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SHIFTING IMAGES

'Eat, pray and love1

Milia Ali
AS one gets older, one is bombarded with advice from friends, doctors and health freaks on how to prolong one's life and live "healthy." The discussions usually focus on long lists of "things to do and not to do." The common presumption is that everyone wants to live to be ninety and that, too, a productive ninety!
On top of the "to do" list is losing weight, since shedding pounds might reduce chances of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and osteoporosis. This entails finding a suitable daily food intake which will help one trim down. The first casualty is carbohydrates — strike bread, rice, pasta off your grocery list. If you have a history of high-cholesterol-ancestors, eggs and red meat are out, too. Cheese and dairy products are grudgingly permitted, but low fat and only if you are not lactose intolerant! Fruits and vegetables, everyone agrees, are healthy. That is, if they are not sprayed with preservatives and grown organically. Sweets? No way! Can't risk those extra calories or diabetes!
As for chicken, eat only when there is no bird flu epidemic. Thank God fish is safe. Or is it? Remember the oil spill in the Atlantic two years ago? Apparently we have no idea about the amount of pollutants that sea and river waters contain. If you think you will switch to farm-raised fish --browse on the internet and you will be horrified to learn about the many harmful fish feed that farms use!
So, did you find five things that you can eat with impunity? I didn't -- at least not without a guilt trip accompanying every morsel of food travelling down my gullet! But wait! If you continue to be hungry after following the prescribed regimen, you can seek relief in stuff like celery and kale juice, "low glycemic index" toast and iron rolled oats — which, supposedly, also help boost your DNA!
If only eating less would suffice, it would not be so bad! The prescription for a long and healthy life also includes a dose of daily exercise. An hour's brisk walk or yoga or treadmill is the minimum. For more serious calorie burning activity, we have a whole range of choices from aerobics to zumba dancing! The underlying theory seems to be that our bodies were designed for rigorous physical activity and those of us who are not getting the optimum level need to compensate.
There is a third component of the "living healthy" chart. It is mental exercise to help reduce stress, identified as a primary cause of premature ageing and illness. According to spiritual guru Dr. Deepak Chopra: "We are the only creatures on earth who can change our biology by what we think and feel." Consequently, our daily routine must include some form of meditation!
If you are wondering what all this is leading up to, let me come to the point. I was inspired to contemplate on longevity when I read an article about the world's oldest living person, Besse Cooper, who turned 116 last month. Needless to say, I wanted to discover what the ingredients for a long and productive life are. And guess what? Besse Cooper said that her secret was: "I mind my own business and I don't eat junk food." It was as simple as that. Does this mean that all the information that we have accumulated about how to live longer should be trashed? I leave it to you to decide.
Let me end with an interesting anecdote. The year was 1977 and I was living in Cairo. Egypt's most popular singer Abdel Halim Hafez died and the country went into mourning. Wherever I went I would hear people lament: "Oh! To die so young! What a tragedy!" I asked a friend: "How old was he?" She answered: "Only 48!" Now readers, I was in my twenties — an age when one tends to believe that ageing is not even a remote possibility! I blurted out: "48? But that's not young, that's old!"
Reflecting back on the incident I can't help but smile at my youthful brashness. I have long crossed 48 — an age that I considered "old" when I was in my twenties. Does this mean that I am living on borrowed time? Actually, I have realised that obsessing about how to prolong one's life is a futile exercise. I don't want to live balancing the calories that I eat and the calories that I burn. Rather, I want to find a balance between caution and indulgence -- "the golden mean" as the wise would say. I want to "live," not just count the candles on my birthday cake!
After all, "life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
The writer is a renowned Rabindra Sangeet exponent and a former employee of the World Bank.