Of late we’ve been subjected to some corporate propaganda bumph in the form of Vedanta’s “Creating Happiness” corporate social responsibility publicity campaign. Here’s my ever critical, ever cynical views on a large corporation that is blatantly stealing natural resources from a protected forest area, their advert and the abundant on-air time they’ve been getting. Continue reading
I’m the Grinch of Valentine’s Day. It was never “celebrated” in the India I lived in when I was a teenager so it has no significance for me. At best we had friendship bands. But now it seems to be all the rage among the young people. I couldn’t be bothered – I’ve never received a valentine or given one. Luckily my husband feels the same way.
We’ve recently added a healthy component to our dinners – soup. We were turned on to this idea during our holiday where at my aunt’s tea estate, soup is always served before dinner as we all loll in front of the TV. Simple, yet so tasty mugs of tomato, vegetable and chicken are a nightly ritual. It got us thinking though – does having soup fill you up so you eat less for your main meal or does it tickle your appetite and make you want to eat more. A study presented in Digestive Disease Week (it’s a real publication, I checked) on whether having soup at the beginning of a meal increases your appetite so that you scoff down more of your mains or whether makes you full up so you eat less later on found that eating a “fatty soup” (I’m assuming they mean with cream) can have “a therapeutic potential for obesity”. I quote: “In this study, we found that fatty soup as an appetizer reduces food intake by about 20 percent in both lean and obese subjects and may have a therapeutic potential for obesity,” said Jiande Chen, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Medical Branch and senior author of the study. Continue reading
