Indian Food
Living in India and thus being surrounded by the yummy curries it is hard to make the locals (in this case Indians) understand that their food is actually not at all healthy. As an outsider you get angry looks or comment like ‘Then why are you eating it?’, ‘What are you saying? Indian food is the most healthy food!’. In the contrary. Of course, nobody wants to hear anything bad about their country, culture or habits, but it is sometimes frustrating to give advice to people that do not know what is actually healthy and what not.
Let’s talk again about the food pyramid.
Water
As you can see the most important food sections are from water until eggs & dairy. The water intake here in India is better than in other countries, simply because:
- There is no culture of drinking any type of alcoholic drink (like in Western countries) with a meal
- It is a country where the temperature can rise till 50-55 degrees Celsius, thus automatically you are more thirsty
- There is just a limited variety of syrups to put in water to make it ‘more tasty’
- Since childhood the people are used to drink water only and not having it substituted by any other drink which is ‘tastier’
Vegetables
This is one of the most mistaken food groups in the whole pyramid. India has a large vegetarian population but yet they do not eat their veggies like it should. An adult person requires about 600-800g of vegetables per day, which means about 300-400g per meal. This is not at all achieved by most of the Indian people. Vegetables (and fruits) are important for the vitamines they bring. However, a common Indian dish, may it be lunch and/or dinner, does not even get to 1/3 of the daily portion that you need. The one or two katori(s) (bowl) that you take per meal is not much more than just 50g per katori. This means that in a full day the vegetable intake comes at a mere 100-200g per day. This is way to less!
Most Indian sabji’s (vegetable curries) are made with a lot of oil and spices. Now, this last one is not very bad; however, too much spices are also not healthy. A lot of chili can cause heartburn and stomach issues. The oil, I don’t think that I have to explain much more about this, is of course also not healthy when it exceeds more than 2 tbs per person. The vegetables are also completely cooked through that you almost don’t even have to chew them anymore but just swallow. When you make your vegetables too soft then all the nutritions that a vegetable has, are gone.
When there is a dish with paneer (Indian cheese), dal (lentils), meat/fish, chhole (chickpeas), rajma (red beans)… then there is no addition of a real vegetable. Sometimes some cut tomatoes, cucumbers and onion are served but never enough for achieving the daily vegetable intake. And, onions are again not really a vegetable.
As last, the understanding of what exactly is a vegetable and what not. All vegetarian curries are called sabji (vegetable curry) but they do not always contain actual vegetables. Potato is used a lot in Indian dishes but it is not at all a vegetable. Not because it grows in nature it means that it is a vegetable. Potatoes come under the same category of ‘grains’ as they exist more out of carbs. Same as red beans, peas, corn, chickpeas, onion, garlic… they do not fall under the category of vegetables.
What is also done here in India (by most people), if you have sabji left on your plate, “oh you don’t have roti (Indian bread) anymore, how you will eat the sabji now?”. What about eating it just like that? Most eat more roti than vegetable and when there is sabji left they just throw the sabji when there is no roti anymore.
Fruits
Fruits can be quite expensive, thus it can be quite difficult sometimes to achieve that daily amount. Bananas are eaten quite often, but yet again this is a food item which contains a lot of carbs. Though, it is not bad to eat but better not more than 2 per day. Fruit intake in general should be approx. 3 maximum per day and mostly be out of fruits with a high water containment.
Grains
The most known grains are in the form of rice, bread, pasta and potatoes. Of course there is a difference between which qualifies for healthy grains and which don't. In general, al the brown (which means unrefined) grains are better than the white ones. This means that brown rice, brown bread and brown pasta are better than their white equivalent. This because the nutritions sits within the brown grain. As a European, I love all kinds of bread. When I make a sandwich for lunch I here, in India, get often to hear (from my Indian family and colleagues) ‘Is this all what you will eat?’ or ‘You should eat more healthy, bread is not healthy.’ ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Bread, brown that is, is as healthy as roti. In fact, if the roti isn't made properly it is actually better to eat bread than roti. Bread is always baked thoroughly where roti can sometimes still be raw. Not everyone is a professional cook thus in all households it will happen sometimes that the roti is not baked enough which means you are actually eating raw dough.
Rice is eaten all over India and there is nothing wrong with that, but it is always white rice. Again, this is not the worst thing but the combination with which it is eaten is not optimal. Mostly rice is eaten with dal (lentils and thus no vegetables), a non-veg curry (again no vegetables) or as in the form of pulao or biryani (both contain very less vegetables). The first time when I ate pulao I was surprised by the combination. It had a few tomato pieces, a few onion pieces and a lot of potato. Two times a grains (thus carbs) in one dish. It would have been the same as eating rice with pasta or bread with rice. Some real foodies like to top that up with namkeen (Indian snack) which is just the same in nutritions as chips and again carbs.
The amount of carbs that is eaten during the day is way to high in combination of the amount of vegetables that is eaten. Vegetable intake should be double of that of your grain intake and not the other way around. And two slices of brown bread has as much nutritions and calories as two home-made roti’s.
Health Fats & Seasoning
In the Indian kitchen mostly ghee, mustard oil and refined oil are used. These are three fats which belong to the top of the pyramid and considered to be optional. They are not healthy and do not bring anything good to your health, no matter what all those commercials try to say. Healthy fats are for example, olive oil and pine seed oil. Also avocado is a heathy fat.
Coming to the seasoning. Indian dishes are well known for their overwhelming spices. It is not for nothing called ‘seasoning’, it means, adding a bit of spices to add some flavour to your food and not adding a bit of food to your spices. Especially chili should not be added in a serious extend. Many people like spicy food, but that doesn’t mean that it is good for you. Heart burn, stomach issues and sometimes headaches are due to the use of too much chili (fresh and powder).
Conclusion
The other food groups of the pyramid are well maintained and in balance when talking about the Indian kitchen.
Many Indian people complain about stomach issues, heartburn and overweight. Mostly the women (but it also occurs with men) complain about the dark circles around their eyes and blame it on being dark skinned or not having enough sleep during the night. This is however just a small percentage of the cause. The dark circles around the eyes comes mostly from having not enough vitamine and not enough protein intake and not because the darker tint of the skin or less sleep. Yes, less sleep will make it even worse but that is not the main reason. If that was the reason than the whole world’s population would have dark circles as in the lifestyle which people have these days, sleep is out of the question.
I also do not know 1 Indian person who does not take any supplements as iron pills, multi-vitamin complex, calcium etc.
Thus, it is important to balance your diet and keep yourself on the appropriate balance.
