He is one of the greatest sons the nature has blissfully blessed. He is a king-turned royal sage, who has been ceaselessly worshiping the nature cure methodology. He is the divine rishi who has been with us, guiding us and adding flagrances in our efforts to bloom in this nature. He is the gardener of the nature’s life style garden, who is nourishing it all the time. He is the architect and mentor of the nature’s offspring, ‘Nature Life Style’ that has bloomed in the lap of river Krishna. He has constructed the ashram and is propelling it so that all the people can follow nature’s principles in the divine sight of goddess Kanaka Durga of Vijayawada.

Dedicating with open heart, this garland of books, ‘Prakruthi Jeevana Vidhana Dasha’ to our dearest relatives, unpolluted hearts, Sri Gokarju Gangaraju and Smt. Laila Gangaraju.

Yours Lovingly

For every human being wants to eat tastefully and live happily. For this, he makes the friendship with tastes, and habits which give pleasure. He gets from them what he desires and enjoys the happiness and wishes life would go like that. But, bad company can spoil us any day. Just as misery is lurking behind happiness, disease will be hiding behind the taste. Though we don’t wish it, but the body – which has experienced the tastes and enjoyments, will certainly experience the diseases and hardships, as a consequence. All the diseases, problems and miseries are the ones we ourselves have accumulated. But, we are not able to know that they are caused because of this reason. Despite trying a lot to come out of these diseases and problem, we are not able to get the desired results. One way, we spoil the body and the other way, we try to rectify it. Will it work like this? This way, you can never get health. The Americans have realized this secret and are gradually moving away bad habits and are progressing in learning good habits. We have to get this body good company. For this, we need to leave the bad company. In fact, leaving the bad company is more difficult than learning the good. But, still, it is inevitable. If we want to leave bad, we should know first, the problems it causes, why it is bad, its consequences, then we will get frustrated with those bad things and decide not to seek its company. Then only, we can come out of the bad. The good that we can do to the body is not to spoil the body. When we stop bad habits, in its place, the foundation is laid for good habits. So, in the process of stopping bad things, let us know what are bad habits, and why should we stop them. Then, we stop them and make our health better and ultimately prove that our health is in our hands. Let us do it with strong determination.

1. Stop eating white rice
2. Stop drinking tea and coffee
3. Stop eating non-vegetarian food
4. Stop drinking cool drinks
5. Stop eating snacks

For Telugu people, rice is the primary food. Out of the energy that we need in a day, 70% is secured by rice. Our ancestors had to grind the rice grains and eat it. In grinding, no nutrients were getting spoiled. Since the day man invented mills, since then people stated polishing the rice grain. Now, the diseases of polishing has reached to such an extent that now the rice is sparkling like pearls. The peeled rice grain in fact looks red. If we store the red rice for many dace, it will be affected by worms. And as a result, it is decided to polish them. Moreover, cooking will be easy. Also, easy to swallow without chewing. Let us see what happens when rice is polished. If red rice is poured into the polish machine, the mill will scrape one layer on the rice grains. The husk that comes of this polishing is called first polish (taudu). In this outer layer, almost 50% of the nutrients come out. They are primarily – 12 types of B vitamins, vitamin E, fibres, lecithin etc. In this first polish, all important things are there. So, companies buy this bran (thaudu) and use it for preparing medicine. This bran is filled in empty tablet tubes and sell them as tablets for strength for 1 rupee- 1 each. Along with the bran, they also add colors and some medicine for smell and for storage. It is easy for people to eat white rice and then take these B-complex tablets. This first layer polish bran is used in milk powders and other strong food items for strength. The rice that comes out after the first polish is a bit whitish, but not fully white. So, that’s why, the rice is again polished for the second time. This time, the mills will remove another level layer from the grains. This time, the rice comes as sparkling white. The bran that comes for the second time (which has 30% of nutrients) is used for strength for buffalo, cows and other animals, for fish and prawns. The polished white rice is what we eat. So, this way, we have been eating white rice for many ears and harming our body a lot.

