The Pakistani Diet: Tips for Healthier Eating

When it comes to life expectancy, Pakistan comes in at number 136 out of 191 countries in the world. The average life span in Pakistan is 64.9 years according to the CIA World Factbook 2009 Estimates. There are numerous reasons for this, including poverty, infant mortality, lack of clean drinking water, poor sanitation, not having access to medical care, etc., but dying younger is not limited to only the poor.

I have met many middle class and upper class Pakistanis who suffer from health problems such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure as early as in their 20s. A nurse friend of mine living in Pakistan was convinced that the Pakistani diet factors into the low life expectancy, and I could see why!

If you are accustomed to eating a typical “Desi Diet,” here are some tips to help you eat and live a healthier, longer life.

Tip for Healthier Eating #1 – Say No to Ghee and Use Less Oil

You may love your sweets, treats and meats swimming in ghee (animal fat), but the best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to stop cooking with ghee altogether. My husband and I always found it shocking, and a bit sickening, how much cooking oil is on sale at the supermarket. Do your regular cooking with olive oil, and cut down the amount of oil that you use significantly. A few tablespoons of oil are enough for most dish. Olive oil is more expensive, but the health benefits are worth it.

Continue reading more tips here

Fees to Deposit Money in the Bank!?

So I opened a dollar account recently at Askari Bank in Lahore. The minimum initial deposit was $500, so I changed some rupees into dollars and deposited it. Today when I went to check on the account balance, it was only $497! I was confused and asked the guy, "Where did the $3 go since I deposited $500?"

"There is a cash handling fee," he replied.

I was thinking (but didn't say), "What? A fee for handling cash? Isn't that what a bank does?"

I read the account opening forms thoroughly, and I don't remember it saying anything about a cash handling fee for foreign currency accounts.

If I'm going to lose money every time I make a deposit, then why should I keep an account there? Maybe this 'cash handling fee' is normal in Pakistan, but if I put in dollars into a dollar account, I don't understand why there should be any fee. Banks here don't do currency exchange, you have to go to Western Union or other money changers to do that, and there you lose a bit of value when you exchange currency. If you open a dollar account at Askari Bank, you will lose some money when you exchange your money into dollars, and then you'll lose more money when you pay the cash handling fee.

If the 'cash handling fee' is normal for foreign currency accounts, the bank employees should at least tell you before you open the account.

Sunday Brunch at GunsSmoke in Lahore

A few weeks ago we went to the Sunday brunch at GunSmoke. "Brunch" is a relative term in Pakistan, as I believe it actually starts at 1:00pm and goes until 4:00pm at this particular restaurant. The brunch menu includes steak, eggs, salad bar, soup, juice, coffee or tea, bread and a side of potatoes. None of us could finish our plates! I can't remember the exact price, but it was less than 400 rupees ($5) per person. The brunch deal is only offered on Sunday afternoons.

Goodbye Party at Ali Institute

Today my students threw me a goodbye party at the Ali Institute. There was tons of delicious home-cooked food, and everyone was dressed to the nines. We endured the heat for a few minutes and got some great photos outside. I'll be posting them soon!

Our BEEPIN' Neighbors!

So I know a lot of my blog posts about Pakistan are negative, but hey it's the negative things I need to vent about. Blogging is such a great way to get out all of that pent up angst and frustration!

One of the things that drives me crazy is people I call "beepers." Beepers are too lazy to get out of their cars themselves and ring a doorbell or open a gate. They drive up a house and immediately start beeping. "Beep beep beep beeeeeeep!" Two seconds later (not near enough time for anyone to actually get out of the house and open the gate), "BEEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEP!"

These beepers have no concept of disturbing the peace. At least once every day I am woken up by a beeper. At four in the morning, when even most Pakistanis are sleeping, they seem to beep longer and louder than they do during the day. What a nice alarm clock. "Beep beep beeeep! Beep be beep beep beeeeeeeep!"

They beep in the morning. They beep in the evening. They beep when I am enjoying my dinner .They beep when I am sleeping. They beep when I'm talking on the phone. They beep so loud I can barely hear myself think. This is not a nice little 'honk honk,' but a laying on of the horn as if the driver is constantly in an aggravated state.

