Chris and Kris in India 22

This Month, late........sorry had a lot on.



My bit. 
Sorry it is so long but shorten it as I may I cannot reduce it further.......

Food, glorious food.

Ok, let me be quite clear about something before you read this.

I believe we all have the right to make informed choices about our diet. If your faith forbids the consumption of meat so be it, Jains will even say that to dig potato’s causes harm to life as it kills the micro-organisms growing in the soil.

If you look on the internet you will find hundreds of different viewpoints from the Jain to fully carnivorous extolled as the only true way to be fit and healthy. Eat monkey brains for a healthier life is perhaps my least favourite.

However, all too often the vegetarians among us make outlandish claims for not eating meat. Cancer risks, fats, etc etc which they fail in the majority of cases to support with solid scientific evidence.

I do not wish to continue the ongoing debate here as some will never change their dietary habits irrespective of the evidence for or against their particular choice. What I want to do here is let a little light in on the subject without adding my personal bias so that YOU can make a rational choice.

I do urge you to do your own research and consider FACTS before making radical changes to your diet, changes that may well do you more harm than good.

Don’t pollute your body with smoke, cut down on caffeine (Coffee, Tea, Energy boost drinks), alcohol in excess, and water containing fluoride and/or heavy metals. Start with this before making changes to dietary choices seems to be the advice from all sides.

Please understand I am not advocating a meat eating lifestyle all I am doing is saying ‘you choose’ but make your choice to suit you based on evidence that can be verified by science. There's a lot of unsupported propaganda out there.

The articles below will all  be called wrong in their assertions by some depending on any choices they have already made, if so, if that is what you believe then that’s fine, it’s your choice but please don’t just skip it because you are biased, read what I believe is a truthful and scientifically verifiable summery of our choices.

This first article supports meat eating, later we will look at a full veggie diet, Vegan and the latest idea the Raw diet.

(Kris Gunners is a well-known nutritionist and blogger, he supports meat eating and personal fitness, and he has a medical background and gives evidence here to support his views)

Welcome to AuthorityNutrition.com – a site that helps people make informed decisions about their health based on the best scientific evidence available .October 8, 2013 | by Kris Gunnars |

“In the past few decades, meat has been blamed for all sorts of Western diseases.

But we've been eating meat for a long time and blaming new health problems on old foods doesn't make much sense.

The truth is… unprocessed, naturally fed meat is extremely healthy.

Here are evidence-based health reasons to eat meat (and be proud of it).

1. We Have Been Designed by Evolution to Eat Meat and Other Animal Foods

Throughout evolution, humans and pre-humans have been eating meat

Our digestive systems are well equipped to make full use of the healthy fats, proteins and nutrients found in animal foods.

The truth is that humans are omnivores, despite what some vegan proponents would have you believe. We function best eating BOTH animals and plants Humans have much shorter digestive systems than herbivores and don’t have the specialized organs to digest cellulose, the main fibre in plants. Humans also have canines, with big brains, opposing thumbs and the ability to make tools to hunt. Meat was one of the reasons humans were able to evolve such large, elaborate brain. Some of the earliest evidence shows that our pre-human ancestors were eating meat as early as 1.5 million years ago.

Bottom Line: Humans and pre-humans have been designed by evolution to consume and make full use of the important nutrients found in animal foods.

2. Meat is Incredibly Nutritious

High quality, unprocessed meat is among the most nutritious foods in the world.

A 100 gram portion (3.5 ounces) of raw ground beef contains large amounts of Vitamin B12, B3 (Niacin), B6, Iron, Zinc, Selenium and plenty of other vitamins and minerals (5).

Vitamin B12 is particularly important because it cannot be gotten in ANY amount from plants. Studies show that out of vegans who don’t supplement with B12, 92%are deficient in this critical nutrient

Unprocessed meat is also loaded with healthy fats, but meat from grass-fed animals contains up to 5 times as much Omega-3 as meat from grain-fed animals.

But the nutrient composition of meat goes way beyond all the macro- and micro nutrients that we are all familiar with.

There is also a plethora of important lesser-known nutrients in meat that cannot be gotten from plants. These nutrients are crucial for optimal function of the body:

·         Creatine forms an energy reserve in the muscles and brain and is found only in animal foods. Vegetarians are deficient in creatine, leading to reduced physical and mental performance.

