Next to protein comes fat. It also should get a prominent place in the daily diet. Its needed proportion in the daily diet does not seem to have been fully investigated. One should take in at least one and a half ounce of fat.
The diet of an Indian is very deficient in fat. The Tamilian in this respect is very much worse off. The fat is used in the body for various purposes. The absence of fat will also result in the loss of various essentials for the up keep of the body.
Animal fat
Animal fat is the best. This gives Vitamin A in plenty. What one gets from ghee and butter is this animal fat. From milk and curds also this fat is available.When mixed with vegetable oils this vitamin goes out of reach.
1. FAT FROM MILK
Cow’s milk … 3.60% Buffalo’s milk … 7.70% Goat’s milk … 4.00%
It is therefore unnecessary to search after mutton or beef to secure fat.
Good fresh butter
The story of the use of ghee or butter in our civilised world cannot be written. To curdle milk for curds and from the curds to get butter is the best way. Those who do not own cows or buffalo’s should purchase good milk, make curds and then get good fresh butter.
Bazaar ghee
What you get from the bazaar as butter or ghee is not butter or ghee. Better not serve the orthodox old lady of the Brahmin household with the bazar ghee. If she takes this, for having eaten unorthodox stuffs, she will have to bathe in the Ganges and make Archanas to the Lord Kashi Viswanath ! Such nice stuffs do the ghee and butter of the bazar contain!
This bazaar stuff contains from Snakes fat to the fat of all that walk, fly or creep! One cannot decipher from what category of creation this fat is drawn to make up this attractive bazaar ghee! So inextricably and ably will they be found mixed! No costly creature would have been skinned out for this special adulteration. These ghee adulterators are so capable that they would prepare a holy mixture of Crab, Snail and Scorpion fat with admixtures of chemical stuffs and one per cent of buffalo ghee, and sell them in attractive tins labelled ‘A one quality! This is no exaggeration. Some stuffs analysed contained less than fifteen to twenty percent of real ghee!
Should the scientific skill be displayed in such life killing ways? This does not seem to be useful to protect the cities and citizens. To destroy Society, all this capacity is shown and wealth is amassed.
If butter is purchased?
One may think that this difficulty would arise only if ghee is purchased in the bazaar. What about purchasing butter and converting the same into ghee? Do not think that adultrators are such innocent to allow good butter to be sold for manufacture of ghee in the bazaar. If the bazaar butter and the house prepared butter are exhibited, one may prefer the bazaar butter; so nice looking and neat will that be. The house butter besides will have the smell of sour butter-milk.
But the bazaar butter contains only 30 to 40 per cent of real butter. The rest is made-up stuff. Even when the merchant swears in the name of all Deities, known and unknown, the bazaar butter will contain only 70 per cent of real butter.
Robbery in day time
When one steals even to satisfy the devouring pangs of hunger, the law prescribes some years of rigorous imprisonment. But how rigorous and more should the imprisonment be for the hyenas of Society who adulterate food stuffs, sell on a mass scale, become millionaires and shine on the top ranks of society!
2. HEALTH LAWS AND WORLD’S WAYS Adulteration in villages
Supposing the citizen argues within himself “I shall not purchase the bazaar butter or ghee. I shall get those things from the countryside and villages. There are innocent folks !”
Let us not be deceived. Even here the pests of society have extended their tentacles. The capitalists have come with their millions to corrupt and destroy without compunction. They have devised t reacherous and crooked methods. These send their fatly paid employees, special staff to the villages and the countryside, and teach the innocent villagers how to skilfully adulterate their stuff and earn double and treble their usual prices. The existence of innocent villagers and their good butter is a constant threat to the capitalist adulterating monopolists.
What we have stated is true. But when there are thieves, and thieves within thieves, all coming in for a share of the dirty bribes, it is impossible to get witnesses and prove these treacherous deeds in a Court of Law. Just casual calls at the Municipal or Government Food Analyst centres would furnish ample proofs for the existence of this heinous hierarchies and the existence of worst dirty stuffs to be pawned off on the unwary-advertisement duped public.
