Cholesterol is oil like sticky substance,  more like oil that gets into your kitchen sink and eventually sticks to the walls of the pipe. Our liver produces cholesterol and sends those all over the body through blood. If we have more cholesterol than required, it is going to keep roaming around in the blood and eventually going to get stuck to the blood vessel walls. If we don't take care of it for long time, these are going to block the blood flow. Then all the trouble starts!

Most of you would know high cholesterol is bad for us. But can we survive without cholesterol? Answer is simple NO. We need cholesterol to survive. It contributes to the structure of every cell in the body. High cholesterol is bad but right level is required.

LET US UNDERSTAND THE FUNDAMENTALS IN SIMPLE TERMS
What can we do to make sure that we have right levels of it? It appears that, by virtue of normal human function, we are designed to have right level of Cholesterol. But most of us do not let our body live normal human function. We eat bad things, don't get to do normal days physical hard work and keep dumping trash in our body.

Let me explain little more on what this normal human function is. I am going to sound like a rotten old record player. Eat balanced food. Eat between 2000 to 2500 Cal food and spend that calorie by doing physical activity. Don't sit before that television all day and see how others live. Let us live our lives. It is that simple. But simple explanations do not bode well. Let me go few steps further to understand the mechanism behind how our body manages Cholesterol.

WHERE IS IT PRODUCED?
Our body has a machine inside that is designed to produce cholesterol. It is called liver. Liver produces right level of cholesterol. It we eat high saturated fats and trans-fat (bakery foods and other junk), liver is triggered to produce more Cholesterol than what is required.
Some foods have high amount of Cholesterol in it. Any living animal with liver would be producing cholesterol for its own use, If we eat those animals (liver of lamb, fatty beef for example), it is going to impact our cholesterol level significantly.
Step One towards lower Cholesterol is to avoid food that has direct cholesterol in it or the fats (Saturated Fat and trans-fat ), Let us avoid trans-fat completely and moderate Saturated Fats ) that can trigger our liver to make more Cholesterol.

WHAT IS LIVER DOING WITH CHOLESTEROL?
Total cholesterol in your body has three segments.

(1) HDL Cholesterol
(2) LDL Cholesterol
(3) Triglycerides

HDL is called good cholesterol and LDL is called bad one. HDL job is to go all over the blood vessels and bring all the left-over excess cholesterol back to the liver where it can be processed and expelled as waste from our body.
LDL Cholesterol on the other hand, if we have more of it, it will roam around as lawless militant and eventually get stuck the blood vessel walls. This eventually will cause blocks in blood vessel that might lead to heart attack, stroke or high blood pressure.

SO, WHAT DO WE DO?
You need to have more HDL and less LDL. If we do, then blood flow will be clean. LDL will not be messing up the blood flow. It requires discipline to increase HDL and indiscipline to increase LDL.

Well balanced food (nuts, seeds, wholegrains, fresh vegetables and fruits) that is zero in trans-fat, low in saturated fat along with good physical exercise (running, jogging, swimming, playing intense games) will increase the HDL

All the above, will also reduce your LDL

Next time, when you buy any product (claiming to be nutritious), just read the ingredients. If you do not understand the ingredients, most likely you are looking at a junk food. Avoid it.

Control cholesterol, and we can control most of the lifestyle diseases.

Beauty in living is all about having a healthy life. Billions of dollars will not give back the healthy body we once had.

Let us set our priorities right

Sugar is 100% simple carbohydrate with 100% empty calories with no nutritional value whatsoever. On the extreme side, Water is the only known consumable with Zero calories and Zero carbohydrates.

It is not that calories are bad. Calories are the cost we pay to get something in return. That 'something' has to be nutrition that our body requires for healthy living. The nutrition we need should come in the form of protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamins & minerals.

So, don't let anyone tell you that Calories are bad.

Vijaya Rajan, Founder of nutritious snacks business SIRIMIRI, has seen a 370 percent growth in revenue after she joined Amazon�s Saheli programme. By Rekha Balakrishnan & Tanvi Dubey Read more at: Click here to read the story

When you go to the supermarket breakfast aisle next time, check the breakfast cereals. Most of them will have MUESLI printed in big font. This is something similar to most schools calling themselves International. Whatever sells! There is a lot of difference between MUESLI and simple CEREAL.

One of the reasons we both started this business exactly to combat the sugar infused foods spoiling us each day. It is really frustrating that these types of simple carb-based cereals sold in the name of muesli. It is important to create awareness with the customers on spotting good food from bad ones.

Muesli is known to have more strong ingredients such as nuts, seeds and dry fruits along with wholegrains. Food we eat is supposed to get digested slowly so that it keeps the hunger away for extended time. This enables the body to digest the food and absorb the nutrients. Root cause of lot of our lifestyle diseases is the rampant consumption of simple carbs also called fast foods.