Let us know the harmful effects of white rice

1. The 12 types of B vitamins that are available in rice are lost 80% and only 15-20% are lift.
2. As this rice is lack of B vitamins which give strength to the body, eating it can cause fatigue, tiredness, pain in the calves, not able to work hard etc. For example, the patience that old people of 70-75 age have these days, is not displayed by 25-30 age people. Their patience is not in their children. If we check the reason, it is certainly eating the white rice.
3. In the outer layer, there is vitamin 'E'. It prvents aging fast. In white rice, this is completely absent.
4. Lecithin is not available in white rice. Lecithin prevents fats and cholesterol not to store in the body. For people who eat white rice, do not have this protection in the body. In white rice, there is no energy to prevent heart diseases.
5. As all the fibre is in the top layers of the rice grains, and as there is no fibre in the white rice, it creates constipation. And, it cannot be cured despite using any kind of medicine.
6. Because of eating white rice, body weight will be increased. As white rice doesn’t have fibre, the energy that comes out of this, enters the blood immediately. Hence, this body converts the energy into fat. If there is fibre available, this process can be delayed.
7. As these white rice morsels are thin, they are not chewed well and they slide into the throat smoothly. As we don’t chew well, the digestion doesn’t happen properly in the mouth and in the stomach.
8. It cannot give more energy for more time. Within 3-4 hours, we will have fatigue.
9. As we eat white rice, we are in a need to take B complex tablets, and tonics for strength.
10. Legs will be bloated with water, numbness in the limbs is experienced.
11. In white rice, there are no easily-digestible fats. Fats are going into the bran (thoudu). These useful fats give more energy without doing any harm to the body. For people who eat white rice, this energy is not available.
12. White rice is not tasty. It is insipid. It is so insipid that we want to eat pickles in it.

As we are born with our elders’ brown rice energy (dampudu biyyam), that strength saved us despite we making many mistakes or eating white rice. As our children are born from us, they don’t have our strength. So, as we are giving white rice to them from childhood, parents have to do service to their children, instead children doing service to parents. This is all the miracle of white rice. We can get 1 kg brown rice for 14-15 rupees. When the brown rice is polished and the top 2 layers are removed, as there is nothing useful in the waste white rice, it should ideally be sold for 5-6 rupees. But, in contrast, we are buying it for 20-25 rupees. Buying white rice is like losing money and having misfortune. We are deceiving ourselves. For bran (taudu), worms and insects attack in 10-15 days. In brown rice the worms and insects come after 2-3 months. They don’t touch the white rice till 7-8 months. The worms and insects observe and know which is the most useful food and attack it fast and eat it. Even worms know what is beneficial, but this intelligent man is got stuck up with this white rice. That’s why, though man has everything, he is not able to be healthy.

All these years, we have eaten white rice. From here, we should not make that mistake. We should eat only the brown rice. Don’t say that we cannot get brown rice. Even one first level polished rice is also not useful. Buy complete brown rice (mudi biyyam). Now, raitu bazars are everywhere. It is sold at many places. You can also ask the farmers to get it for you. According to our demand, it will be supplied in the market. In Raithu bajars, it is a bit less expensive. Brown rice is also available in supermarkets. Even in some places, it is sold in khadi bhandars as well. If you have rice mill nearby, you can get from them as well. To store this rice, cover the rice with neem leaves and tie it in a bag, so that it can be protected from worms and insects. It won’t be much strain to cook as well. For one glass of rice, use two glasses of rice. As we all have rice cockers, cook in them. After three vigils, for 10 minutes, keep the flame in sim. If it is old rice, rice won’t be sticky. Like cotton, it would be boiled well. It is a myth that this food is not digestible. When we are able to digest meat pieces, and mango pieces, if we cannot digest brown rice, it is just a pretext. You can cook and eat wheat, finger millet and sorghum (jonna). If it is wheat, eat red wheat suji (ravva). Those who don’t have teeth can eat this food well. They can have good bowel movement. If it is white suji (ravva), it is polished. So no benefit. Those who want to eat roti instead of rice, they can eat wheat pulka, jowar roti, finger millet roti. You can also grind 2-3 types of millets and make roti with that flour. Don’t buy wheat flour in shop. The wheat will be polished, the top layer is removed, and the inner part is sold in beautiful cover. The ads deceive us showing that with our flour, your rotis will bulge like this. In fact, with that flour, not only the rotis but also our stoamach will bulge later. That’s why, the wheat should be grinded and with that, we have to make roti. If you want the roti to be smooth, you can mix sesame powder, or ground nut powder. Eat whatever rice is available to you. with an expectation of the fruit, we are nourishing the tree. With an expectation for milk we are feeling the animals. We are feeling all and at the end, we are eating the strength-less rice. From here, we will have the strengthful brown rice. When the guests come, let us teach them good habits. Let all the family become healthy and strong. We will pass on good habits to the next generation.

