage can turn around hair loss.

Reality: It’s never been scientifically proven. If it works for some, it may be due to a placebo effect.

Myth: Blow-drying causes permanent hair loss.

Reality: Blow-drying can damage, burn or dry hair, which can cause it to fall, but the hair will grow back.

Myth: Plucking out one grey hair will cause more to sprout.

Reality: Not true. Elders often use this as a threat to get youngsters who are going grey early to stop the bad habit. Plucking hair could cause a scalp infection or damage your hair roots so it would be wise not to do it.

Myth: Changing your shampoo every month keeps your hair healthy.

Reality: Considering there are shampoos available in the market today with different chemical compositions, it is important to identify a shampoo that suits your hair type. Once that is done, there is no need to change your shampoo as often as you might your wardrobe.

EXERCISE AND WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

*Myth: People with high blood pressure should not workout in the gym.

Reality: If you are suffering from high blood pressure and are on medication, you can exercise as long as you ensure that you do not perform any exercise in which you have to hold your breath or those that involve lifting weights above your head. Keep the weight you lift moderately heavy and stick to 15-20 repetitions. Do your exercises slowly and always cool down after the workout.

*Myth: Spicy food and stress cause stomach ulcers.

Reality: The truth is, almost all stomach ulcers are caused either by infection with a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori [H.pylori] or by use of pain medications. Spicy food and stress may aggravate ulcer symptoms in some people, but they do not cause ulcers.

Myth: Women who weight-train become muscular and start looking ‘manly’.

Reality: Women do not have sufficient levels of testosterone to build big muscles.

*Myth: Only high intensity exercise can give results.

Reality: Exercising at moderate intensity can give you the results you desire. It is just a matter of keeping the muscles confused and not allowing the body to adapt to a particular routine.

Myth: People are overweight because they have slow metabolism.

Reality: Unfortunately, a slow metabolism is no excuse for being overweight. In fact, recent studies revealed that fat people have faster metabolism and burn off more energy than slimmer people simply to keep their bodies going.

Myth: Slim people need not exercise.

Reality: Slim and fit are not synonyms. You can be thin but not necessarily fit. It is important for everyone to exercise — whether slim or over-weight — as it helps strengthens the muscles, joints, heart and other organs.

PERSONAL CARE AND HYGIENE

*Myth: Washing hands with soap and water kills germs.

Reality: Plain soaps have very little anti-microbial activity. In fact, if the soap is contaminated, washing could add more germs to your hands. This is why healthcare workers like doctors often use alcohol rubs to ensure sterility of their hands.

Myth: Massage helps one lose weight and tone up the body

Reality: A massage can only help you relax and feel rejuvenated. If it is your tired muscles you want taken care of then go to a massage therapist. But, if it is weight loss you want, go to the gym.

Myth: Natural ingredients are always non-allergic.

Reality: Allergy is individual specific. Whether it’s a natural or chemical ingredient, if you’re allergic to it, you’ll have a reaction.

SKIN CARE

*Myth: Dry skin causes wrinkles

Reality: Wrinkles are caused by exposure to sun or due to natural aging. Using a high SPF sun-screen daily, not getting tanned, and not smoking can help prevent a fair bit of wrinkling, but it is a natural part of the aging process.

Myth: The sun clears up blemishes

Reality: While the sun will temporarily dry out pimples, it interferes with healthy skin cells. This can cause a worse breakout a couple days after sun exposure.

Myth: You don’t need to use sunscreen on a cloudy day

Reality: The sun’s UV rays penetrate clouds and can still damage your skin.

Myth: Junk food, chocolates, sweets and oily food cause acne

Reality: Acne is build-up of dead skin cells within the pores of the skin, excess sebum production on the skin and proliferation of bacteria due to infrequent cleansing. But these factors have no correlation with what we eat.

Myth: Drinking a lot of water leads to beautiful skin

Reality: Lack of water is bad for skin, but drinking more water than your body needs will not improve your skin’s health.

PREGNANCY

*Myth: Having sex during pregnancy will hurt the baby.

Reality: According to Dr Roopa Nishi Viswanathan, KEM Hospital, if you have a low-risk pregnancy, there is no need for abstinence. You might be advised to avoid sex only if you have had a history of pre-term labour or are going through a high-risk pregnancy. Let your doctor be the best judge of this.

Myth: Pregnant women should avoid the use of microwaves and computers during pregnancy.

Reality: Computers are totally safe, says a study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati. As for microwaves, you are at risk of getting radiation only if there is a leak. Use them by all means but maintain a safe distance while they are on, just in case.

Myth: Pregnant women should eat for two people.

Reality: During pregnancy the calorific requirement goes up by around 20 per cent, but it certainly does not double. Proper diet combined with appropriate physical activity is vital to maintaining good health during pregnancy.

Myth: If you get a lot of heartburn during pregnancy, your baby will have a lot of hair.

Reality: During pregnancy the stomach is pushed higher by the growing baby and the expanding uterus, it becomes easier for acid to move backwards [or ‘reflux’] from the stomach into the lower oesophagus. This has nothing to do with the baby’s hair growth