So, WHAT IS MUESLI?

A minimally-processed mix of whole grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and spices, muesli was first created at the turn of the 20th century by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner as a healthful dietary supplement for his patients. Although it has grown to become a dietary staple and one of the most popular breakfast in the world, in India, our breakfast items are still dominated by overly-processed sugary puffs, flakes and simple carbs.

SIRIMIRI Premium Toasted Muesli consists of 100% whole grain gluten free oats, Kodo Millet, Pearl Millet, Premium Almonds, Black Raisins, Sunflower Seeds ,Honey, Pistachios, Blueberries, Pumpkin Seeds, Dried Cranberries and many other nuts and seeds. We do not add any refined sugars, or preservatives, or syrups.

HOW DO YOU EAT IT?

Many people ask how to eat muesli. The simple answer is - JUST ADD MILK. However, one of the best things about mueslis is the versatility. Eat it cold with yogurt, eat it hot like oatmeal, or soak it in milk as overnight muesli to truly unleash the nutrition and flavors. My favorite option is to add thick curd in the muesli and consume it. Tastes excellent!

Just try once. You would have found one of the best way to start your day. Power breakfast for a powerful day

WHEN DO YOU EAT IT?

Start your day with SIRIMIRI Premium Millet Muesli as breakfast. Toasted Millet Muesli is delicious and is a great source of Protein, Fibre, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin E

After a long day at work, towards evening, it will be so refreshing to have a healthy snack. Just carry the pack of Muesli with you. You don't have to consume unhealthy snack at your office cafeteria that is loaded with simple sugars.

Not all cheap stuff you see are really cheap. It can be very expensive to your health.

Have a nice day!

February 17, 2017

I just came back from a Triathlon Event in GOA – India. It was an Olympic distance event where I first swam 1.5 km in the ocean, and then cycled for 40 km. It ended with 10 km of running on a hot, sunny day. This is my second consecutive year at GOA for this event. I took 3 hours and 39 minutes to cross the finish line.

The attitude of athletes who are into endurance sports is infectious. They are highly competitive, but simultaneously exude positivity and graciousness. All what you would want in a corporate environment, don’t you think? Mostly they complete with themselves - not with someone else. The endurance sport arena is where age is just a number - with no meaning whatsoever.

Endurance sport is a transformative and meditative game of the mind and body working together in symphony. The human body is an amazing machine capable of doing amazing feats – only if the driver of that machine determines to drive it as it deserves to be driven.

So, what is this transformative, meditative game all about? Crossing of the finish line is just a part of the overall scheme of things. It is the journey that matters more. It is the rigor of disciplined preparation and understanding of our own fragility. Methods to cope with those fragilities is what makes this sport more significant.

It is easy to give up – after all, 1.5 km swimming and 40 km cycling at around 30kmph speed is enough to tire out the common man. It is easy to give up running when your body is screaming with pain. So what do you do?

Endurance athletes thrive on the ability to talk to their minds and have that long conversation with themselves. It is the three plus hours of solitary time – rather, it is the silence that is deafening.

It is the difficult things we have done which make us learn more about our resilience. It is the time to convince the mind that what is difficult is possible – only 8 more kilometres to run! It can’t be difficult – one stride at a time!

It’s time to convince the body that it has got the energy- confidence is the energy. A confident mind exudes positive energy.

It’s time to feel the wind blowing on that sweaty face because I am running so fast!

While training for swimming English Channel, we as team undertook several expeditions into the sea. One of the events was a 5km sea swimming event off the GOA coast. The event was badly organized. Organizers put several buoys with flag on it but they did not anchor it well – 30 minutes into the swim, they all floated away!

We had to swim 2.5 km straight into the sea and return back. Once you swim so far into the sea, you can hardly see the shore. Two kilometres into the sea, I lost my swim orientation in the absence of any markers! In the massive waters, I was trying to see the target point on a foggy morning with no other human nearby!

That was the day, the strength of my mind and the hard work of my training destroyed my fear of adversity in the middle of the ocean. I started enjoying the push and pull of the tide and loved being part of that massive beast. There are some wonderful views one must see from the middle of the ocean with water to the eye level. Only sea swimmers know that!

When I was swimming in an area called the ‘Separation Zone’ in the English Channel, I saw a few jelly fishes. They looked light brown, umbrella shaped, just hanging in the water. I kept swimming. Just a couple of meters away, I saw thousands of jellyfish layer after layer deep in the water, as far as my eyes can see! I was startled – these things sting and are very painful! I tried to get away – but there was nowhere else to go.

