Kamal Ghorui
It excludes nothing except supersizing
“I need more protein in my diet,” I bantered with Kamala as she poured a ladleful of dosa batter onto the sizzling tawa. She walked out of the kitchen in a huff, leaving me to handle breakfast and the protein panacea.
The question most often asked of every doctor is, “Doc what should I avoid eating?” A venerable professor in our medical college had an easy solution to this delulu. Ask the patient what he likes to eat, and then proceed to tell him to avoid every single item on that list. Now, the information overload has complicated things further. Every day a plethora of confusing articles in popular media creates utter chaos in the mind of the common consumer: fat is a health hazard; avoid sugar and salt like the plague; all white food is bad news; a glass of wine is the best thing for your heart; dark chocolate is the new secret to a long life. One day it’s sweet potato, on another the plebeian palak gets pride of place in the food pyramid.
Every pro-teen is now swearing by protein powder. Young kids are forwarding links to differentiate between isolate and concentrate – protein is the whey to go. Peas are passe – they are muttering under their breath about pea protein. Non-vegetarians have more exciting options, though they are still debating which comes first – the chicken or the egg. Also, we finally have an answer to the legendary question, why did the chicken cross the road? It was to avoid the post-workout Punjabi searching for his protein source. Even stand-up comedians are scrambling to eat eggs for breakfast – funny side up. And then there are the movers and shakers – with their liberally loaded scoops of white wonder, carefully measuring their journey to thirst-trap photographs.
I posed in a banian in front of the mirror and wistfully rubbed my generous middle-aged paunch. Oil is well, I reassured myself. I’m so glad there is no tariff on taste. Ghee is already back in fashion and all we need now is a protein-rich dosa made with whey and paneer – to give them a dose of their own medicine. Protein is a good choice. But as Mammootty said so eloquently – eat what you want, not as much as you want.
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