We all have like, ‘this is coffee time and this is tea time’. It means, we are so punctual about time. We are so habituated that we are not breaking the time. When Britishers ruled our country, we have learnt their habits, and spread them throughout the country as contagious disease. From unlearned people to the educated, everyone is drinking coffee and tea. No one is considering tea, coffee as a bad habit. In our country, if brandy and whisky are taken, it is considered as a bad habit. But, in foreign countries, it is not considered as a bad habit. Because they drink it all together their – male, female, elders and children. As everyone drinks it, who will call it a bad habit? But, in our country, only 40-50% are drinking alcohol, the remaining people who are not drinking, will call it a bad habit. That’s why it is considered a bad habit. But, coffee and tea are also addictions which show similar effect on the body. But, still we are not calling coffee and tea as bad habit is because everyone is drinking them Then, who will call them bad habits? Except people like me. In fact, tea, coffee, cigarette, gutkas, whiskey, tobacco, An addiction is: if we drink for some days and if we stop it for one day, even if you forget it at that time, the mind reminds it. If you drink buttermilk for a whole year at the same time and don’t drink it for one day. Check if your body feels any inconvenience, as you have not taken buttermilk. As it is a food item, it won’t cause you trouble. Then, tea and coffee are food items? Every day, we are drinking it for many times for many people. We are giving it with our hands. They are like addictions and not food items. Let us see what is there in tea and coffee.

In one cup of coffee, there is 150 milligrams caffeine. In one cup of tea, 150 milligrams of tean. These two medicine are used for problems related to nerves and blood vessels. When I was studying B pharmacy, we came to know that from coffee and tea, that essence is taken out to make it as medicine. When someone has the problem of nerves or blood vessels, doctors use the medicine to make the nerve to invigorate. If we drink one cup of coffee or tea, in means we are taking 150 milli grams of tablet. Some people say, coffee is bad but tea is good. In fact, both belong to the same category – both are sisters. That’s the only difference. How many cups are we drinking? Some people say 10-12 and some will say 5-6 times. In this way, in a day, how many times are we sending this medicine into the body, just think. Is it for one day or 2 days? For some years, we have been causing the body problems with such stimulating drinks! Let us see what happens after we drink tea or coffee? Normally, the nerves in the body work in an equanimeous state. After half an hour that you drink coffee or tea, the medicine in it start working. Because of the caffeine and tean effect, our nervous system start working sharply and enthusiastically. The bullock that is going in normal pace, runs fast with the strike of a whip. Similarly, our nerves work like that. Like this, the power will be with us for 2-3 hours. As long as the power works, you will be happy and enthusiastic and active. You can say that, it is good to be in that stage. But, the bullock after running, gets tired and comes to below-normal pace, becomes equal to the pace of a bull. In the same way, instead of nerves working natural stage, they work in a deteriorated stage. At that stage, you will feel fatigue, lazy and completely inactive. At this time, the body demands to have a tea or coffee. If you don’t give to the body as it asks, then you will face headache and the mind does not work well and you will feel tiredness. That’s why, when it is tea or coffee time, unless you drink them, you won’t feel good. These habits make the body and mind deteriorate. That’s why they are called bad habits. Why stimulating the working nerves? Then, why should we get problems? Humans should always be in an equanimous state – not to stimulate the body and mind.

Let us think about the bad effects of tea or coffee.

