My friend Prachi (the actress from Mumbai) had come over to meet. We hadn’t seen each other in ages, so we were settling in for a long gupshup session. As always, I offered to make her favourite drink, Chai. To my surprise, she asked, “Can you make me jeera water instead?”.
“How do you make that?”, I asked curiously. She looked at me with surprise and a hint of disbelief. “You don’t know jeera water, Chhavs? It’s supposed to be good for you.” Sure, just like wine is supposed to be “good for you”, I thought to myself.
“I feel like having something warm today”, she said as she directed me with the recipe. “Chai is warm”, I countered. “But chai isn’t good for your health na. So much dairy and sugar. Maybe I should switch to green tea.” She seemed to be debating more with herself than with me.
I was starting to get concerned. When I had worked with her, she was quite adamant that she couldn’t live without her chai-paratha. What could possibly make her give up her most beloved beverage? I had to ask, “Kya hua, Prachi? Why these new diet additions?”
That’s when she disclosed, “I have a very big photo shoot coming up and I just need to look my best. I don’t know what to do and I am losing sleep over it. I read on Instagram that seeds are good for losing belly fat. So I started having jeera water twice a day and cutting back on tea.”
It is true that seeds contain fibre, omega-3 and antioxidants which help in fat loss. But seeds are effective only when they are a part of a traditional meal, like a tadka or a ladoo, not in water. Only then can they be digested well, the antioxidants be absorbed and the omega-3 be assimilated optimally.
Unfamiliar foods often seem exciting. Moreover, if they sound exotic, we are almost instantly convinced that they are good for health. People are switching to bread with seeds, making salads with seed toppings, starting their day with soaked seeds water or just plain popping raw seeds like mouth freshners, in the hope to eat healthier.
What we don’t realise is that our native cultural food is already so enriched that we don’t need anything new. To list a few seeds and their traditional recipes -
Rai & jeera (mustard & cumin seeds) used in dal and sabzi ka tadka
Til (sesame seeds) used in chikki and ladoo
Dhania (coriander seeds) used in some sabzis
Methi (fenugreek seeds) used in pickles and kadhi
Javas (flax seeds) used as chutney
Posto (poppy seeds) used in sabzi and halwa
Sabja (basil seeds) used in sherbets and kheer
Aliv (garden cress seeds) used in ladoo and kheer
Our grandmothers devised these recipes long before modern nutrition science discovered the benefits of seeds. We just need to follow their wisdom with a bit more diligence.
“Bujhe?” I ended my lecture to Prachi in Vijay Verma’s style from the Mirzapur series. I knew she had understood when she replied, “Ye bhi theek hai!”
#simple #sensible #sustainable
Chhavi Goel
Conscious Nutrition
+91 8169769392