·         Carnosine functions as a powerful anti-oxidant and provides protection against many degenerative processes. Carnosine is only found in animal foods

·         DHA and EPA are the active forms of Omega-3 in the human body and found primarily in animal foods. The body is inefficient at converting ALA (the plant form of Omega-3) to the active forms

This is really just the tip of the iceberg. There are an immense amount of important trace nutrients in both plants and animals, some of which science has yet to uncover.

Bottom Line: Meat is highly nutritious and there are many nutrients in there that cannot be gotten in any amount from plants.

3. Meat Doesn't Raise Your Risk of Cardiovascular Disease or Diabetes

There are many claims about meat being able to contribute to serious diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The main reason for these claims is that meat is high in saturated fat.

However, this myth has actually been debunked quite thoroughly in recent years.

Studies now show that saturated fat in the diet doesn't raise the “bad” cholesterol in the blood and is not in any way associated with heart disease

In a massive study from Harvard that looked at data from 20 studies with a total of 1,218,380 individuals, they found no association between unprocessed red meat, cardiovascular disease and diabetes

The EPIC study from Europe didn't find any association either and this study included almost 450 thousand people

However, both of these studies found a significantly increased risk for processed meat.

If you want to avoid chronic disease, then it makes sense to avoid processed meat as much as possible. But unprocessed red meat is perfectly healthy.

Bottom Line: There is no evidence that unprocessed meat contributes to cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

4. Meat Contains High Quality Protein, Which is Crucial for the Function of Muscles and Bones

Proteins are like long strings of amino acids that are linked together and folded into complex shapes.

There are about 9 amino acids that we cannot produce and must get from the diet.

In this regard, animal proteins are excellent… they contain all the amino acids that we need, while most plant proteins have a suboptimal amino acid profile

Not surprisingly, consumption of animal protein is associated with increased muscle mass and people who eat an omnivorous diet have more muscle than people eating a vegetarian diet

Studies also show that vegetarians have much lower testosterone levels than their meat-eating counterparts. Low testosterone is associated with reduced strength, less muscle mass, more fat gain, depression and reduced self-esteem

Another thing that protein is important for is bone health. The studies show that consumption of protein, especially animal protein, is associated with increased bone density in old age and a lower risk of fractures

If you want to gain (or maintain) muscle, as well as prevent osteoporosis and fractures in old age, then animal protein should be a regular part of your diet.

Bottom Line: Consumption of animal protein leads to increased muscle mass and bone density. Vegetarians have lower testosterone and less muscle mass than their meat-eating counterparts.

5. There is Only a Very Weak Correlation With Cancer, Which May be Due to Overcooking, NOT the Meat Itself

There are some studies showing a link between red meat consumption and cancer

However, all of these studies are so-called observational studies, which tend to be unreliable.

These studies often make the mistake of pooling together processed and unprocessed meats, which is unacceptable because the two have vastly different effects.

While it is true that processed meat strongly correlates with increased cancer risk, the same is NOT true for unprocessed red meat.

In so-called meta-analyses, which are studies that analyse the data from many studies at the same time, the link between red meat and cancer is found to be very weak

These studies only find a very small increase in risk for men, and zero increase for women

That being said, it is possible that the way meat is cooked can have an effect, because carcinogens can form when meat is cooked excessively

For this reason, it is important to use gentler cooking methods and cut away all burnt or charred pieces.

Bottom Line: The association between unprocessed red meat and cancer has been vastly exaggerated, but overcooking meat may have adverse effects.

6. There Are No Proven Health Benefits to Avoiding Meat

Despite all the propaganda, there is no actual evidence that avoiding meat leads to health benefits.

True… there are observational studies showing that vegetarians have a lower risk of several diseases

However, these results are fully explained by the fact that vegetarians are more health conscious overall and more likely to exercise, less likely to smoke, etc.

When vegetarians are compared to meat eaters that are also health conscious, no difference is found

It is also important to note that most vegetarian and vegan diets DO recommend that people eat unprocessed, whole foods and avoid added sugars, refined grains and trans fats.

If vegetarian diets really have health benefits, then this is the true reason, NOT the fact that they eliminate perfectly healthy animal foods.”