Dishonest business
We are not kicking at the ordinary petty merchant. We take up the cudgel against those deceiving capitalists who systematically dupe the people and the retail dealers. The poor and the suffering society of India will certainly curse these swindling money-makers, who heap their millions at the sacrifice of human life and happiness! How long can they feel protected under the canopy of their ill-gotten wealth? The Lord’s vengeance will one day light on them, and who can enumerate the horrible diseases of leprosy, deformity and sudden vanishing of this wealth, these may beget! Do not stoop to the horrible practice of adulterating the food-stuff! For this treachery and sin there is no escape but only untold suffering in return.
Laws are a mockery
There will be the champion of the law who would angrily rise up and say, “we have stringent food laws, and what you say is impossible?” These food laws are a mockery! And their administration worse than mockery!
Let us illustrate by an incident.
Everywhere there is a Food Adulteration Act. All of us thought heavens had descended to bless our food realm. The one-buffalo owner milkmen got a fine of one hundred rupees. He sold all he had and paid up the fine. Another petty shop-wala was fined four times forty rupees. He also ran away losing the little he had.
A few months passed. Just to see the heavenly improvement in the ghee, we made small purchases. That stuff was the same ‘Black Rascal’ as before. Got the butter and melted the stuff for ghee. The result was no better. It was worse. This typical ghee was available in the bazaar to any extent. Only the price of a tin of ghee had gone up. It was rumoured that the tip and the fine had swelled the cost of our old friend ghee!
The Secretary of a Rate Payers’ Association went to a shop. A dozen big tins were seated in the front. Over each was a lable in block letters reading ‘Dangerous, not fit for human consumption!” The Secretary was surprised and asked the merchant the necessity for these tins to be present in the shop in such large numbers. The merchant made a nice replay This is ghee. I also use it daily! To the people also this is sold. For the benefit of the food Inspector and to accommodate some section of the Act, these are labelled like this!”
Hooks to cheat
This is the fate of the law and its administration everywhere. To cheat the law there is no end to clever tricks. The old state still continued. The Municipality had to spend a little more for the special staff. The lawyers also fattened a bit, not on the ghee but on the money of the ghee-walas! But our Kundan and Karim got the same rotten evil smelling wretched stuff.
Plug the holes in the law. Oh my good Sircar, plug the holes in the Law. Frame the law that irrespective of labels, no injurious or adulterated stuff should show its head above the earth. Direct that stuffs injurious to health and digestion and society shall not be prepared under any nomenclature, real or artificial, of ghee, butter, oil or any such thing. Kill any chance for this stuff to peep in at any shop or business place to be vended to anyone or consumed. If such rotten stuffs are doubbed vegetable products and then allowed to be sold, will society be saved from the horrors? Will the capitalist fail to rake in his ill-gotten wealth? Why allow lakhs of these tins, whose contents bear no specification, nor the analyst’s periodical certificates, to get into hotels and homes, and then spend lakhs to build hospitals to cure illness got out of these? Why not the vegetable product-walas build such hospitals out of their ill-gotten millions? Why allow these to be advertised attractively, to deceive people without even giving the chief ingredients? What a horrible state!
Basic things
Under the present circumstances it is impossible almost to get pure ghee or butter. Let us not bemoan that we have to abandon all ways of getting Fat for our system. There are many articles which contain this Fat in large quantities. Coconut, groundnut and the almond contain this fat in large quantities. But the fat from these articles do not contain Vitamin A. The gingely also containt this fat. If this is pressed and the oil used in sufficient quantity then the want of good ghee and butter need not be felt seriously. Cod liver oil and shark liver oil contain very great quantities of vitamin A in Fat.
3. COCONUT, GROUNDNUT AND ALMOND
Good gingely oil
Good gingely oil is not available in the bazaar. Oil is pressed from many useless cheap stuffs and then they are mixed with this gingely oil. The oil will be attractive and golden in colour. There will be even the smell of gingely. But the stuff is only fit to tight the lamp and not the light of life!