1. They will have influence on the intestines and the appetite will come down. Everyone has experienced the diminishing of the hunger.
2. A kind of sticky substance protects the stomach, intestine inflammation. The effect of coffee and tea will be on the globlet cells (which create the sticky substance). As a result, the creation of globlet cells will be affected and the sticky substance creation comes to half. Because of this, stomach inflammation, ulcers in the intestines, ulcers etc. When we face these problems, we are using chilli and sourness but not stopping tea and coffee. That’s why, these problems are not getting cured.
3. So many enzymes are developed in the stomach and intestines to digest the food. Tea and coffee decrease the creation of these.
4. As nerves work stimulated, they tend to get tired fast.
5. When the power of coffee and tea is over in us, if we won’t drink it again, we will face headache again. The headaches that you get habituated to, will come to you again and again. For 50-60 percent of headaches, tea and coffee are the reasons.
6. Coffe and tea affect the adrenal glands. As a result, the urine comes slowly and multiple times, causing frequent urination problem.
7. For our liver, to clean the effect of one cup, it takes a day. If we take 5-6 cups a day, the liver cannot cure the effect of the other cups and becomes a problem to the liver.
8. As tea and coffee make the mind work more, more thoughts come to the mind, and the mind doesn’t feel stable and feels irritated.
9. As the nerves are fully activated, they don’t get relaxation. As a result, we won’t get sleep, as soon as we get to bed.
10. In the morning, as we drink coffee and tea, the discharging process stops in the body. Early in the morning, before we eat something, the body will be cleaning the waste. When we drink coffee or tea, the body stops the cleaning process and focusses on the new activated part.

Not realizing what is there in these pass time tea and coffee, we have been troubling the body. For a pastime, do you smear some mud to your house? Do you pour some sand in your oil tank? You won’t do that. Then, why are you pouring so much rubbish in this invaluable body, which you cannot bury spending crores of rupees. That too, not in one kind. We take in a day for different reasons such as: for us; when giving to relatives; for pastime; when getting it free; for friends – like this, so many times, we are filling the body with the medicine. This is our body. It is working for our pleasure. So, leave the tea and coffee culture. Don’t give even to your relatives. Are you surprised? Or do you feel, they won’t come again? We should walk in the right path and make others follow it, but not to choose the wrong path. I will tell you what you should do when your relatives come. As soon as they come, give them water in a big pitcher (chembu) and make them drink stomach full. After ten minutes, ask them if they would like to take coffee or tea. They will say that the stomach is full, and leave as soon as the work is done. You also stop drinking coffee and tea and during that time, have a habit of drinking water. The body will be cleansed. It is good for health. When you stop drinking coffee and tea for the first time, for the first 5-6 days, the mind and mouth will long for it. To lose the desire for it, you need to drink warm water with 1-2 lemons, along with 1-2 spoons of honey (ensure that it is sour a bit). When the mouth becomes sour, we lose interest in them. Sourness has that quality. You can drink for 2-3 times. If you get headache because of stopping tea and coffee, take cool water head bath twice a day. If it is emergency, take tablets. In just a week’s time, your body will forget them. If you stop them for once, don’t drink them for anyone. In fact, tea and coffee are drunk for others rather than for ourselves. For somebody else, don’t put your life at stake. Instead of coffee or tea, don’t take milk as well. You have crossed that age. So, at this age, either drink four fruit juice, honey lemon juice water, sugar cane juice, coconut water etc. If you make such habits, life becomes good. Let us become better.