And then I started enjoying the sight of these little creatures – yes, they were pricking me - yet, the school of jellyfishes presented their own enjoyable pattern. It is the virtue of mind and body at peace working together making all the adventures we do worthwhile.

It is a beautiful world, and we are blessed to live in it. Be it the natural beauty of vast expanse of water, or the long stretch of cycling or running trial on those beautiful snow-capped mountains waiting to be scaled, it is all there for us to experience fully. It takes an effort of the mind and body to be at harmony to generate the abundance of confidence and positivity.

Life indeed is beautiful! Good luck!

We keep harping the fact that all our products are produced using wholegrains. It is important to spread awareness on what wholegrain actually is. The article is referenced from Harvard School Of Public Health. This is one of the excellent articles I have come across that explains in a very simple and easy to read terms.

Whole grains offer a “complete package” of health benefits, unlike refined grains, which are stripped of valuable nutrients in the refining process.

All whole grain kernels contain three parts: the bran, germ, and endosperm. These components have various effects on our bodies:

• Bran and fiber slow the breakdown of starch into glucose—thus maintaining a steady blood sugar rather than causing sharp spikes.

• Fiber helps lower cholesterol as well as move waste through the digestive tract.

• Fiber may also help prevent the formation of small blood clots that can trigger heart attacks or strokes.

• Phytochemicals and essential minerals such as magnesium, selenium and copper found in whole grains may protect against some cancers.

Let us avoid highly processed grains, refined flour as much as we can. These modern practices do much harm to the health and wellbeing. We have choice to eat what is healthy.

Please do not ever believe sugary things are the only tasty things in the world. Life is much more valuable and we all deserve high quality lifestyle. It cannot happen without healthy food habits.

Please continue reading at the following link

Source
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/whole-grains/

If you ever searched for a protein product in the web, you would get flooded with advertisements for protein powders, protein bar or any product with the name protein in it. The problem today is not the existence or non-existence of good products. The identification of the same.

When we consume carbohydrates, our body breaks it down and converts into sugar (glucose). This is an important function of the body. Glucose is what propels our body with energy.

The problem is when conversion from Carbohydrate to Sugar happens too fast, sugar levels in our body spikes. This causes stress on our system. If this problem is sustained over a period of time, it can cause irreparable damage leading to diabetes among many other things.

We want the carbohydrates to be digested slowly enabling the nutrient absorption. If carbohydrates are digested slowly, conversion of carbs to sugar (glucose) will also happen slowly. This is possible if we consume food that is rich in fiber.

Given the prelude, let us talk about fiber.

Fiber is a carbohydrate but, body cannot digest it and hence it cannot be converted into sugar. So, there is almost no calorie associated with this. Fiber cannot be digested by the body. It passes through the body undigested.

There are two types of fiber existing in the food that we consume.

Type 1 – Soluble Fiber – If we put this fiber in water, it will dissolve in water hence the name soluble. This type of fiber, slows down the carbohydrates from getting converted to glucose and hence regulates the sugar while enabling better absorption of the nutrients.
Fiber can pervert the sudden spike of sugar. It will also make us feel full for longer time and hence reduce the hunger. It can keep blood sugar in control.

Type 2 – Insoluble Fiber – This fiber cannot dissolve in water. – The main job of this fiber is to transport the food through digestive system. Main benefit - prevents constipation.

We can get sufficient fiber (both types) from our regular daily foods such as wholegrains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits such as apple (with outer skin), oatmeal lentil, quinoa, brown rice, legumes, leafy greens.

Anything refined such as polished/processed rice, multipurpose flour such as maida is not going to help as the process of refining essentially removes the fiber.

Always check the labels for the Dietary Fiber content. Fiber is not the nutrient known for its taste. But will help to increase days of our lives and can add values to those days.

Question we ask ourselves is, “What do Sirimiri wants to be when it grows up?” When you are having long term vision, perspective of what success looks like changes. The products, customers and sustainability become centre stage. You tend to tune out the noise and start thinking intuitively on product, process and quality.

For starters, moving away from slogans and start focusing on addressing real problems/gaps is first. Who got what funding; how much they are selling on amazon; which actress is endorsing who are pure nonsense and noise. Everything comes with a cost. I know of brands that spend 2 lakh each day on amazon ads to get revenue of 3 lakh each day with deep discounts. Customer acquisition cost are horrendous!

Revenue we make, for starters has to be sustainable. Non sustainable revenues are toxic eventually kill the companies. There are very little we can get from the peer group of companies these days because most of them are not worried about growing up but focusing on getting adopted by some rich company.

Establishing and leaving behind a great company requires life time of commitment but it has to be built on simple principles. As simple as - focus on product and customers day in and day out. It is going to take time. A marathon runner never sprints – his energy is limited – it is the art of conserving energy in a sustainable way.