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Oct 23, 2013

Mahatma gandhi diet regime

The body was never meant to be treated as a refuse bin, holding all the foods that the palate demands. – Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhiji believed that food was an integral part of shaping our consciousness and not just meant to satiate our hunger. He experimented throughout his life to find his ‘perfect diet’, an experiment that lasted over 35 years. The Mahatma followed the Brahmacharya way of life which looked to eschew anything and everything materialistic and this reflected in his diet. While earlier in his life he consumed meat, he stopped it and was completely vegetarian by 1906. The Brahmachari diet consists of –
    1 litre of cow or goat milk
    170 g cereals
    85 g leafy vegetables
    140 g of other vegetables
    30 g raw vegetables
    40 g ghee
    60 g butter
    and 40 g jaggery
    fruits
    2 sour lime (taken in juice form)
    salt according to taste


He was a strict vegetarian and even abstained from cow’s milk. Finally, on a doctor’s advice, he started drinking goat’s milk. Research has now shown that goat’s milk is nutritionally superior to cow’s milk. It has higher amounts of vitamins and minerals.

Jaggery too is a better source of sugar than processed sugar and as it causes a slower rise in blood sugar levels. Gandhiji recommended intake of wheat and rice in the diet where the other cereals had be eaten in a rather dry form. The Mahatma was also a big fruit eater and loved his seasonal fruit which is good considering that most dieticians agree that getting our sugar dose from natural sources like fruits is the best way to keep our weight low.
The next item on his diet – lemon too is a great addition. It’s a rich source of vitamin B and C and also contains minerals like calcium, phosphorous, magnesium. Due to its anti-oxidant properties it’s a great anti-ageing remedy and also helps heart patients.

Abstaining from meat was also very important. Not only was it an integral part of ahimsa, which states that you shouldn’t cause harm to anyone but most experts link the consumption of meat to rise in heart diseases and other obesity related conditions across the world. His distaste for all things manufactured must also be commended. Recent research has proved that most manufactured food items are extremely unhealthy and play a huge role in the rise of lifestyle diseases.  All in all following the Mahatma’s diet might just be the best fad diet to follow in these tumultuous times.

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