Now, before I am accused of bias, this next article will perhaps balance the ‘scale’ of this piece, at least I hope I won’t be seen as ‘vegan bashing’ I am as I hope you know by now a great supporter of free choice (In all things as long as that choice causes no harm to others) but I do also believe that to make a rational choice you must research for yourself, not just listen to other people’s opinions no matter how well intentioned.

Freelee the Banana Girl credits extreme fruit diet

·         NETWORK WRITERS

·         NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA

·         APRIL 12, 2014 6:45AM

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Feeling fit and strong ... Freelee’s diet is not low on calories, seeing her consume between 2000 and 5000 calories per day, yet remain slender.

YOUTUBE sensation and diet ‘guru’ Freelee the Banana Girl is causing a stir with her raw vegan diet.

Freelee’s extreme diet usually consists of ‘mono meals’, made up of a single fruit, such as two entire pineapples in a sitting or five mangoes, two litres of orange juice or as many as 20 bananas at a time.

The low-processed and high-carbohydrate diet is not low on calories, with Freelee consuming between 2000 and 5000 calories per day, yet remaining slender.

A similar regime made headlines and drew criticism recently when fellow Australia Loni Jane Anthony announced she had maintained her diet throughout a pregnancy.

Freelee says she remains ‘raw until four’, the Daily Mail reports, eating no cooked or heated food until the afternoon. Then, she usually still sticks to her mono meals, sometimes baking several kilograms of potatoes in the oven.

Freelee says she has suffered from eating disorders in the past and that her raw food diet resulted in a significant weight loss, of around 20 kilograms, as well as clearing up her skin and increasing her energy and metabolism. Her slight physique is often the subject of negative comments but has not prevented her acquiring 166,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel.

Several dieticians have spoken of the dangers of eliminating entire food groups and raised concern about eating an excess of bananas, which are high in potassium and in great quantities can be hard on both the heart and the kidneys, which need to process the excess. Freelee says she has suffered from eating disorders in the past and that her raw food diet resulted in a significant weight loss, of around 20 kilograms.

In one video, Freelee shows how she can consume more than 50 bananas in a single day, starting with a 20-banana smoothie for breakfast, 10 for lunch and another 20 for dinner. Freelee says: “You don’t have to eat this many bananas — I’m just trying to show you that you have to eat big to be lean.

“There are so many people out there saying restrict your calories to lose weight but it’s not true.”

“There are some benefits to the diet,” British Dietetic Association spokesperson, Aisling Pigott told the Daily Mail. “For example, a well-balanced vegan diet can be extremely healthy if managed correctly, however all vegans should pay particular attention to their iron and calcium intake in addition to a Vitamin B12 supplement.”

This from the American Heart Foundation.

Updated:Mar 19,2014

What is a vegetarian diet?

Some people follow a "vegetarian" diet, but there's no single vegetarian eating pattern. The vegan or total vegetarian diet includes only foods from plants: fruits, vegetables, legumes (dried beans and peas), grains, seeds and nuts. The lactovegetarian diet includes plant foods plus cheese and other dairy products. The ovo-lactovegetarian(or lacto-ovovegetarian) diet also includes eggs. Semi-vegetarians don't eat red meat but include chicken and fish with plant foods, dairy products and eggs.

Are vegetarian diets healthful?

Most vegetarian diets are low in or devoid of animal products. They’re also usually lower than nonvegetarian diets in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. Many studies have shown that vegetarians seem to have a lower risk of obesity, coronary heart disease (which causes heart attack), high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and some forms of cancer. 

Vegetarian diets can be healthful and nutritionally sound if they’re carefully planned to include essential nutrients. However, a vegetarian diet can be unhealthy if it contains too many calories and/or saturated fat and not enough important nutrients.

What are the nutrients to consider in a vegetarian diet?

• Protein: You don't need to eat foods from animals to have enough protein in your diet. Plant proteins alone can provide enough of the essential and non-essential amino acids, as long as sources of dietary protein are varied and caloric intake is high enough to meet energy needs.
   
• Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, seeds and nuts all contain both essential and non-essential amino acids. You don't need to consciously combine these foods ("complementary proteins") within a given meal.
• Soy protein has been shown to be equal to proteins of animal origin. It can be your sole protein source if you choose.
   
• Iron: Vegetarians may have a greater risk of iron deficiency than non vegetarians. The richest sources of iron are red meat, liver and egg yolk -- all high in cholesterol. However, dried beans, spinach, enriched products, brewer's yeast and dried fruits are all good plant sources of iron.
   
