- Basmati Rice
Rice is the staple diet of more than 50% of population of world. In India, most of the people depend on rice as food. India is one of the most important countries in production of varieties of paddy. It is a good source of carbohydrate and contains about 8-9% of good quality protein. It also contain some B vitamins.
Rice is extracted from paddy after milling. Too much milling or polishing removes most of nutritional value. Washing with a lot of water; cooking in more than required amount of water and draining the water removes much of vitamins from it. Thiamine is a important B vitamin, it contains. In it’s deficiency, people suffer from beriberi. Beriberi is marked by soreness in tongue, anemia, swelling of body due to involvement of circulatory system; and blunting of sensory and motor nervous system etc. Rice consists of three parts namely; germ,endosperm and the outer layer called pericap. The endosperm contains most of carbohydrate where as germ and pericap contain most of vitamins.
Parboiling is an age old established process of preserving the nutritional value of rice in India. This is done in tree steps; 1) soaking paddy in water heated upto about 65 degrees Celsius temperature for 4-5 hours and draining the water; 2) steaming as such; and 3) drying under sun. This process hardens the outer layer of rice making it resistant to insects; the vitamins and nutrients percolate into the deeper layer making those relatively non removable to milling and making it easily digestible by gelatining the starch. Thus, parboiling helps it in many ways in preserving the nutritional value. Rice should not be washed in copious amount of water for many times making the water soluble vitamins vulnerable to be washed away. It also should not be cooked in a large amount of water, and water be drained;which will take away nutrients with it.
So, parboiling and cooking in just the amount of water will protect the nutritional value.
The advertisements given in the media are often very attractive and surpass the scenes from the cinema.In India various type of such advertisements are seen .The TV and Newspaprs take the lead.The adds range from cancer cure to a quick weight loss and many more.The desperate persons especially with medical problems fall victim to it.Consequently they are exploited.I do not know the status in foreign counties.But I hope there might be a system in place to assess the credibility of the facts to be advertised.Sometimes the media shifts the responsibility with a foot note that they do not endorse the credibility of the matter advertised and advice the watchers to verify the same.
But is it possible for a common man in India to ascertain the truth in it ? A lot of frauds are also seen in financial and education sector.Will it not be possible to set up a mechanism to verify the correctness of the facts before they are advertised ?
Some times some people do not avail a chance and let that go. A folk tale in Orissa,India describes how people ignore the opportunities.Once “Lord Shiva and His wife Goddess Parbati“were in the sky to observe the people of earth.They saw a poor man in skeletons begging for food but was not getting anything.Parbati became felt pity for him and asked Shiva to see this and also asked why people created by them should suffer like this.God replied to it with a smile that some do not like a grab an opportunity and are lazy ,consequently suffer.And He wanted to show that to Goddess Parbati then and there.The god put a pot full of gold coins on the road of the beggar .But the beggar at that moment wanted to mimick a blind man and walked closing his eyes.He gave a kick to the pot and walked past to open his eyes later .Consequently he missed the gold filled pot.Then the god asked his wife to interpret it and they went on the voyage.
Something of the sort happened to-day in our hospital.A person injuring his Achilles tendon came to me.Since ours is a private hospital only for port trust employees ,other people have to pay for the service with a token price only.I inspected the injury and asked him to deposit the required fees to get the tendon repaired .But the person expressed his inability to pay.I suggested him if he does not have the money he can pay it later also.He was not willing for that also.But on humanitarian ground I offered him to repaired it free of cost using material we get as physician’s sample but he has to get admitted to the hospital for some time.And to my utter surprise he declined for that and went away. Instantly my staffs reminded me of the story I just narrated.
The thick tendon through which the calf muscles get anchored to the heel bone is called Achilles tendon named after the Greek mythological hero Achilles.This is a tough tendon in the body.This tedon lifts the body weight off the ground while walking.
This tendon gets severed mainly by accidents,assault or in collagen diseases.When partially torn the person can walk limping and disability is more severe if completely torn.The person can not stand on toes of the affected foot.And if completely severed a distinct gap can be felt over an intact skin or the end can be seen if skin is cut.The upper end of severed tendon usually is dragged by the calf muscles to an upper level and may not be seen.Tendon repair is a special procedure and done under aseptic conditions .It can be performed under local.regional or general anaesthesia.The repair is done using a non-absorbable suture material.After repair a plaster of paris cast is given to immobilise the foot for 6 weeks.After that period a gentle physiotherapy makes the patient fit for duty.The results are good.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=b8fef6e8-b42e-4866-ab1d-35c4072abde6)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=2793a6e1-1f60-4447-8e0a-e99dff897174)