If you are a Pakistani who gets out of the car to open to your own door, I respect you. Thank you for being considerate and thinking about the sanity and peace of others. Even if you give a missed call to someone, but stay in your car, this is still much appreciated. Beeping is not necessary for doors to open and shut. My gate seems to open just fine without a password of "Beep beep beep beeeep!"

If you are a beeper, you may not think your beeping bothers anyone, but I'm sure you have woken someone up at some point with your incessant honking. If you ever move to a country where disturbing the peace is a crime, you will be faced with steep fines and a lot of angry neighbors. Beeping on the road at dangerous drivers is fine; but beeping in quiet residential neighborhoods is just plain rude.

Fried Chicken Cheese Balls: Wholesome Snacks?

There is a huge billboard towering over the road on the way from Lahore Cantonment to Defence. The bright red and yellow billboard shows the new Mon Salwa Chicken Cheese Balls that are meant to be deep friend before eaten eaten. At the bottom of the billboard it reads "Wholesome Snacks!" Hello? Does the person who made this advertisement have any idea what the 'wholesome' means? If Fried Chicken Cheese Balls are considered a healthy snack, it's no wonder why so many people in Pakistan have high blood pressure and heart disease before the age of 40.

I saw another funny billboard for the new Media institute opening in Defence:

Excited Career Opportunities!

Of course it should have read "Exciting Career Opportunities!" By using 'excited,' it makes it seem as if the career opportunities are excited about something. In this way, the 'opportunities' are personified and have their own personality.

Why do people spend so much money on advertising and paste it all over town without getting it checked over?

My Three-Year Love Affair with Lahore

This month I wrote a 'letter to Lahore' for the Pakistani e-zine The Green Kaleidoscope. It's a reflection of my last three and a half years here.

Check it out:

My Three-Year Love Affair with Lahore

Car Air Filters in Pakistan - Change Every 2 Months!

Yesterday we learned something that would have been useful to know when we bought our first car in Pakistan. In the US, car air filters are usually changed once a year. I thought I was doing well to make sure our car had its air filter, fuel filter, and spark plugs checked and changed annually. Well, I forgot to take into account the amount of dust in Pakistan! Our landlord's son showed us our car's air filter, and it was totally clogged up, cracked and dry after 11 months. I remarked that it must be time for a new one, as we had changed it a year ago. He replied, "A year? Here in Pakistan we change them every two months!"

Yikes!

A Murder Here, a Stoning There...

One of the most fascinating things to do in Pakistan is to read the local newspapers. The stories that you find in tiny blurbs deep within the paper would make for shocking headlines in North America or Europe, but here they don't even make waves. Some of the most shocking stories don't even have their own headlines! Here's a snapshot from the Pakistan newspaper "The News"; keep in mind that these 'run of the mill' stories did not even show up on the front page.

March 21, 2009

A thirty-year-old woman, named Lubna, was killed by her brother after she allegedly had an extra marital affair. In Bahawalpur, a man stoned his sixteen-year-old daughter and her 'paramour' to death with bricks after finding them in a 'compromising position.' A 'compromising position' could be as innocent as holding hands or sitting together on a park bench. Girls have been killed by their own families for less.

Continue reading this article here:

Shocking Non Events of Local Pakistani News

Lahore Restaurant Review: Malee's Cafe

My husband and I were certainly divided over this one. I gave it a 3 out of 10, while he gave it a 7. I wouldn't go back; he wants to go back and try to expensive gelato.

Read the Review of Malee's Cafe here

Have you been to Malee's Cafe? What were your thoughts?

One Thing After Another

For those who do read the blog normally, I feel I owe an explanation for why I haven't been blogging much lately. For a few weeks, I was really struggling to get my hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) under control. I realized that a lot of the food I was eating was sending my blood sugar levels into extreme up and down spikes, and so I spent a lot of time doing research about what kinds of food I can eat to keep the levels steady during the day and avoid the headaches and fatigue that accompany a hypoglycemic crash.

