Food and nutrition

Food has been my favorite topic since I was a five-year-old, always eager to climb on a stool trying to cook something in the kitchen. Those days, children strictly followed the menu handled by their mothers, those were the era before online or restaurant ordering started. However, as an adult, I truly started to understand the nutrition behind the food; through specific reading and interactions with qualified nutritionists. “Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight” is the country’s highest-selling diet book by Rujuta Diwekar, which was an eye-opener for me. She is one of the country’s best nutritionists, who has revolutionized the way Indians think about food and their eating habits. Funny, easy to read, and full of great advice, it argues that we should return to our traditional eating roots (yes, ghee is good for you, yet first understand how much), nutrients are more important than calories (cheese over digestive biscuits) and, most importantly, the only way to lose weight is to keep eating.

Between the years 2007-2011, even my grocery list included most eatables showcased in advertisements starting from sugary soda drinks to packeted chips and even so-called healthy digestive biscuits. These along with the numerous buffets offered during corporate meetings made my eating habits worse. In late 2011, when I joined a famous gym and met a nutritionist; she provided me important insights into the world of dieting. Opposite the expected, she designed a simple and sustainable diet chart all based on easily available food and ingredients. She mainly focused on portion control and diversification rather than forcing me into a crash diet. Within 4 months of regular workouts and following the diet plan, I lost 7 kgs. Surprisingly enough, I was still eating pizza, and samosa in larger intervals and smaller portions just enough to satisfy my palate. As I was spending long hours in the office, she also helped to specifically design the way I should eat my lunch, one important meal of the day. The entire plan considered my gender, age, lifestyle, level of physical activity, etc and hence I felt full of energy even with eating smaller portions than before.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing for many. Key takeaways that I have realized through years of reading and knowledge accumulation,

· Most importantly, identify if you have any medical condition, blood pressure, diabetes, or pregnancy before blindly following anything. If you are a prisoner of your tastebuds, you may throw the nutrition out of the window. Respect and enjoy all cuisines, and all types of food. Eat plain roasted nuts, simple steamed veggies, plain roti, khichdi and steamed boiled rice.

· Eat as per the geographical location you are in, always focus on the fresh produce available than the canned option. Even within India, the traditional cuisine varies from state to state keeping in mind the cultivation and climatic conditions. For example, eat steamed rice, fish cooked in mustard oil, and various veggies when traveling to Odisha or Bengal, do not look for sarson ka saag and makki ki roti loaded with butter. Eat similarly while traveling abroad, to get the best for your body.

· Understand the nutrients beneath the food than just seeing it as rice, roti, potato, dal, or meat. A balanced meal must have some carbohydrates (roti/rice/potatoes), proteins(dal/meat/soybean/paneer), vitamins, and minerals. 80% of the portion should ideally have salads. Over washing and overcooking the vegetables destroy the nutrients, in the name of increasing the taste. Enhance the flavor of cooked food by adding herbs, lemon juice rather than salt, ghee or butter. Use extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar for salad dressings in place of cream, or mayonnaise. Eat chana dal with bottle gourd and not lauki ka kofta.

· Always eat as per the season. Hot parathas may be great for winters; however, summers should be all about cooling your body and keeping the diet as light as possible. Loads of salads, fruits, buttermilk, steamed rice, plain phulka, and sauteed veggies should be all about it. Keep away from cold or infections in the rainy seasons with kadha, soup, grilled corn or anything piping hot.

· Buy foods that do not come in a pre-packaged container. Eliminate salty snacks, chips, canned juices, varieties of cookies, chocolates, salty roasted nuts, granola bars, ready-to-make mixes, mayonnaise or even dosa batter etc. Am now into a habit of buying raw peanuts and dry roasting them at home without adding salt. Never forget to read the ingredients listed on a packet food, trust me you’ll not buy most things once you start reading them. No wonder, I have stopped buying Bournvita, jam, tetra pack juices, mayonnaise, brown bread.

· They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, be careful about your lifestyle though. Try to eat fresh and steamed food like idly, poha, plain dosa, and whole wheat bread toast than poori subji/chole bhature in an empty stomach. These are better choices than the packaged sugary cornflakes or muesli. Always buy traditional rolled oats than ready-to-mix masala instant oats. Remember that anything instant is the worst quality of food you are eating as it’ll be full of preservatives, salt, cooking soda and whatnot.

· Develop habits to eat fruits raw, with peel whenever possible (Apple, soft pear, guava), and without salt/masala. The moment anything is put in a grinder, the fibers are destroyed. We have a set of strong teeth for a reason. Stop drinking juice in the shops outside, they add water, ice, and sugar.

Never eat fruits along a meal, preferably eat before or in between the meals. Citrus fruits like apple, orange, avoid on empty stomach as it may cause acidity. Banana, papaya, watermelon, muskmelon are great to be eaten empty stomach. Remember the childhood days of eating sugarcane with your teeth. Raw salads are even better than fruits, take carrot/cucumber/beetroot sticks with homemade fresh chutneys.

· Rather eat one samosa in an entire week than emptying an entire bag of baked chips everyday evening claiming it’s healthy. The companies play with our psychology to induce guilt and thus force us to buy their products. Traditional ragi mudde is far better than eating ragi cookies. If you must eat the millet, eat in the form of khichdi, roti, chila than chips, cookies.

· Ghee/clarified butter is better than table salted butter or refined oil, but do know that only one teaspoon/4 gms are required per person per day. So remember this next time while putting a large ladle of ghee just for the dal tarka. Include peanut oil, mustard oil, and sesame oil in the unrefined form, depending on the availability in the area.

· Green tea is good under certain medical conditions and not in an empty stomach. The best to follow is how the Japanese take their tea, always half an hour after the food, especially lunch. Another grave mistake people make is, taking biscuits along with green tea in the morning or afternoon. There is a specific temperature as well to brew the tea.

· Honey is good. Is it? It is just another form of sugar, so still be careful how much you eat. Firstly, honey should never be added to anything hot beyond a temperature of 70 degrees. I have seen individuals adding honey in the traditional piping hot masala tea. Best added is, lemon tea after you bring the water temperature down. Preferably don’t add honey to cooked food or bakery products. Limit the portions of anything that is sweet, may it be jaggery/honey/refined sugar.

· Dry nuts are good for snacking, but in what form? People fry cashew, fox nuts in ghee, adding salt and take it as snacks. Among all, cashews are full of calories, absolute disaster for heart patients. Best is our humble peanut, then almond, raisins etc. Raisins have added sugar at times, choosing sultana is a better choice. Always dry roast at home, to get the maximum benefit.

· Make snacks at home as much possible like laddoos for winter, aam panna for the summers, chakli/murukku, even sweets during the festivals. Use good quality oil for deep frying, make a smaller batch and consume in a specific time.

· If you have a sweet tooth like me, choose jaggery rasgulla, rabdi, halwa (sooji,carrot,beetroot,wheat flour) over jalebi, gulab jamun, malpua. I also bake teacakes like banana walnut, carrot orange, all spice to avoid buying cream cakes from outside.

· All in all, enjoy eating and not in front of a mobile phone or TV. We have just one life, but it’s one’s choice to live to eat or eat to live. There are many better goals to achieve than stuffing your body with loads of food all the time. Eat for your body mainly, not just for the tongue.

A balanced meal - From Goa

A prawn meal - From Odisha

A vegetarian meal - From Odisha