• Vitamin B-12: This comes naturally only from animal sources. Vegans need a reliable source of vitamin B-12. It can be found in some fortified (not enriched) breakfast cereals, fortified soy beverages, some brands of nutritional (brewer's) yeast and other foods (check the labels), as well as vitamin supplements.
   
• Vitamin D: Vegans should have a reliable source of vitamin D. Vegans who don’t get much sunlight may need a supplement.
   
• Calcium: Studies show that vegetarians absorb and retain more calcium from foods than non vegetarians do. Vegetable greens such as spinach, kale and broccoli, and some legumes and soy bean products, are good sources of calcium from plants.
   
• Zinc: Zinc is needed for growth and development. Good plant sources include grains, nuts and legumes. Shellfish are an excellent source of zinc. Take care to select supplements containing no more than 15-18 mg zinc. Supplements containing 50 mg or more may lower HDL ("good") cholesterol in some people.

And finally (at last some are saying!) From

'Live Science'

On your road to good health, the raw vegan diet would likely be a U-turn. If you are already vegan or vegetarian, you have nothing to gain and much to lose by going totally or even mostly raw. Even doctors who prescribe and live by a vegan diet caution their patients against attempting a raw diet.

The reason? You would greatly reduce the types of foods you can eat. And you would do so in vain, because most of the raw vegan principles are based on misconceptions about human nutrition, and work counter to good health. 

This article addresses five such principles that are either half true or completely false.

What is raw vegan ism?

First, a primer: Raw vegan ism is a plant-based diet that involves no cooking. No food is heated above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). Foods are eaten fresh, dehydrated with low heat or fermented.

A core tenet of the diet is that heating food above 104 degrees not only diminishes its nutrients, but also makes the food toxic and less digestible. In raw vegan parlance, cooking is killing. Many raw vegans speak of "live" foods versus "dead" foods, and they aren't talking about sushi, so fresh it still wiggles.

Live or uncooked foods are said to be filled with vital life energy. In this way, raw veganism is an extension of the vegan appreciation for animal welfare, with the added spirituality of a life force, called chi or prana. Dead or cooked foods are said to be depleted of their life energy, as well as most of their nutrients.

Juicing and blending "green smoothies" often are key elements of this diet.

Now for the misconceptions:

Misconception #1: Cooking destroys nutrients

Sure, raw foods can be nutritious. But cooking breaks apart fibres and cellular walls to release nutrients that otherwise would be unavailable from the same raw food. Cooking tomatoes, for example, increases by five-fold the bio availability of the antioxidant lycopene. Similarly, cooking carrots makes the beta-carotene they contain more available for the body to absorb. Soups are full of nutrients that would not be available in a pot of raw carrots, onions, parsnips and potatoes. 

Cooking can also reduce certain chemicals in a vegetable that inhibit the absorption of minerals, including important minerals like zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium. Cooking spinach makes more iron and calcium available from its leaves, for example.

Admittedly, some nutrients are lost in cooking, such as vitamin C and certain B vitamins. But "plants are so excess in nutrients that even this breakdown is insignificant in practical terms," said John McDougall, creator of the McDougall Program, a vegan-friendly, starch-based diet.

And by eating both raw and cooked foods, "you get the best of both worlds," said Jennifer Nelson, director of clinical dietetics at the Mayo Clinic and associate professor of nutrition at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn.

Overcooking and charring can be a problem. Boiling the life out of greens will indeed reduce the nutrient load. And charring meats and vegetables creates cancer-causing chemicals. The solution, however, is not to stop all cooking, but rather to steam, lightly sauté or stir-fry vegetables, and to make more soups.

Fermenting or juicing raw foods also can make some nutrients more available, but that shouldn't deter from the fact that cooking is an ancient craft that makes some foods more digestible and nutritious.

As for the concept of life energy in raw food, this is a spiritual belief beyond the realm of science, so debating its benefit, let alone existence, would be futile.

Misconception #2: Cooking destroys enzymes

This one is absolutely true, but it doesn't matter. Yes, heat destroys enzymes. But humans make their own digestive enzymes to break down large food molecules into smaller ones.

The raw-enzyme logic itself breaks down when you consider that most humans cook food and that most humans are digesting that food reasonably well.