Before the living beings have been born, the food there were going to eat was created. According to the food, the body structure is designed. Some living beings are designed to eat vegetarian food and some other are designed to eat non-vegetarian food. According to the food, the body construction has happened. The living beings have realized what food to eat and are eating the same throughout their lifetime. Animals that eat non-vegetarian food don’t eat vegetarian food. All living things have known their food and they are eating will. The problem is with us. Are we vegetarians or non-vegetarians? Or both of them? For what type of food, our body is suitable? Think! Do we have strong nails to pierce animals? Or do we have canine teeth? Or do we have narrowed jaws? Or do we have bone crushing teeth? Contrary to all these, soft hands, broad jaws, thin nails, straight teeth all these features are useful to eat fruits well. Before a milk-drinking baby, if you keep an apple and a rabbit, he will bite the apple, try to eat it and will play with the rabbit. And, if you give the same to a dog or fox offspring, they will try to bite the rabbit and try to play with the apple. What the body is meant to eat can be known here. All animals smell before taking food. If the nose tells them no, then they won’t touch the food. If the nose says okay, then they will eat well. Does man like the smell of the non-vegetarian food? Can man enjoy the smell of cutting fish or the smell that comes when goats or hens are cut? If we are able to inhale those smells with joy, then we can say that our body is meant to eat it. The nose doesn’t like the smell itself. That’s why, people buy fish, while closing their noses, in the fish market. When women are cutting meat, they don’t like the smell. The nose is telling that we are not born to smell such food. When the nose is unwilling to smell it, how can the mouth and stomach are willing to eat it? For the same meat smell, dog, fox, eagle are readily attracted. Their body is designed for such meat. So, they like that kind of food. Moreover, man is born to achieve a goal. To achieve the goal, it is possible only when we have sattva traits. If the man has tamas and rajasik traits, then man thinks one way and another things happens. According the fooo, the traits will develop. So, we need to eat only satvika food. Even in dream, we cannot eat or smell the tamasic food. Because the smell is not allowing us to eat, we are removing the smell by cooking the food. After cutting the flesh, we wash our hands and the knife/cutter with soap. Till you keep the flesh on the stove, they feel inconvenience because of the smell and hold breath not to smell it. Once we keep masala in the flesh, our nose starts to inhale the smell. The smell that was disgusting till now, starts smelling good once masala is put on the flesh, and our saliva starts oozing, and we are ready to eat it. Man may drink mud if masala is mixed to it. Because of masala, man is able to do such a disgusting thing. Without masala, no one will touch non vegetarian food. More than the non-vegetarian food, we are attached to masala. When we look at the flesh, the mind doesn’t feel good. This eye cannot look at the red blood. The nose doesn’t like the smell. The body structure is also against eating non vegetarian food. Despite so many body properties are against eating non vegetarian food, man is preferring to eat it. What to achieve at the end? If we do things which the body says, ‘no’, then how can the body support us? And how can it give us health?

Problems that the body faces due to non vegetarian food:.

1. Unless we work from 8-10 hours, the eaten non vegetarian food doesn’t get digested. For digestion to happen, most of the energy in the body is spent for digestion and getting wasted.
2. Once we eat non-vegetarian food, we will feel doziness. The oxygen will be spent more for the digestive system and it is not spent for the mind. Because of this, the mind is not enough for our daily activities and we will become dumb. We won’t feel good unless we sleep for 8-10 hours. The tiger which eats flesh sleeps for 15-20 hours. Even our life goes mostly for sleep.
3. We will acquire tamasic and rajasic traits. Anger and irritations will be more. Stubbornness will increase. We will look at the bad in all the people but we don’t see their good nature. The mind will always be irritable and unrest.
4. We will face constipation problem. Blood comes through faeces and we also face the problem of piles. We go for motions once in 2-3 days.
5. In the body, the fat items will be piled up. The lysine, which supports to form fat and cholesterol increases in the body. It causes heat problems and paralysis.
6. It causes bad micro organisms.
7. We won'g get nutrients. So, we face many other problems.
8. As we use much oil, salt, masala to cook non vegetarian food, it proves very harmful to the body.
9. Instead of the food giving energy to us, most of our energy is spent on digesting the flesh and we will lose most of our energy. Unless we use 60-70 % of food, the non-vegetarian food is not digested.
10. It causes chronic diseases and cancer, which won’t be cured easily. As people world-wide are getting aware about this, they are stopping ¾ of non-vegetarian food and converting to vegetarian food.