Now I know I need to focus on eating protein rich foods and complex carbohydrates in 6 - 7 smaller meals during the day. I need to avoid foods that turn into sugar in my bloodstream quickly like sweets, white rice, pasta, processed foods, juices and soft drinks (cold drinks). I also need to avoid fats and caffeine as much as possible. This type of diet does not go well at all with the local culture in Pakistan, and I feel a bit like I'm always the party-pooper when I have to refuse the oily (yet tasty) foods on offer and literally have to hold my hand over my glass to prevent being poured endless servings of Coca Cola. Many Pakistani friends are telling me the solution to "being weak" is to eat more! It's been quite frustrating to have to be so negative all the time, but it's just unhealthy (and even dangerous) for me to eat huge heaping plates of spicy, oily food followed by "mitai" (traditional Pakistani sweets that are VERY sweet, I can barely stomach them anyway).

There are some Pakistani foods I can still enjoy, such as a small helping of chicken handi with a whole wheat roti, but the amount that I eat is about 1/5 of what a typical Pakistani would eat the same meal, so it's still hard for me to be understood. I can also enjoy BBQ meats such as chicken malai boti (one of my favorites) or chicken tikka.

As soon as I got my diet under control and started feeling healthier, I came down with a killer cold that caused me to stay up all night coughing and blowing my nose. I eventually lost my voice and had to teach Monday's lecture in a whisper. My students were amazingly accomodating and listened closely to my barely there voice.

Yesterday I was starting to get my voice back and only wake up a few times during the night, but this morning I woke up to a case of mild food poisoning! Needless to say I have spent most of today in bed as well. Thank God we have had electricity for the last two days, becuase last week when my nose was all stuffy it was torture to not be able to breathe in the hot, sticky air. Then they were turning off the power every other hour. I felt I was going to suffocate just in the thick, hot air. Blah.

To top it off the maid has been 'sick' as well, and also had an extra day off for attending a wedding. Our kitchen is atrocious and I have no energy to wash the mountain of dishes that have accumalated.

Hopefully when I recover from the food poisoning I will not get sick with anything else or be forced to eat Pakistani sweet dishes until I swoon and pass out on the floor!

National Poetry Month on Associated Content

In honor of National Poetry Month, Associated Content has been challenging its writers to do daily "challenges" of different types of poetry. So far, all of my challenge entries have been inspired by Pakistan, so I thought I'd share them here:

Bustling Bazaars of Lahore: A List Poem

Buttery Cinquain: Summer in Lahore

View from Fairy Meadows: A Haiku Trio

The poetry challenges have been fun, and before this I didn't know how to write cinquains! I like poetry that has syllable patterns, but I'm not too good with rhyme and meter. Hence I didn't do the ghazal or the quatrain. Enjoy!

Boxes on the Way

Now all of our boxes of books are on the way to the U.S., despite the fact that I didn't leave Duarte with enough money to pay when I dropped him off at the post office. Sending packages is no small affair, as you may have read in my previous posts, so although I made sure to bring the detailed inventories, the passport copies, the customs forms, the tape, the plastic wrap, the scissors, and the permanent markers, I failed to leave him enough money to pay for all the packages! He was 15 rupees short (19 cents), couldn't pay the package man who sewed up and readied the packages, and had to walk about half an hour in 109 degree heat since he didn't have money for a rickshaw.

Thankfully, the post office man and the package wala trusted that we'd bring the money to pay them later. How cool is that? I was so thankful that they were gracious with Duarte. I was on the other side of town when I found out about my money mishap, so I told Duarte to duck into the nearest McDonald's (air conditioned at all times) and wait for me. He really deserved the Big Mac he got after spending three hours at the post office to send our packages! After the Big Mac, we sped back to the post office to pay the missing 15 rupees and the money for sewing up all the packages (600 rupees- $7.40). It may not seem like a lot in dollars, but 600 rupees is quite a lot. Consider that my maid makes 2500 rupees per month for working 15 hours/week at my house.

Let's hope our books and clothes make it to the US. We just heard today that Sergio (the formerly stranded Italian traveler)'s van has been delayed in Africa. Maybe the captain is trying to avoid Somali pirates.