Ironically for the raw vegan, most of the plant enzymes in raw food get destroyed anyway in the acid of the human gut. Only a few make it to the small intestine. Fermented foods such as sauerkraut can carry enzymes into the gut. Their contribution to digestion is not zero, but it does appear to be minimal. "I know of no importance of plant enzymes in human digestion," said McDougall.

The enzyme theory for raw foods dates back to Edward Howell, a physician who published a book on enzymes in the 1940s, primarily citing research from the 1920s and 30s. We now know, however, that almost all nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine and that digestion at that stage relies almost entirely on human-generated bile and pancreatic enzymes.

A corollary myth is that humans have a finite number of enzymes and that, once they are used up, these enzymes are gone. This idea, too, was hatched by Howell. But where would this packet of enzymes reside? Howell never said. But in reality, humans make new enzymes throughout their lifetimes.

Misconception #3: Raw foods are detoxifying

Dietary detoxification is an alternative medicine concept with little scientific credibility. Usually, two organs are cited as needing detoxification: the liver and the colon. In reality, toxins can accumulate anywhere in the body, particularly in fat and fatty tissue, but also in proteins and bone.

The colon is surprisingly low in toxins, however. As for the liver, the confusion is that this organ "filters" toxins and must therefore, the reasoning goes, be loaded with toxins. But the liver is more of a chemical-processing plant than a filter; it breaks down toxins as they pass through. That is, the liver doesn't have extra toxins by virtue of it being the body's natural toxin-neutraliser. [Wishful Thinking: 6 'Magic Bullet' Cures That Don't Exist] (I have left in this link...Chris)

Another argument is that burning fat — in this case, on a raw vegan diet — would release toxins from the body. But fat cells don't burn up, as if into ashes, liberating their contents. Fats cells merely get bigger or smaller, depending on the amount of fat within the cell that's used.

It is unclear how much of a toxin, if any, would be set free if the fat molecule it is attached to is burned. The toxin is now free to attach to other fat molecules. If it does mobilize with other recently liberated toxins, in the case of extreme starvation, then the toxin could become toxic and overwhelm the liver.

In short, there are no foods or herbs that can magically bind and pull toxins from your blood or organs. The same would be true for cows or for any "vegan" animals that accumulate toxins in their fat; they don't cleanse themselves with their raw, plant-based diet.

At best, detoxification schemes (juicing, fasting) can help by virtue of not placing more toxins in our body for a day or two. And a healthful, plant-rich diet with plenty of water can, in general, help your liver and kidneys process and remove toxins more effectively, 

Misconception #4: Raw veganism is healthful

Healthfulness when eating a raw, vegan diet is a challenge; it's not inherent. Many on the diet do lose weight by consuming fewer calories. But weight loss should not be the ultimate goal.

The most apparent problems are nutritional deficiencies, particularly for vitamins B12 and D, selenium, zinc, iron and two omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA. Without taking supplements in pill form, it would be very difficult (and, for B12, impossible) to obtain a sufficient amount of these nutrients from raw, plant-based foods.

Also, without access to a variety of foods year-round that can be eaten raw, one tends to rely on single-food sources.

"The problem with the raw food diet is where do you get your energy food?" asked Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic, the doctor who convinced Bill Clinton to adopt a plant-based diet. "You get it from pouring down nuts," he said, and these are high in fat and not healthful when eaten in excess.

If it's not nuts, then it's bananas, which are healthful perhaps at a level of one or two per day, but not when providing the majority of your calories. Some people on a raw food diet rely so much on fruit that their teeth begin to erode: from acids in the fruits that wear down the tooth enamel, from sugar promoting decay, from dried fruit (another raw vegan staple) sticking to the teeth and further promoting decay, and from a general mineral deficiency.

The raw diet could be more healthful than the so-called S.A.D. ("standard American diet") of processed foods. But there is no evidence that, even given the resources to prepare a variety of raw foods daily, the raw vegan diet would be more healthful than the plant-based diets promoted by McDougall or Esselstyn, or than the diets that allow modest amounts of animal products.

Vegans would have to ask themselves what the added benefit would be from going raw if the raw diet offers no additional moral satisfaction, other than a reduced use of cooking fuel.

