5SR - December 11, 2023

Hitha on heart failure, food sovereignty, and the mysterious world of global chip flavors

Author

Hitha Palepu
December 11, 2023

Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

Difficulty breathing. Back pain. Exhaustion. Loss of appetite.

If you were experiencing this symptoms, you’d likely attribute them to one of the seasonal viruses floating around. What you may not consider is that it could be a cardiovascular health problem.

Heart failure is commonly misdiagnosed in women, and Black women in particular. It’s a tragedy, considering that early intervention with a cardiologist can help treat and manage the disease and regain a good quality of life.

I hope you read this piece to learn about the symptoms that could be the signs of a cardiovascular issue, and to please advocate for yourself at your doctor or in the emergency department.

I’m here for the Sarah Rafferty renaissance.

Undoubtedly one of the best characters in Suits, the show’s resurgence introduced her to a new group of fans (including an unlikely one - Larry David).

But it’s not the most memorable fan moment Rafferty has had - an early one is still one of her most memorable:

“Many years ago, one of the first times I got stopped in Toronto after we premiered, I was crossing the street and somebody pulled their car in front of me. She rolled down her window, and said, “I just had to stop you because I've been watching your show with my teenage son. We've had trouble connecting lately, and it brings us together every week.”

When we started, Suits was kind of before social media was in our face. The feedback really mattered, and to know that it was bringing this family together in Toronto was just really special. I swore I was going to live off of that [sentiment]. And the feedback like that this summer has meant a lot to me.”

I’m particularly excited to start watching Rafferty’s new show, My Life With the Walter Boys, which started streaming last week on Netflix. A departure from her corporate role, she plays a veterinarian raising 10 sons on a ranch. It’s billed to have The Summer I Turned Pretty and Party of Five vibes, which sold me.

“"We are learning to care for plant knowledge, growing Indigenous gardens, cultivating ancestral seeds, really old seeds from our relatives the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara: corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers," said Jill Falcon Ramaker, an assistant professor of community nutrition and sustainable food systems at Montana State. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Anishinaabe.

"A lot of what we are doing here at the university is cultural knowledge regeneration," she said.

But it also has a very practical application: to provide healthier, cheaper, and more reliable food supplies for reservations, which are often a long way from supermarkets, and where processed foods have helped produce an epidemic of diabetes and heart disease.

This is a beautiful and urgent movement among indigenous Americans, and one worthy of increased public investment and knowledge sharing among the tribes that both preserves culture and improves food quality and access. And I hope this movement gets the support it needs to flourish.

There’s something about trying the chips (or crisps) in a new place that’s both familiar and foreign in the best way.

But who exactly is responsible for distilling these flavors or textures and widths of chips into the finished product? And how exactly do they do it?

It’s a fascinating process, as this article outlines. But what struck me the most is the level of research that goes into forecasting and planning new flavors before it makes its way into the food science and to a team of chefs to repurpose existing flavors or formulate new ones.

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to prepare a potato feast (think every form of French fry and toppings, loaded baked potatoes, my beloved bangala dhumpulu vepadu). I’m thinking we need to introduce an aperativo hour with some global chips and non-alcoholic Negronis before we feast.

Brian Stelter’s new book Network of Lies has been a difficult read (it’s addictive and salacious, and would be a breeze if democracy wasn’t on the literal line). It’s a necessary read ahead of the 2024 election when Fox News continues to spread dangerous misinformation to a demanding audience, even after paying Dominion Voting Systems nearly $1B in a settlement.

What’s remarkable about this book is the direct quotes from Fox News’ leaders and leading personalities, thanks to the discovery made public. And Stelter’s assertion of Fox News’ and the Republican party’s evolution being inexplicably intertwined is troubling, to say the least:

“I think what’s happening at Fox is also what’s happening to the Republican party. The radicalization of the GOP and Fox are happening in harmony, and often because of one another. Republican lawmakers are catering to the far right, to the people who will vote in primaries — the same people who are glued to Fox all day — instead of trying to appeal to a wider array of voters. I’m dancing around your question, but I think the direct answer is yes, the content on Fox is gonna continue to move to the right, to continue to move further away from a shared reality. That is making this country a far more polarized place, a place where it’s harder for neighbors to talk to neighbors.”

I found the book easier to listen to than to read. You can order the audiobook here.

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