So, we have seen how many problems the non-vegetarian food is causing us. Then, is it good to eat it? It is not good us, that’s why, our elderly people called it, ‘neechu’. It means it is the worst of all foods. If we eat it, we will also get to that stage. If someone does any mistake, people used to scold as ‘a disgusting fellow’ (neechuda). These days, no one is using those abusing words, because all are eating it, so those abusing words have become extinct. Even those who are eating non-vegetarian food, they also don’t like the smell. That’s why after having the meals, everyone washes the palm with soap for 2-3 times. We rinse water in the mouth and to remove the smell from mouth, we either use somph, betel nuts or taambulam, to clean the mouth. For holding it for 15 minutes, we clean the palm For eating for 15 minutes, we are cleaning the mouth. But, how are we cleaning the stomach where it is stored 8-10 hours? As the essence is entering into all life cells, how are we cleaning them? In this culture, when we have a sight of a dead body, we want to purify the body after coming home. Then, why should we eat these dead bodies? Ours should not be a culture to kill or living things. We need to try to safeguard other living things and not to kill and eat them. As a human being and humanitarian, you think again. We are finding pretexts to celebrate the occasion with non-vegetarian food, such as – relatives have come, son has come for holidays, son-in-law has come, birthday, marriage day. Is it a good habit to show pretexts and kill other living beings by cutting their throats and we enjoying ourselves? Is it suitable for humans? Let us stop this violence and try to eat food with good heart. If we use kerosene as fuel, we know how it will be – its driving, its maintenance and pollution. For our body, non-vegetarian food is like kerosene. Let us stop such a bad habit and will learn good habits. If we use 1 litre petrol for Hero Honda, it will run for 75 kilometres with good pickup. Similarly, if we give our body, coconut, sprouts, dates and fruit, it can work for many hours, without any tiredness, shortness of breath, without any diseases, and with peace of mind. I wish you would use such good fuel for the vehicle of your body and protect your health.

When someone comes to our house, we will welcome them and give them water. This is our culture. Or we will give them buttermilk. Our uneducated elders have taught us many good habits. Today, we have become so educated, but what are we teacher others or what are we doing? To guests and to our children, we are giving a cool poisonous thing called cool drinks. We get the cool drink bottle in big size and store them in the fridge, and are drinking them multiple times a day. If we drink or eat something spending money on it, we should get health along with taste and happiness. Then, it is fine. Apart from taste and happiness, let us see what we get from cool drink. pH meter will help us detect the acid and base properties in an item. If pH is more than 7, it is base; if it is below 7, then it is acid. If we dip the pH metre in any item, the state of the item will be known by the number. If you pour cool drink in a glass and dip the pH metre in it, we will know the secret. If we check the available 10 types of cool drinks in the market, their pH is lying between 1.1 to 2.0. Even if sweet drinks and sour drinks as well, we can find that they are more acidic in nature. You might have seen the acid bottles which we use to clean toilets. If you check the pH of them it will be 1.5 to 2.0. As it is so strong, it will eat up the dried up faeces when we pour the liquid on it. The cool drinks that we drink also have the same level of acidic nature, like the toilet cleaning liquids. If you think I am wrong, this time, check it yourself – when there are stains in the latrine commode, pour the cool drink instead of the acid and wait for 5 minutes and clean it. It will work like acid and cleans the commode. Can we drink the cool drinks which are equal to toilet cleaners or can we give them to children? Think.