Misconception #5: Raw-only foods are natural

"No other animal cooks food," many a raw vegan has stated. One can just as well say that no other animal combines their kale and clover with tropical bananas in a high-speed blender to make the foods more palatable and digestible. Or, that no other animal plays chess.

Judging what is natural is a slippery slope. Humans around the world live to relatively similar ages on a multitude of different diets. Most of the reasonable diets that consist of grains, vegetables and meats will get you to at least age 70 if an accident or infectious disease doesn't kill you first. A traditional, animal-based diet eaten by natives of Siberia is just as natural as a traditional diet eaten by unnamed tribes in the Amazon.

That said, no known human culture has ever attempted to survive solely on raw plant foods. It is the raw-only diet that is unnatural, because it is impossible to survive on this diet without modern conveniences such as refrigerators, storage devices and easy access to packaged foods — such as the aforementioned shelled nuts.

In fact, a child raised on a raw, vegan diet without proper supplementation would likely develop severe neurological and growth problems due to a lack of vitamin B12 and other nutrients. Adults who have eaten animal products for more than 20 years, by contrast, have the benefit of relying on bodily stores of certain key nutrients.

In a natural setting, without electricity, anyone located outside of a narrow belt of land near the equators, which have year-round growth potential, would need to dedicate their entire day to growing, gathering, preserving and storing food. Even around the tropics, where vegetation is plentiful, humans have been cooking as long as humans have been human — at least 200,000 years and likely longer in our hominid form.

Most scientists are in agreement that a combination of, first, eating meat and then cooking food enabled the development of the human brain. Cooking in particular opened up a new world of calories and nutrients. The human brain, after all, requires a lot of energy. 

Our raw-vegan cousin, the gorilla, has three times the body size of humans, but one-third the brain cells; it grew muscular on plants, but not smarter. According to a study published in October 2012, the gorilla would have needed to eat raw plants for more than 12 hours a day to consume enough calories to evolve a human like brain.

This myth busting is not intended to belittle the much-maligned raw vegan, but rather to inform rawists of the realities of this challenging diet.

 The only changes I have made to the above articles is to remove the pictures from them.

Conclusion.

On the whole I have problems with all viewpoints and what has been said here but I repeat, it is your choice, whatever you choose I think the most telling point made is that we need meat or we have to use supplements (especially for B12) or we will not be able to sustain a healthy life style over the long term and will in fact cause damage to our bodies by neglecting this vitamin, damage that doesn't show up for years. Regardless of dietary choices it is vital to your health, as is regular exercise. 

Kris and I choose to be omnivores, about 10% of our diet is meat carefully cooked, and the rest is veggies fish, eggs, rice and Dahl (lentils and chick pea). It does help that Indian Veg dishes are full of taste and wonderful flavours. If we chose to become vegetarian it would be very easy here. Fresh fruit and veggies available all year, at least 50% of all restaurants are Vegi, often on the sign it says either 'Full Vegi' or 'Non Vegi', to be vegetarian is normal here, although it is different to the west in that there are few Vegans.

What has become clear to us over the last eighteen months or so is how you cook your food (Veg or Meat) and exercise is the key to a healthy life. 
Fresh fruit and whole grains are good for you, loads of vitamins and anti-oxidants. We here at home try to grow (organically) as much of our own food as we can, we have a freezer full of our own veggies and have planted fruit trees and bushes for future crops. If we could we would even keep chickens for their eggs, maybe in the future. . We try to live a healthy life style but we do not argue that one way is better than any other, your diet is your choice but whatever you choose it has to be part of your decision to live a healthy lifestyle.

Our personal belief is that as humans we developed to eat both meat and some of the veg and fruit available on this earth. We are not built for a pure veggie diet, hence the need for supplements to prevent long term deficiencies if we exclude meat from our diet. If you doubt for one second the VITAL need the human body has for b12 please Google it, I was amazed and it was this discovery that in part led me to write this piece.

Because of a recent illness I have been unable to exercise properly and have become overweight (Ok I will tell the truth….MORE overweight). Before anyone says go for walks, ride a bicycle etc I will point out that the temperature here today is 96degF in the shade, not jogging weather!

Kris and I have therefore decided to buy a home multi gym and install it in our bedroom that has air con so we can establish a meaningful exercise program that suits our age and isn't dependent on the climate, in conjunction with a healthy balanced diet of veggies and meat with careful cooking to keep the vitamins in both the meat and veg is our chosen way.

