Natural Living in modern society

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Some Now-a-days life is filled with Coke, Pepsi, Pizza, Pasta, Mac’s Cheese Burgers, KFC’s Chicken, French Fries, Tacos, and other Indian dishes like Biriyani, Dal Makhani, Butter Nan, Garlic Nan with Butter, Hyderabadi Chicken, Chettinad Chicken, Rice with 4-5 varieties for Lunch and Dinner, etc… They all make us feel good when we eat but also act as a slow poison in the years to come. Now-a-days many of us are recognizing that we have a chronic problem only when it strikes us in a bad way. If one is lucky, he/she gets a chance to survive and correct the mistake but there are some unfortunate ones who do not have this luxury.

In this article I would like to see the present conditions of our habits’ and then go on with what I had done to make mine and my family’s health better.

These days its normal that:

  • Kids (4-10 years) are Obese;
    • They drink only Coke, Burgers, Pizza and all other Indian deep fried stuff, be it vegetarian or meat.
  • Heart Stroke for Young Generation
    • Many at the age of 20-40 are susceptible for heart diseases. Blame it on food, lifestyle, stress what ever you call it, it’s a fact. And no one likes this fact.
  • Kids and Youth fall pray of Diabetes
    • I heard a case where 7 year old is suffering from Diabetes
    • One of my close relative got it at the age of 13 and every days he takes 2 shots of insulin with so much of control over the food
  • People can’t stand Stress; So Thyroid Problems
    • All are so busy in our daily lives; no one has time to relax.
    • Once in a year vacation is of no good. You get stressed out 350 days a year and say you are relaxing for 15 days. Equation does not match!!

Change in Life Style:

  • Drink Coke/Pepsi (carbonated drinks) INSTEAD of Water
    • Effects : Stomach, Waste Removal Mechanism
  • Eat out site JUNK food INSTEAD of HomeMade breakfast
    • Effects : Stomach, Digestive System, Liver
  • Eat Deep Fried Food INSTEAD of Raw or Boiled food.
    • Effects : Stomach, Digestive System, Liver
  • Drink Alcohol INSTEAD of Fruit Juices
    • Effects : Stomach, Liver
  • Cigarette Smoking / Cigar / Hukka
    • Effects : Oral Cancer, Lungs
  • Sleep for 5 or 4 hours INSTEAD of 8 hours of sleep
    • Effects : Stress, Mental Health
  • No Exercise INSTEAD of minimum 1 hour need by body
    • Effects : When you don’t sweat, body waste does not go out. More salts gets deposited in the body. Bad for your cells.
  • Eat dinner at 9.00pm-11.00pm INSTEAD of 7.00pm – 8.00pm.
    • Effects : You consume more energy while awake than sleeping. Its good to eat early so that most of energy is spent while awake. While sleeping, the EXTRA energy is converted to fats. (I am assuming that you sleep immediately after you eat at night 9.00pm-11.00pm)
  • Over Eat on Weekends INSTEAD of Resting your stomach
    • Effects: Like you your stomach also works hard ALL the time. Churning all the JUNK that you eat. Is it a fair deal ?
  • And many other which you and I know…

What’s my Motivation :

I have been in Germany for few years and soon after in US since 2007. It’s very common for many of us to complain that as soon as someone comes to US, they put on weight and become obese. It’s easy to blame US and the life style (to some extent it’s true).

Of course this happens now-a-days even in India. Many of educated families stick to “Single Child” policy, they feel feeding their kid is the ONLY thing that they can do in their life. They feed so much right from the childhood that all the “fat cells” grow a lot by the time they are adults and it becomes near to IMPOSSIBLE to reduce.

I heard some good lectures and programs about “Dr . Mantena Satyanarayana Raju” in Maa TV and also in couple of other online sites like TeluguBhakti and TeluguOne. Till that time I have heard many people suggesting about “drinking more water”, “eating less salt”, “doing more exercises”; but none gave me the LOGICAL consequences. Dr. Raju talks very nicely about the WHY and HOW aspects of the health. Once anyone listens to his lectures, it’s difficult NOT to follow him.

What’s the Deal :

  • Drink More Water everyday – Help keep your system clean.
  • Eat More Vegetables and Fruits THAN Cooked Food.
  • Eat food that contains MORE nutritious value and LESS calorific value
  • Do more Exercise – Help your body to shed the extra salts
  • Do Yoga or Meditation – Keep your body and brain relaxed
  • Eat early dinner (6.00pm to 7.30pm) – If that sounds crazy; I pity you.
  • Prefer foods with Less Sodium and More Potassium

Saying what to eat does not qualify to HOW you do it. I have been practicing the Natural Lifestyle from past 6 months and I am the happiest person to know that I am still continuing. More than a habit, it’s setting up your MIND; believing that this method would make you healthier, happier and stronger.

My Schedule:

  • No Sugar in any of Juices
  • No Salt in any of the Boiled Vegetables or Sandwich
  • If you can reduce meat intake that would be good and if you totally cut meat that’s excellent.
  • Dinner dishes are one OR the other. Not ALL or SOME of them.

Of course this schedule is not found in one single Day. It took almost 5 months for me to get adjusted to the schedule and to practice it as a daily routine.

Here is what I did each month:

1st Month : Water in the morning
This might sound simple for many of you but it’s NOT. I am a kind of person who used to drink only 3-4 glasses a day (which is very less). The taste of water some times gives a kind of loath and your stomach will be reluctant to take it. So, take you time and practice it everyday to take some more water. Many say that they drink water DURING the day; the big difference we are talking about is to drink at the BEGINNING of the day. As you are with empty stomach, it’s easy for your body to carryout the flushing activities.

2nd Month : Fruit Bowl in the Morning
For many who eat Indian Break Fast or even the American Break Fast this shounds too extreme. The idea of not eating the cooked food itself seems to be crazy, but not at all. Once you start eating fruits in the morning, you will feel fresh about it.Thus make sure that at the end of 2nd month you are good with Drinking water in the morning and also Fruit Bowl for Break Fast.

3rd Month and 4th Month : Less Oil, Less Salt at Lunch Time

This is the most difficult part, but yet achievable. If one knows the bad side affects of the Oil and Salt, I guess no one will actually cook food with them. Often we are comfortable in out own world and we would not want to leave out daily habits. Having 3 chapatis along with lots of vegetable curries and lentils is the best way to give necessary vitamins and minerals that body needs.

5th Month: Vegetables and Fruits at Night

This is the ultra difficult stuff for anyone to do it. But If one needs to dream a good health for life long you have to. There is no choice. You either eat junk food and compromise on Health or eat good food and get great health. At the end of the 5 months you are more or less good with the good eating habits. By this time you can also feel that you are not able to tolerate any of the junk food and you would not even want to eat oily food.

Tips and Tricks:

  • Do NOT force your self at any point of time.
  • If you can’t drink too much of water initially, try to start with 1 or 2 glasses and gradually increase the intake.
  • You will have some sudden burst of the food intake like pizzas, rice, biriyani, etc… when you feel like having some thing like that just make it at home or go out and have it.
  • Do not force your family members to do it. If you do it they will naturally follow.
  • No coffee or tea at all. They are slow poison.
  • If you do not like people who take alcohol or smokes cigarettes then you should also hate people who take coffee and tea. Your body does not need them. It is you who is forcing coffee or tea on your body.

Some Basics:

Potassium: Adequate intake of Potassium can generally be guaranteed by eating a variety of foods containing potassium and deficiency is rare in healthy individuals eating a balanced diet. Foods with high sources of potassium include orange juice, potatoes, bananas, avocados, tomatoes, broccoli, soybeans and apricots, although it is also common in most fruits, vegetables and meats. Diets high in potassium can reduce the risk of hypertension. Potassium is a nutrient necessary for human life and health. Potassium chloride is used as a substitute for table salt by those seeking to reduce sodium intake so as to control hypertension. Good dietary sources of potassium include celery juice. The USDA lists tomato paste, orange juice, beet greens, white beans, bananas, and many other good dietary sources of potassium, ranked according to potassium content per measure shown.

Sodium: Sodium ions (often referred to as just “sodium”) are necessary for regulation of blood and body fluids, transmission of nerve impulses, heart activity, and certain metabolic functions. Interestingly, although sodium is needed by animals, which maintain high concentrations in their blood and extracellular fluids, the ion is not needed by plants. A completely plant-based diet, therefore, will be very low in sodium.

Disclaimer : Natural Living is no way an alternate option to people who have some serious health problems like Diabetes, Heart Disease, Thyroid Problems, High Cholesterol, etc… Take the medicines that you take and practice the Natural Living to see long term benefits. It will turn out to be that many people tend to reduce the intake of the medicines that they take when they practice Natural Living for some time.

All the content of this blog is my personal experience and a preface of what I have experienced.

Resources:

23 thoughts on “Natural Living in modern society”

  1. rachnaspace

    Suresh – I agree that eating more of (natural) food that we are naturally designed to eat, helps a lot. It’s been 3 weeks since I made the change and I can already sense some difference – the right kind of food gives you more energy as well, apart from keeping healthy in the long run.

    Hmm.. so you have been on a 1000 calorie diet – that sounds very less!! 🙂

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  3. sureshkrishna

    @rachnaspace

    Wow that’s great Rachna. I am really excited to see many of us are trying to move to the Veggie side of it.
    1000 Cal diet seems to be perfect for me right now. And i never felt any sort of reduction in my energy or activeness. So, i guess my motto is “More Nutrition; Less Calories”.

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  6. Shiv

    1000 calories a day is unhealthy and unsustainable unless you are some one in your 50s and are sufferening from a variety of diseases like diabetes.

    I am an overweight Indian male ( overweight by 100 pounds – really obese ) in my 40s with diabetes and I have realized that what works for me consistently is eating close to 2500 calories a day and eating whatever I like in moderation including drinking alcohol. exercise is vey important and I have lost 25 pounds in 8 months. I could have lost a lot more by being more strict but I realized I couldn’t sustain it. For me slow weight loss is acceptable but losing and then gaining it back is demoralizing and depressing.

    I also make conscious efforts to avoid coke, cookies, chips ( stuff that is strictly snacky ) but I don’t avoid pizza or burger if it is offered up as dinner or lunch

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  7. Sana

    Your idea is good but there is too much gap between meals. That is not good for the body. Health experts now advice people to have 6 mini meals. If you look at how much you are consuming between 6:30 to 8:00- that’s quite a lot especially if you go to bed by 10. You are having 2 glasses of juice which is sugar, then jamba juice which is again sugar but fructose as well and then bread and sweet potato. If you look at the Kcal of carbohydarates in your day- dinner is the highest which is definately not good.
    I agree with your concept of exercise, drinking as much water and yoga but your sample menu is something I would definately not adopt. Thanks for the effort in pulling this together !

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  9. sureshkrishna

    @From Prakash

    Excellent write-up, thanks for sharing. Really a wonderful effort by you, a definite need of this hour.

    I will add your Blog link to a Social Web a group of us moderate, this is about Health and Wellness. You are welcome to join and blog there as well. That will help a lot of people (from all over the world) who regulalry visit, contribute and share. Link – http://yogasophy.ning.com/. You can read up on our current blogs, events, videos etc while you are there on this web.

    Just curious, what inspired you for this change?

    Again, my best wishes for your noble efforts, look forward to exchanging more such works.

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  10. sureshkrishna

    @From Nina

    I totally agree that colas, burgers, pizza, etc etc are horrible for our health as a staple diet, which is what many people here in the US do have for their diet. I am so frustrated every time there are kid parties, and the food is pizza, chips, and soft drinks. Argh! So I completely agree with your premise, and your desire to increase the natural food content of our diets.

    However, I’d just like to be a bit of a devil’s advocate here. Your diet, from what I see (and maybe I’m missing something), lacks some basic nutritional elements, such as protein, calcium, and Omega 3 fatty acids, that are critical, especially for growing kids. Inadequate Omega 3 fatty acids have been connected with reduced IQ (!) and depression. 1000 calories is too low for growing teens, or for anyone getting a decent amount of exercise, which in itself is the other major piece of the health puzzle. Fruit juices have recently been found to be hard on your system, producing a much higher insulin response than whole fruit, possibly contributing to diabetes in the long run. Boiling vegetables causes much of their nutritional content to leach out into the water – steaming is better. Also, recent research has shown that even 8 glasses of water per day may be too much for some people, and actually bad. That long standing belief that you need at least 8 glasses a day (which you dramatically exceed) it turns out was based on…nothing at all, and you can overdose on water (a woman died recently from that). IMHO, if your body tells you it’s had enough water, in most cases you should listen to it. That said, I naturally drink a few glasses per day, and I sure do feel better if I drink a few more. 😉 But not 12.

    Some Jamba Juices are upwards of 700 calories!

    For your own health, I’d really suggest you consult with a nutritionist to ensure that you are getting adequate nutrition while adhering to your desire to go natural. Nuts, as an addition, might help, for example.

    Just my opinion…I think your goal is fabulous, just worried that you might be missing some important and natural things. That said, of course, every one has an absolute right to make their own diet choices.

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  11. sureshkrishna

    @From Avinash

    It is a commendable experiment. To make it a lifestyle however you may want to pay attention to other nutritional details. One of the important thing absent in your diet is Protein. You need Daal/Raajma/Nuts and/or non-veg in additona to milk/yogurt to get adequate protein. You may want to be careful to ensure balance of Calcium, Vitamins and micro nutrients correctly. I felt that there was too much of water.. much more than 8-10 glasses per day recommended.

