I came across a news item recently that mentioned the top 5 diet trends for 2013 in the US.  The article said that the trends have been derived from a nationwide survey answered by 200 registered dietitians.

Here are the 5 diet trends –

1. Natural and simple foods with few ingredients and minimally processed are ‘in’.  Low carb is ‘out’.
2. To lose weight, consumers will look for wheat belly / gluten free diets along with commercial diet programs.
3. Dietitians, social media and smart phone apps are the top 3 resources for nutrition advice.
4. Consumers will focus on eating high quality calories. It’s not about the total calorie intake but where the calories are coming from.
5. Fruits and veggies remain king.  Consumers will look to include more plant based foods in their diets.

My take on this – most of these trends can be applied for Indians too.  However, I would not go with commercial diet programs or gluten free diet plans as a means to lose weight.  If you’re looking to lose weight, approach a qualified dietitian for help.

One cannot imagine eating our daily food without salt.  However, we tend to overeat salt without realising it.  In excess, salt can not only increase blood pressure but also leach out calcium from the body.

HUL (Hindustan Unilever Limited) has recently brought out a user-friendly online salt calculator which can be accessed and used for free.   Find out your salt intake at http://salttest.hul.co.in/

Let us know how useful this tool is for you and your family.

Meet Sandhya Oza, a smart, young model, mother of two, who is pursuing her passion for cooking by running Indian cookery classes called Curry Classes.  She started Curry Classes when she lived in England to teach the locals healthy Indian style cooking.  She was interviewed on BBC Essex Radio.  After moving to Bangalore, she continues to teach simple and easy cooking from scratch, using only farm fresh produce and chicken.  Curry Classes are run in Whitefield, Bangalore.  Do get in touch with her at www.curryclasses.com

Sandhya shares one of her Curry Classes recipes with us –

Vegetable Ginger Soup (serves 1)
One big bowl of vegetables of your choice.  I put tomato, dudhi (bottle gourd), carrot, onion, ginger and pepper.  2 whistles in a cooker and blitz it.  Salt to taste and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, blitz it and boil again.  You can add garlic too if you wish. 

Soon after I wrote a piece last week on Manipuris’ rice eating habits, a reader sent me an email on rice, titled “Rice was never meant for human consumption”.  It went on to say how cavemen ate everything raw (fruits, veggies, nuts, meat), that they did not eat rice, wheat and other grains because they didn’t cook, that rice converts into sugar, white rice has no fiber, one can overeat rice but not fruits & veggies, rice is difficult to digest, and so on and so forth.

Some of the information in this email is true but not all of it.  So, here’s busting the myths on rice and stating facts nutritionally –

1. Rice is meant for human consumption but not compulsory in everyone’s diet.
2. There’s a huge difference between a caveman and a modern day town dweller.  If we need to follow the caveman’s food habits, we also need to follow the rest of their lifestyle!
3. Rice, like all other carbohydrates, ultimately gets broken down into glucose.  There’s nothing wrong with this biochemical cycle since glucose is needed for our daily energy.
4. White rice has very little fiber but brown rice has more fiber and also more vitamins.
5. Rice is not difficult to digest.  Enzymes secreted in the human digestive tract are capable of digesting rice as well as other food groups.
6. It’s good to reduce the intake of starchy items like rice, wheat, etc, and increase the intake of fruits, vegetables, sprouts, etc, especially if you’re watching your weight.

The bottom line is rice is not harmful when eaten the right way and in the right amounts. 

I was so thrilled when my good friend Usha invited me over to her beautiful home to meet Madhur Jaffrey.  Usha was going to showcase some Palakkad dishes to Madhur, and I was a part of the small group of friends who had the privilege of meeting and eating with the famous actress and celebrity chef, Madhur Jaffrey.  What followed was a lively demonstration of the dishes by Usha, with the rest of us learning, mingling and chatting.  We were treated to a delicious, fresh, home-cooked, comforting meal which all of us slurped our way through.

I’m sharing one of the recipes that Usha made –
Pulikatchal (tamarind pachadi)
Ingredients –
Tamarind – size of a golf ball
Green chillies – 5 or 6, chopped
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Sesame (til) oil – 3 tsp
Ginger – 1 inch piece, chopped fine
Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
Jaggery powder – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Orange peel – 1/2 cup, chopped
Raw rice – 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method of preparation –
Soak the tamarind in hot water and extract the pulp. Roast the rice and sesame seeds till it lets out an aroma, and powder the mixture. Heat oil, add mustard seeds, green chillies, turmeric and chopped ginger. Sauté and add the orange peel. Add the tamarind pulp, cook till the pulp thickens a bit. Add salt to taste. Add the sesame and rice powder, jaggery and allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes.