Afu Puja, Health is Wealth

Written by Fulbright Researcher Alden Towler and originally published by The Republica Newspaper of Nepal on April 30, 2009.

While researching food habits and health in the Kathmandu Valley on a Fulbright Scholarship is the reason I have been living and studying in Nepal for the last seven months, I have also become very fascinated by local religious culture.  This past Tihar I was invited by a Newari friend to his home for mhapuja, or ‘worship of the self’.  While I am no expert on the religious culture of Nepal, I would love to share what such a celebration and worship of the self means to me in the context of eating and being healthy here in Kathmandu.

No matter what religion you follow, your world would not exist without the living tissues that you call your own body.  Whether or not we say that god exists within ourselves, can we not agree that this body, this self of ours is an astonishingly beautiful thing that deserves much respect and celebration?

We can respect and worship ourselves everyday by eating the foods that our body will thank us for. In this sense, you do not really have to be Newari to do mhapuja. And really, eating healthily should not be such a hard thing do to. However, in our modern circumstance this is not the case considering that the lifestyles and food available today are often at odds with the lifestyles and foods for which our bodies are best suited. 

Health professionals speaking from both classical Ayurvedic and modern scientific perspectives agree that the food which is healthiest for humans today is the same food which our ancestors have been eating for millennia. Of course having some sort of physical activity/exercise in one’s daily life is the backbone of good health. In America, where I was born and raised, many people have become extremely confused about what they should be eating and have forgotten what to eat.  The foods and recipes from our ancestors have been largely replaced by the advice from doctors and magazines who seem to change their minds every other year about what foods are best to eat.  Food becomes fad instead of staple.  As a consequence, the USA leads the world in its number of people suffering from what I will call ‘metabolic illnesses,’ which include obesity, insulin resistance, Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, and high blood pressure, with over 50% of our population affected.

India and China combine to host a quickly increasing number of 60 million Type 2 diabetics.  Kathmandu falls geographically just between those two countries. Today close to 30% of urban Nepal’s population suffers from metabolic illness according to a recent study.  While sedentary lifestyle is also to blame, diet plays a very important role creating illnesses. Today’s modern world has become plagued with the fruits of industry–overly refined foods.   

Here in Kathmandu people have not forgotten what to eat—in fact Nepalis know exactly what to eat and prepare it exceptionally well, Daal, Bhaat/Dhido, tarkari nai khaau—but instead the problem is more that the foods people are eating have changed their form and have lost most of their most vital nutrients. The main three issues I generally see are too many refined grains and refined oils, and too few fruits and vegetables in the diet. 

Refined grains such as white rice (as opposed to ‘pura polish nabhaeko chamal’- brown rice) and white flour (‘maida’ as opposed to ‘atta’- whole wheat flour) that have been stripped of their vitamins, minerals and fiber are now the main ingredients of Kathmanduites’ diet.  Such over-processed carbohydrates, which are quickly converted to sugar upon ingestion, can be a main cause of both metabolic illness and malnutrition. Processed vegetables oils like soybean and sunflower oil along with dalda (margarine) have an unhealthy ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids (their ratio is 1:10 while 1:3 is the preferred healthy ratio) and can also contain trans-fatty acids which are becoming outlawed in the USA (these oils also often go rancid during industrial production).  So let me say this simply: fresh, pure mustard oil (toriko tel) is exceptionally healthy (and tasty) with a perfect omega 3 / omega 6 ratio of 1:3.

Since when did ultra-polished white rice become the only thing synonymous with food or ‘khaanaa’ in Nepal?  So many people have told me that this omnipresent white rice is preferred because it is pleasing to the eyes, it is good to look at.  Do our eyes eat rice?  If so, the habit of eating a mountain of white rice twice a day would be a wonderful puja to the eyes. But because this is not the case, I am afraid that such rice is partially to blame for many of Nepal’s health problems. (And by the way what ever happened to buckwheat (‘phapar’), millet (‘kodo’), corn (‘makai’) —acknowledged widely by all Nepalis as the most nourishing grains?  Will these completely disappear from the diet as white flour becomes everything we eat—biscuit, momo, chowmein, chowchow, pauroti, dunot, naan, samosas, mithai…?  I hope not.)

It is the essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber which are stripped away from rice and wheat which could otherwise be properly nourishing all people—students, businesswoman, fathers, and mother alike—the way they had been for millennia before the recent advent of the machine mill. Essential micronutrients are found in the bran of grains, the layer residing under the hull (‘buss’/‘bokra’) known in Nepali as ‘chokar’.  Today chokar sells on the market for 15 rupees per kilogram so that it can be fed to animals.  I love animals too, but don’t you think we should be feeding the most nourishing part of our food to ourselves?  Afulai puja garnu pardaina? 

The foods which the people of Kathmandu avoid like brown rice, dhido and sisnu (partially because people associate such foods with the antiquity and ‘poor backwardness’ of the village) are actually the best foods there are for our bodies!  The reasons behind the prevalence of the overly refined foods I have mentioned are too complex to summarize here.  But people from all walks of life should recognize the beauty of the self and work to overcome the silly social constructs which get in the way of the most important puja of all, afupuja.   

Information on Germinated Brown Rice

Information on Germinated Brown Rice- Unpolished Rice which has been Soaked in Water Overnight (or 6+hours) before cooking
Compiled by Alden Towler – aytowler@gmail.com
“Rice compound reduces diabetes
Researchers have found that a compound that helps rice seed grow, springs back into action when brown rice is placed in water overnight before cooking, significantly reducing the nerve and vascular damage that often result from diabetes.
"You have to let it grow, germinate a little bit," says Dr. Robert K. Yu, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and Institute of Neuroscience at the Medical College of Georgia. "Some of the active ingredients generated as a result of the germination process are beneficial to you."
Germinated brown rice's ability to help diabetics lower their blood sugar has been shown but how it works remained unknown. New research, published online in the Journal of Lipid Research, shows the growth factor acylated steryl glucosides or ASG, helps normalize blood sugar and enzymes that are out-of-whack in diabetes.”

Source: 1) http://www.scientistlive.com/European-Food-Scientist/index.php?allUrl=Ingredients/Rice_compound_reduces_diabetes/20801/&category=Ingredients&articleTitle=Rice_compound_reduces_diabetes&articleId=20801&action=viewPollResults/germinate
2) http://www.physorg.com/news136467430.html

Useful Germinated Brown Rice
By Dr. Hari Bahadur KC

RICE is the most important food crop of Nepal. It has high economic as well as social value. Rice has supported a greater number of people for a longer period of time than any other crop since it was cultivated.
Benefit
The new way of eating rice may change the diet in the next century. The potential health benefits of germinated brown rice have attracted public attention and challenging the deep-seated prejudice against brown rice.

Germinated rice is brown rice soaked in water until it just begins to bud. The outer bran layer becomes soft and more prone to water absorption, making it easier to cook. Enzymes produced during the budding process break down sugar and protein, giving the rice a sweet flavour. Experts say, the germinated rice may enhance brain functions and reduce levels of lipids, or fats, in the blood. Studies have found that germinated brown rice contains three times as much gamma amino butyric acid, an amino acid that works as a neurotransmitter, as conventional brown rice, and five times as much as white rice. Known to promote blood flow in the brain, the chemical has long been used for treating the after effects of brain injuries and strokes. It is also known to help stabilise blood pressure and reduce lipid levels in the blood. In addition, compared to ordinary brown rice, germinated brown rice is twice as rich in lysine, one of the essential amino acids that makes proteins in the body and contains a higher level of soluble fibber. Researcher reported that, dietary fibber has been found to be more beneficial in its soluble form.Source: http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishdaily/trn/2003/apr/apr09/features.htm

Traditionally, grains have almost always been soaked, sprouted or fermented before eaten.
In Japan there has recently been renewed interest in sprouted rice thanks to a number of recent scientific studies done on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a naturally occurring amino acid created during the germination process. The consumption of GABA is credited with important health benefits that range from lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, boosting the immune system, improving sleep, and inhibition of cancer cells. So it makes good sense to soak and sprout your rice. Both from the perspective of tradition and science. Today even the typical Japanese housewife knows to soak her rice before cooking
Source: http://radishboy.blogspot.com/2008/05/sprouted-brown-rice.html

Better nutrition, enhanced digestion, less allergic potential – WOW, who could refuse sprouted foods?
More research validating sprouting comes from Japan at the Shinshu University in Nagano. A group of scientists recently found that soaking brown rice turbocharged its nutritional value. Soaking the rice over night stimulates the early stages of where a tiny sprout (less than a millimeter tall) grows from the grain. “The birth of a sprout activates enzymes in the brown rice all at once to supply the best nutrition to the growing sprout,” They found that sprouted rice is not only more nutritive with higher amounts of vitamins and minerals than non-germinated rice, but it is also sweeter and easier to cook. I can confirm these cooking results from personal experience.
Written by Jen Allbritton, CN
(Copyright © 2003 Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers, Inc.)

A Burning Desire

The black sooty fumes of a thousand torches raced to meet the already blackened air above a downtown Kathmandu street.  Thick wooden sticks, the carriers of kerosene soaked cotton, hosted raging flames to burn hundreds of incandescent cries into the back of my photographic mind. An unforgetable image, to see the shadows of a thousand marching torch bearers taking their city by critical mass.

That day I had gone to a swimming pool with a group of Nepali friends.  We enjoyed ourselves whether or not we could all swim, and after a cup of overly sweetened milk tea we parted ways. I stayed with my two Tamang bhais (little brothers/friends- see previous blogs for acquaintance stories), Suraj and Kusal, 14 and 9 year old kids I greatly adore. Walking along the road just next to the “Police Health Club”, where we had been learning to swim, my chlorine-singed eyes read a sign: “International Indigenous Film Festival”.  Today was the last day of the festival and the last film of the day was scheduled to play at the current time–5pm.  “Has the film already started?” I asked someone at the information desk.  “No it will be a bit late- wait half an hour please” came the response.

