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The papayas from Mumbai were too squishy, the chef raced through the streets of Goa in a police jeep to look for fruit ripened just right only to have security personnel puncture many a hole through them a new book recalls in detail the struggle to procure and plate perfect papayas for Indira Gandhi during a CHOGM meeting in 1983. The then prime minister's demand for the humble papaya for breakfast during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting retreat sent the entire Taj Hotel into a tizzy, chef Satish Arora recounts in his book "Sweets and Bitters: Tales from a Chef's Life". It was a "uniquely Indian, very local" battle that he and his team at Taj Goa were fighting, Arora writes. It was November 1983 and the late Gandhi was hosting high-profile leaders from more than 40 countries for a 48-hour retreat that was aiming to put Goa on the world tourism map. There was a flurry of activity -- roads were widened, jetties and bridges built, street lights revamped and the airport .
Eating a big breakfast rather than a large dinner may prevent obesity and high blood sugar, according to study which may lead to better clinical dietary recommendations to reduce body weight and prevent metabolic diseases. The study, published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, assessed 16 men who consumed a low-calorie breakfast and high-calorie dinner -- and vice versa in a second round -- over the course of three days. "Our results show that a meal eaten for breakfast, regardless of the amount of calories it contains, creates twice as high diet-induced thermogenesis as the same meal consumed for dinner," said the study's corresponding author, Juliane Richter from the University of Lubeck in Germany. "This finding is significant for all people as it underlines the value of eating enough at breakfast," Richter said. According to the researchers, the human body expends energy when it digests food for the absorption, digestion, transport, and storage of ...