So where are we, well that’s your choice, Meat Veggie Vegan, Raw, all extreme diets, all touted as being the most healthy.  You choose, its your life. We already have.

SODIS

A field trial begins soon funded by PMF to gauge reaction to the idea in the villages. Other outlets are from people who are agreeing to support us by either collecting bottles, funds or finding needy people who are drinking contaminated water. 
Several villages in our area have expressed interest in us supplying units to them. Kris has contacted local churches were we can speak to gain help and much more importantly publicity for this scheme, some of the business people in Udaipur are interested in sponsoring us and local support is growing.
All we need now is a promised article in the Times of India and we will be set to go. Just now we are 'on hold' waiting for the trial dates from PMF before we can really get it out and we hope rolling in Udaipur.
We have been in contact with 'SANDEC' (Department of water and Sanitation in Developing Countries) and 'EAWAG' Swiss Federal Institute of Environmental Science and Technology who will support our efforts. 
Its getting closer, now we are in the 'what have we forgotten phase' but we have put our trust in god and are just going for it!

Garden

We had two days of rain storms with hail at times, some damage to our crops but all in all ok. We may lose the melons on the roof, badly chilled and soaked and the 2nd tomato crop up there is a goner.
Now the bad news, we have lost our bee's. Our fault it seems they got too hot where we placed the hive and decided to leave. When we looked carefully at the combs some had actually melted! In the shade its 102degF now.
Our roses have been lovely until now but the rain has given us green grass, silver linings and all that aside we got away with a lot less damage than some of the local farmers who have seen while fields of crops smashed flat and destroyed.

White bits are hail.

Those white bits are hail stones in mid Summer,
rain at this time is unheard of but hail is unknown here until
this year. We had some at the end of the monsoon that caused
chaos on the roads, but this is a first.

Comments from Kris

As Chris has already mentioned we had a couple of days of heavy monsoon like rain and hailstones, whilst not good for crops at this time of year I do confess that it was great to stand in it even if for a short time and yes I got soaked but it was so very refreshing, just to get cool after the blistering heat of summer. This year Chris and I appear to be coping much better with the high temperatures; mind you we are taking a more sensible approach and not working outdoors in the midday sun. Unfortunately there are still those who have no choice but to work in the heat of the day, I count myself fortunate that I have a choice. Yes it was very sad to have lost our girls (honey bees), but I am hoping we can try again and this time we will give them more shade and be more aware of their needs.

Well the insect life here in India definitely seems to have it in for Chris, a couple of days ago he was stung between his toes by a hornet and his foot immediately swelled up, thank goodness for antihistamine tablets, cream and ice which all helped. It was in the bedroom and must have flown in to avoid the heavy rain and hail, we unfortunately did not see it on the floor as it happened just after Chris got out of bed when he went to look out the window early one morning. I know how painful they are I was stung on the sole of my foot a month or so ago when I got out of the swimming pool and walked stupidly barefoot on the grass.  

We went to a local resort about 9Kms away from our home with friends and there 2 young children, it has a natural waterfall all year round it is called Aarambagh Resort. If ever you get to Udaipur it is certainly worth a visit. In the summer the waterfall is quite gentle, but we have also seen it just after monsoon and it was pretty impressive to see. It was a lovely few hours where I watched Chris playing with our friends children in the water near the waterfall; it was fascinating to see them together. Little Samuel was so engrossed and amazed at the water and the fish; he especially enjoyed picking out all the leaves and showing them to Chris

      