 

Back outside I scrupulously searched for the best place for us to eat.  The tents at the festival where serving typical Nepali snack foods from different ethnic groups–thukpa

(white flour) noodles, seasoned meat, potatoes, sweetly spiced rice flour donuts. The two boys and I found a nice mat woven from corn husks under a shady tent to sit on; our hosts were a group Newari woman dressed in remarkable black and red dress (these are the traditional dress of the Jyapuni, i.e. the female members of the Maharjan, the Newari farming caste).

The Newari people are indigenous to the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal’s capital and home to the biggest and most artisanal urban areas in Nepal.  We ate typical Newari snack food: crunchy flattened rice called chiura; succulent buffalo meat barbequed over dried rice stalks and rubbed with toasted mustard seed oil, ginger, garlic and plenty of chili; black eyed peas; sautéed greens; chickpeas; chili potatoes; a condiment of peas, carrots, daikon radish and green hot peppers smothered with lime juice and toasted sesame seed paste; a thick, crunchy-on-the-outside soft-on-the-inside black lentil pancake with an egg cracked on top.  What I love about Newari food is the healthy variety of tasty items given in smaller quantities to fill the plate opposed to the usual Nepali habit of filling the whole plate with white rice or noodles- leaving very little room for vegetables and legumes 

The movie, ‘The Long Journey,’ started an hour later than scheduled, Nepali time for sure.  It was about the situation of indigenous people in Nepal and their long struggle to proclaim and realize their social, environmental and political rights.  A very long story short: Prithvi Narayan Shah was a Hindu King in the 18^th century who shed much blood conquering the Kathmandu Valley and ‘unified’ what became the Nepali Kingdom.  What ensued was the creation of an autocratic monarchical system which privileged high caste Hindus (Aryan in ethnic origin) while oppressing and exploiting lower caste Hindus, women, and especially the dozens of indigenous tribal groups of Nepal, most whom have Tibeto-Mongol ethnic origins and are Buddhist and animists, not Hindus.  Indigenous communities were infiltrated, their community-based self governing structures uprooted and their natural and human resources exploited without any sign of profit or benefit to local peoples.  Today, 250 years later, Nepal is attempting to instate democracy (starting in the 1950’s) and the right of tribal groups are finally being recognized (on paper) by a mostly dysfunctional Nepali government.  The film documents one human rights success in Nepal, which actually did succeed in becoming the second country in South Asia to ratify the United Nations treaty on the rights of indigenous peoples.  And yet this is only the beginning to a long process of bringing justice and equality to the ethnic groups that have been largely ignored by the high-caste Hindu-dominated government for the past few centuries here in Nepal.

After the movie I walked along one of the central streets of Kathmandu with the Tamang kids who had learned about some of these issues in school but still couldn’t quite wrap their heads around these big ideas.  They are Buddhist Tamangs, a diverse ethnic group, some of whom once served as slaves to the king.  Both of these boys’ fathers are abroad in the Gulf now, working low-pay jobs in order to make ends meet.  In their village the educational opportunities are lacking and hence they live here in the city, where the streets are overflowing with trash and drinking water is a rare commodity. 

The sidewalk is filled with people selling t-shirts, mangoes and bananas, nail clippers, Ayurvedic herbs and umbrellas. Pedestrians walk through a maze of themselves and street vendors, overflowing into streets raging with the horns of a half dozen different kinds of motor vehicles.

As we climb the stairs of a pedestrian bridge I see a voracious mass of torch-bearers simultaneously sworming and marching toward a small cluster of policemen who seem absolutely terrified by the group that they were both fleeing from and trying to control.  The three of us reached the top of the pedestrian bridge to meet a crowd of people staring and whipping out their cell phones to take photos.  I asked a someone what was going on, “It’s the Maoists” one man said, “No, it’s the Newars, they are protesting for the creation of a state which recognizes them as the original people of Kathmandu and thus gives them their proper rights as indigenous people.  Tomorrow the city will be closed in a strike.”

Behind us the sky was glowing deep neon pink hues, the sun already set behind our capital city, this concentrated carnal congestion of concrete. I put Kusal on my shoulders so he could see the scene below. Before us a sea of torch carriers bellowed their cries of anger and dissatisfaction with their smoky voices.  The narrow street soon became as filled as it could be by the procession of flames, burning their message into the air and into peoples’ minds anywhere they went.  We must be seen.

Indeed today the entire city is shut down in strike.  Every shop is closed, not a single bus is running, not even motorcycles dare to take the streets, and youth yell at the few cyclists who pass by telling them to dismount.  Torches have been replaced by burning tires throughout the city, burning even blacker messages into the masses.  Such protests are not uncommon in Nepal and have detrimental consequences for average people who somehow pay for more expensive vegetables and cooking gas, closed roads jacking up prices; or they simply eat their rice without lentils or vegetables. For me it’s quite pleasant: I walk down the street without honking horns and black exhaust fumes in my face kicking a ball with kids in the open streets, pay a few extra cents for my vegetables and indulge the privilege of my white skin and green dollar.