You may get the doubt that why are these so much acidic. If you check the chemicals that are mixed in the cool drinks. In them, phosphoric acid, carbolic acid, erythorbic acid and benzoic acid are mixed. Unless so many acids are mixed, we are not getting that enjoyment in the drinks. That’s why, when we drink cool drinks, we feel inflammation in the throat and stomach, belches in the skull, pain in the head nerves, excess pain, and acidity. It reminds me of my childhood memory. Since I am born, I might have drunk 20 cool drinks. When somewhere in a marriage function, as I was getting it free, I tries to drink thumps up. When the foam is coming out with froth, I was scared. I drank it after some time. After one gulp, there is inflammation in the throat. I thought if they mix beer in it, because it was so intense. I could not drink it and left it. I couldn’t understand it then. But, now I understand the reason – what the power is. Do you know one more secret? After we die, when the body is cremated, the corpse will be completely burnt. The bones will be burnt. But, the teeth in the mouth won’t be burnt. If we bury the corpse, all the body will be mixed up in the sand. After 20 years, if we dig out the corpse, the teeth will remain like that. Our teeth are made like that. The teeth which are not burnt up by any fire and spoiled by soil, those teeth – if you dip in a cool drink and check them, they are getting melted. The teeth are getting black and then becoming like flour. If you drop a tooth in a black coloured cool drink and check it on the 8th day, the tooth is getting melted completely and disappearing totally. This I have checked personally. Since our birth till we die, we at least chew 50 tonnes of food with these teeth. Despite chewing such large quantities of food, the teeth are remaining intact. But, a cool drink can melt it in a month. Then, we can know whether they are drinking cool drinks or poisonous drinks? They are certainly poisonous things, but as there is more water quantity in them, they kill us slowly. When they can spoil such hard teeth, then cannot they damage our intestines, nerves? Like all other living creatures, we also inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. This poisonous carbon dioxide is mixed in the cool drinks to store it for many days. That’s why, whatever cool drink we take, immediately, a bad gas comes out of the mouth and nose. In a college, two students had a competition and drank 8 and 9 cool drinks respectively. By the time the doctor has come, both died. In the post mortem, it is identified that they died because of excess of carbon dioxide. This incident happened in Mumbai. Now, do you understand how much poisonous is the gas that is mixed in the cool drinks? In some cool drinks, especially the cool drinks that are sold in India, they mix a chemical called caffeine. Because of this caffeine, we face problems like insomnia, headache, irritation. After checking what are all the chemicals that are mixed in the cool drinks, the truth that found out was: they mix poisonous chemicals such as oxalic, cadmium, zinc, sodium, glutamate, potassium sulphate, methyl benzene, brominated vegetable oil etc. As they are mixed with so many acid, the instruction reads on the bottles as: children under the age of 6 years should not drink. But, in our country, they are not giving the instruction. As sugar is mixed in large quantities in cool drinks, the teeth and intestines get damaged. There is nothing in the cool drink which is useful for the body. It is like we are buying poison with money. Either you buy your children with your hands or you encourage them by giving them money, you are spoiling their health. So, make them stop such bad habits and encourage them to eat fruit and drink fruit juices daily. When a relative comes, don’t waste money by giving cool drink. It is said, ‘a guest is like a god’. Give the guest water to drink. It gives them health. If we want to curb such habits in the society, we have to stop them in our family, first. So, in every family, all of you, do not make such mistake and spoil your health. Your hard-earned money should not spoil you. So, with that money, buy fruit and make children get habituated to fruit juices, they will drink happily. They can save their health.

What we eat for our pastime is called snacks (chiru thindi). Our elderly people, either not having money or despite having money, maybe whether they did not have time or not having patience to cook with such hard work, they wouldn’t cook unless there is a situation. To prepare snacks, they would wait for an occasion or some festival. They would eat them heavily those 2-3 days continuously till they are fully satisfied and then they would forget about snacks. It turned out to be their fortune. On the regular days, after afternoon meals, in the evening, they would eat some natural good food such as eetha fruit, jujebi (regi fruit), palm (tati) fruit, Manilla tamarind (seema chintakaya), ice apple (tati munjelu), teegalu (tender palm shoots) and burra gunju (extract from palm seed) etc. For children, they would buy ground nuts, batani, malted grain (maramaralu), mango jelly (mamidi tandra), and toddy palm fruit pulp (tati tandra). Apart from these, they would eat whatever fruit they would get. Every day, they would eat ganji rice, curd rice, and the nutrients that are missing in them, they would cover with snacks. That’s why, our elders would have few health problems. Till 50-60 years at least, they could live without any disease and without getting bed ridden, without taking any medicine. They wouldn’t have any problems and ailments such as eye sight problems, tooth problems, menstruation problems, BP, sugar problems, joint pains or grey hair etc. Their habits and their restrictions and principles saved them like that.