We have put some pictures here of Chris and the kids. It is set in its own grounds there is a play area for children from a tree house, swings, slides and see-saw all to enjoy and yes I have been down the slide and swung on the swing in the past. It was at Aarambagh that I saw my very first red dragonfly it was so very beautiful. It was an enjoyable time and to see the look on little Noah’s face when told by Chris if I swim will you, Noah said yes not expecting Chris to launch himself into the water without much warning, a sight to behold, but I did not get it on camera alas. I am now practising with a new Camera that is easier for me to manage and I am really enjoying the experience but still making mistakes but getting better the more I use it. It is a great portable little Canon power shot that Chris gave me. I was very moved that he gave it to me as I know how much it meant to him, but now it is mine I feel more confident in using it less nervous if you know what I mean. I still love my other camera but it is a bit heavy for me to use on a regular basis I will keep that for when I want to do art photos. It is great that Chris is again riding his beloved Royal Enfield Desert Storm Bullet, I really enjoy riding pillion and the new seat that Chris designed and modified for me is a great improvement on the seat I had initially. Part of the suspension is made up of tennis balls which squish up and down to give me comfort. This is the only Bullet with its own balls so to speak, other riders seem quite impressed with Chris’s ingenuity and have admired many of the modifications he has made to his motorcycle. We have yet to go out on a long ride, but that will come soon as Chris feels able to do so, he will still need to wear a lumbar support for protection of his kidneys as any jarring across country will cause pain and damage to his kidneys which are still vulnerable since he had the multi organ failure, so he is being very sensible about this.  Whilst I missed riding pillion with Chris is was much harder for him to have his motorcycle sitting outside and being unable to ride it for so long. I don’t think I will ever be able to understand how difficult this must have been for Chris who has been a lifelong biker; the only comparison I could make is the frustration I felt when I could not go out for walks when I was physically disabled. I have to remind myself how much things have changed since I came out to India. I have lost weight for which I am truly grateful and much more active now, whilst I still have pain I can now walk without aids and I intend to get fit with our home gym and some swimming. God has done such a healing work in my life and I am waiting for that healing to be completed, as usual I want everything yesterday. But I cannot express how much I owe to God for the healing he has begun which allowed me to get my knees replaced and I can now walk a reasonable distance, I do get tired and still have aches and pains but people who never saw me at my worst cannot believe it was so, but I continue to testify to Gods glory as it was his healing that has got me on my way back to mobility and fitness. For the locals most think it is not good that I have lost so much weight as it tends to be the plumper woman, who is seen as desirable and attractive to men. Luckily I don’t want to attract men’s attention in that way so I am safe.

I saw a car about the size of a Suzuki Swift driving along with the cab of a HGV van sitting on top of it sideways you could hardly see the car underneath, it was being transported but for the life of me I cannot figure out how the driver of the car got in or out of it. It did cause chaos as it took up most of the road and was going mega slow; I never thought I would see that but alas did not have my camera on me.

I am still using my scooter a lot and it is amazing how much I can pack in and around it to carry back home, I am getting very Indian in this respect. I carry wood, shopping and just about anything else I can fit on it in between. Chris has treated me to some new wing mirrors for my scooter that have built in speakers brilliant. I am pretty well known in several shops and at the local market so they know I am not a tourist, I just need to practice and improve my spoken Hindi, but practice make perfect just don’t hang on waiting I am a slow learner. So cello probably spelt wrong but never mind it is phonetic which means lets go I will end for now and if I think of anything else will add it on the end.

I was in the bank today an internationally well-known one which I won’t name for obvious reasons. I could not believe it there were wads of notes high denominations bunched and labelled just sitting on the top of a table behind the tellers counter (which had glass in front of it), I needed changed so the teller got up went behind her to a suitcase on the floor which was unzipped but closed and took out some bags of coins, the case also contained wads of paper money. It amazes me the security guard outside does have a rifle but it was propped against the wall several feet away. In other banks I have seen money just put on the floor next to the teller or put in an ordinary drawer. I still get amazed by how things are out here, but I hope I never stop being amazed. 

This is Chris's foot just after the hornet stung him between his toes and yes it did become more swollen.

The round white balls on the ground are actually hailstones and yes they do hurt when they hit you.

Chris took this photo of the hailstorm that suddenly hit Udaipur without warning, it was impressive.

 This Water Buffalo was making a quick and fast escape looking for shelter from the falling ice. 

This lawn water sprinkler was on order for 6 weeks,from the local garden shop. However it was worth the wait, it saves time and is very effective at watering the lawn and the borders of the garden. We plan to use them in other parts of the garden to simplify watering and make our life easier. One of our neighbours was fascinated at how it worked and how effective it is.

 Believe it or not we had heavy rain and hailstones just after getting the sprinkler above that we had waited six weeks for!, look at our drive here it is flooded with water just like in the monsoon. But as it does not rain every day we will get our money's worth out of the sprinkler system.

                                                                                                   

That is all for this blog hope it finds you well

Take care and God Bless

Love Chris and Kris