    Just 2 cents.
    All the best with your pursuit.

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  12. sureshkrishna

    @From Peyush

    I too have similar thoughts. Natural living ideas are fine and what you are doing is good, however, I’m not sure if 1000 cal/day is appropriate. Unless one starts out fat and has calories to give, at 1000 cals with regular life that includes exercise, many essential housekeeping functions in the body would suffer (rebuilding of muscles for example). Also, I can’t see how you’d gain strength to deal with life as you continue to grow older.

    One other thing – your blog talks about eating lentils, but I didn’t see it in your eating schedule. Vegetarians need to ensure appropriate amount of protein in their diet in order to maintain a high-activity life. Fruits and veggies are great for nutrition but not so much for energy.

    What do the principles of natural living say about these concerns?

    Reply ↓
  13. sureshkrishna

    Thanks a lot for your response and your concern.

    I definitely agree with you on all the points that you mentioned.

    Ok there is some “fine print” that i did not include in my blog. Here it is…

    # I do add Olive Oil on my salads; which i take 3-4 times a week
    # I do eat mix of all sorts of nuts and dry fruits
    # 3-4 times a week i make sure that i take lentils along with indian bread for lunch
    # When i make fruit juices, i do mix milk/soy milk along with fruit; And NO sugar in fruit juices

    The schedule that i gave there is NOT absolute. That is an indication of the type of food that i eat.

    I do have similar concerns about the 1000 Cal diet. I might increase it in future for sure, when i reach my target weight. 🙂

    Thanks,
    Krishna

    Reply ↓
  14. sureshkrishna

    @From Velyanda

    Nina raises some excellent points. And I might add most health professionals would probably encourage you to increase your daily calories (especially long term if your goal is not weight loss), as 1000-1200 is the benchmark absolute minimum for a small-framed, sedentary female. Most research seems to suggest males should eat at minimum 1500-1800 for weight loss, and 2200-2500 for maintenance to get all the nutrition required. More if you exercise regularly. Of course there are many formulas to use as a guidepost, and your individual needs and weight loss (should you desire any) will vary. To me, the most alarming caution is that too few calories leads to lean-mass loss, including loss from organs such as the heart. So worth researching thoroughly before making a personal calorie limit decision.

    For the point about water, check out http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp .

    Another thing you may wish to point out on your blog in case some of your readers aren’t aware, is that babies and toddlers up to about age 5 need more fat in their diets than older children and adults to aid their growth, including their developing brains (academy of pediatrics recommends 30-40% through age 2, then gradually decreasing through age 5). Unfortunately, I have heard parents chatter about all the healthy low/no fat foods they feed their young kids thinking this is a proper diet. Of course fuits and veggies are great, and most of us agree we shouldn’t give them free range to devour countless donuts and bags of Doritoes, but we can’t forget the essentiall fatty acids found in oils, meats, eggs, nuts, fish, etc. Especially important for vegetarians/vegan families who may have to be more creative to get the protein and necesary healthy fats. Overall caloric intake for toddlers is recommended in the 1300-1400 range as a starting guideline. Too little can reportedly result in “failure to thrive.”

    Of course, I am not a doctor or nutritional scientist, so this is my personal interpretation and judgment of research I have discovered on the topic 🙂

    Congrats on your dedication to a natural, healthy living diet! I’m sure it will serve you well. Thanks for sharing with us!

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  17. Suhani

    Hi Krishna,
    I started following Raju Gari teachings about 5 months ago and very happy with the results. Converted to a vegetarian not just for health but also learn t being vegetarian is more environmentally friendly.

    The only thing I still could not give up is coffee and tea and hope to accomplish that also some day. Lot of people discourage me why I took such drastic steps and feel that this is the age to eat and enjoy and follow strict rules when we one is old…

    I don’t understand why people fail to realize that the life style we have will only leave us with no teeth and bunch of medicines and hordes of diseases.
    Any way that is their individual problem I enjoy what I eat and more happier than ever. What ever people say I still tell them about Raju gari teachings some day they might open their eyes.

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  18. Murthy

    Hi Suresh,

    This is an amazing great write up. I have also been following with Dr Mantena’s Water practice for the past one month. I am now feel as if my whole digestive system is thanking me everyday for embarking on this experiment.

    But there is still a small doubt lurking in my mind. Does all this water absorb and remove some essential minerals and salts from our body? I did not get an opportunity to meet Dr Mantena to discuss on this.

    So, i was wondering if you have come across an answer for this question from any of Mathena’s talks.

    Once again, a great job.

    Regards,
    Murthy

    Reply ↓

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