Let us think how our habits are these days. If the present day women are supposed to cook snacks in the old traditional way, they wouldn’t do it even on the festival days. These days, making the snacks has increased because, there is no preparatory work such as getting the flour ready by grinding it, sieving it. Now, we have gas stoves which can make the cooking in minutes. We don’t have problem for money. We don’t have the problem of infants disturbing them. More than that, after the food is cooked, we can store them in fridges so that we can eat for more days. We cook snacks in 2 to 3 varieties and store them in boxes; roam around in the house, eat a sweet and a hot multiple times during the day time, just for pastime. When children come from school or when relatives come, we will welcome them with snacks. When cooking is not possible, not to miss food, if we make a call, the ‘swagruha food’ will come in minutes. Like this, all the family members are eating together and thinking that they are enjoying life. If you cook snacks like every day, children think, ‘my mom is good’, and husband thinks that ‘my wife is taking care of me’. In this way, we are eating snacks in one way or the other. If the home-made snacks get bored, the road-side bajji, cutlets, samosa, pakodi, egg bonda etc. are brought home 3-4 times a week. If men eat outside, they don’t want women and children miss them and they bring them as packing. During holidays, festival days, at theatres, more than these types, ice creams, drinks, pizzas, burgers, noodles, cakes are purchased spending a lot of money. On the pretext of buying for children, parents are also eating them. Like this, the whole family is doing things like this. They don’t have a single thought about the consequences, and repercussions. As a result, the kids as well as the parents are getting affected by fevers, cold, cough; and still no one is realizing the truth. No one is there to tell them not to eat like that. Can we expect any advice from the doctors regarding this? They are doing the same thing going out with wife and children and eating such rubbish stuff. That’s why diseases are not leaving doctors and their family members. This snacks culture is spreading in the society like a contagious disease. To get rid of this problem, let us first understand the drawbacks of them.

Mostly, these snacks are made as they are boiled in 300 degree heat oil for 5-10 minutes and then we sprinkle on them, so many other powders. When rice and curries are boiled in 100 degrees, 60-70% of nutrients die. Then what is left in the food items that are fried in 300 degree heat. Forget about getting benefits from eating them. We wish they won’t affect us. The whole food will become like a poisonous waste matter. On the oil-boiled items, if we sprinkle salt and chilli powder, they are tasty to the tongue. What the body needs are only nutrients. The snacks that we get outside contain chemical colours and medicine. All these things become more burdensome to the body. The body takes the useful food items that are digested for the nourishment of the body and leaves the other non-useful food items. To do these two tasks, the body’s energy is spent. The energy spent on discharging the waste items and protecting the body from the damage they cause is more than the energy spent on digesting the useful items. For example, when there is hurricane, all the leaves dust and dirt is gathered at our house, outside the doorstep. When the wind comes down, it takes a lot for the women to clean up the area. More than the regular cleaning effort, this task takes 10 times of effort. Similarly, Snacks, cakes, ice creams, bajji etc, if we eat them, the body spends a lot of energy to digest them. Even if the body digests them all these food items, there is not much benefit from these food items, in terms of nutrients. Moreover, the body needs to spend a lot of energy to protect itself from these waste matter and the poisonous items. All our immunity will be wasted to protect ourselves from this rubbish food. Because of this, our immunity will decrease. As we continue the spree of snacks, the body cannot bear the burden and all the energy will be spent. When due to heavy wind, if the neighbours coconuts fall in our backyard, we save them with great joy, our body also will feel happy wen natural food like fruit are available. To such a natural body, we are offering such unnatural food and welcoming diseases ourselves.

Problems that are caused due to snacks:

1. After eating oil-boiled food items, the hunger will die. That’s why after eating them, children don’t prefer having meals.
2. Because of the salt and oils in the snacks, we feel so thirsty. If you drink water then, your stomach will be spoiled.
3. In this food items, the fibre is zero. It doesn’t cause any bowel movement. Children and parents all are going to motions once in 2-3 days.
4. Blocking of blood vessels, chances of heart attacks irrespective of age.
5. Because of this food, we often face infections. They cause cold, cough, phlegm etc. frequently.
6. Due to increase of waste matter in the body, we frequently are affected by fevers.
7. In the body, all rubbish is accumulated as fat and the body weight will increase.
8. As we eat them, we lose the tendency to eat the natural food.
9. These foods cause chronic illnesses.

We have seen the bad effects of snacks. The elders should not eat them and should not give to children on regular basis – only on the occasions such as festivals or marriage functions. Then, they won’t cause big harm. If you want to eat them occasionally, eat them between 3-4 pm and don’t have the evening dinner that day. Then, don’t eat them again. You have to eat them occasionally but not as a regular habit. As our elders have taught us, we have eat seasonal fruit regularly, we don’t think about them. For good health, the snacks are meant to be: sesame laddu, ground nuts laddu (both of these can be made with dates); raw ground nuts, maize, fruit salad with honey etc. If we eat fruit and drink fruit juices, then there won’t be many differences. As elders, let us have good habits and show them good path. All the family should live happily and healthily. Let us prove that our health is in our hands.