Unwise stingyness
Under ordinary conditions, the price per viss of this bad oil will be annas eight or ten. For this price even pure groundnut oil cannot be obtained. Even the oil-monger will swear on his ancestors that this oil is the best. We will feel also that there never was a greater Harischandra than this man and will purchase only this stuff.
The chief reason is that unwise stingyness. When oil is available for eight annas per viss why should one waste annas twelve for the better oil! Why beget bad liver, stomachache, etc., by spending less to procure the cheap oil? We could purchase one viss of good oil for the price of two viss of bad oil and spend nothing to the doctor and avoid suffering. Whatever one may say, this attraction for cheapness will not vanish. A good vendor, though a bit costly will not be allowed near the house.
One need not wait for Statutes and Sircar to secure good oil. Each town or village contains an oil-mill within or nearby. Pure gingely without bitter taste could be purchased and cleaned. This could be taken to the oil-mill and oil extracted for the benefit and health of all of us. This oil can be used in the preparations, can be added to the food and also used to smear the body for the oil bath. The body will get the needed quantity of fat.
4. FAT PROPORTION
They ask you to break coconuts to the Lord. The Lord Ganesa cannot see the colour of one coconut unless he grants to the devotee at least sixteen boons! Do we use at least that which is broken? We safeguard one half lid for at least a week, use it for the vegetable, soup, curds, etc., loan it out a little to the neighbouring grandma and leave enough remnants for the rat or the worm to prosper! When this is carved out not even the shell is spared!
Dearth of coconut
There is no dearth of coconuts. One coconut atleast must be added daily to the cooking for a small family. Big families should utilise at least two or three coconuts daily. Our Malyalee friends are very sensible people in this respect. All their preparations will be surfeited with coconut in some form or other. Even the oil they use is coconut oil. They appear well built with glossy skins. The other provinces can copy the Kerala in this respect.
Multiple uses
Children like to eat the coconut raw in chips. They are famous in knocking away the chips when the mother is looking the other way about. Coconut chips can be mixed with curds and added to the menu. This should not be ornamented with the chilli and the mustard. All vegetable preparations can have this in plenty. The soup will taste very good with coconut. When made into cakes with jaggery, all will relish this as coconut laddu. Because this is tasty one should not make a full or half meal of this. Diarrhoea will ensue.
Groundnut
Cheaper than the coconut is the groundnut. This is most commonly available. This is very tasty. This also contains a great proportion of fat. Protein in this is equal to 33 per cent. The poor who spend for the chilli can usefully spend that amount for this groundnut and get a good quantity of protein and fat.
One cannot say that this is not liked by the people. They commit mistake in the method of eating. Some ultra civilised will call this as country-low-bred-stuff. They may cynically remark that is fit only for the buffalo. One need not mind their contempt.
Method of eating
Groundnuts can be eaten in quantity as a complete meal. This can be consumed as addition to the normal diet. But this should not be used for indiscriminate munching irrespective of time and need. If eaten in this manner, the liver will get upset and necessarily digestion.
Remedy for sluggishness (Tamasa)
The tough nature of this article and dull quality could be easily remedied. Fry the groundnuts with the outer rind on, well. Then peel off the rind and take two or three fistfuls. Jaggery powder also should be taken in along with this. Then one or two tumblers of butter-milk should be consumed. This will keep away hunger for at least four or five hours.
The groundnut could be baked along with vegetables and soup. For varieties of rice preparations this groundnut is largely used after frying.
Almond
Almond is full of fat. But this is the food of rich men. People know and some must have heard at least of Almond in Milk or Badam Milk, Badam Khir and Badam Halva. Using these names for certain products the Hotelwala fattens on the income. The middle class people can stop their tobacco, coffee and chilli, and cinema and use the savings for this almond.
Ask our wrestling champions. They would extole the great buildup qualities of the Almond. There is no necessity to eat this in large quantities. Life is not simply to fatten the system. The aim is not to have any defects or disorders.
There is a very good way to take this into the system. Enough quantities according to need and financial limit may be soaked in the previous night with Kasa-kasa. The next morning should be ground into paste and then mixed with needed quantity of milk, and boiled. After cooling, this could be taken with palmyra jaggery.