I was at the ISENC Conference in Manchester in 2024. Stuart Phillips made an entire presentation on plant sources of protein. In that was a remarkable new learning: a farmer in Nederland converting potatoes into high grade protein. šŖš»
And the result showed that adding 40 grams of potato protein isolate stimulated muscle protein synthesis.
Sitting amongst the audience, our humble vada pav came to my mindš”
I got Mumbaiās most famous Kirit College Ashok Vada Pav tested at an FSSAI accredited German lab in Mumbai. And the test threw interesting data.
ā¢ One Kirti College Vada Pav weighed 130 grams, 319 calories.
ā¢ Protein was 7.24% i.e. 9.4 grams in one Vada Pav.
ā¢ Fat was 7.45% i.e. 9.6 grams
I shot a long podcast on protein and shared this fact. The same was converted into a reel and shared on Instagram.
Rather than getting surprised at the data, what came was anger, hate and abuse. I was labelled shameless. Even a liar. What was surprising was the hate was more coming from the so-called āfit-fluencersā and ādieticiansā. Those that also feel I should not ask India to have ghee because it is saturated fat!
ā¼ļøThe big call, share the data, which of course I did.
What this reflected is how close-minded health educators in India are. We donāt like change. We are just not open to learnings. To experiment. Reminds me of the tied elephant story. Learned helplessness.
I am a realist when I talk about health. I talk to the majority. I always say, context is key, dosage makes poison. A Vada Pav a day is better than 1 packet of chips a day. But makhana every day is better than Vada Pav. Context is key. A Vada Pav once a week is absolutely fine. Dosage makes poison ā ļø
But they are fried in bad oil. Re-used oil. I know. But the fact is people are still going to have it. And hence the lab test. Data.
But this post is not just about data. This is about India. About why we are so angry as a society. Why donāt we embrace new learning with an open mind. Anyone can get the same test done. And share the data. But no. We like to shame. Abuse. Shout.
Strength lies in differences, not similarities. It's okay to agree to disagree. But abuseā¦.š¤
To them all, I leave with this quote by Frederic Bastiat, āwe must admit that our opponents in this argument have a marked advantage over us. They need only a few words to set forth a half-truth. Whereas in order to show that it is a half-truth, we need to resort to long and arid dissertations.ā Those were my dissertation.
Into that heaven of freedom my Father, let my country awakeā¦.(Gurudeb Thakur)
vadapav protein health fitness GENES
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