Producer: Priyanka Das Editor: Nisha Dubey
Celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar in her audiobook, ‘Eating in The Age of Dieting’ on Audible, elaborates on how maintaining good health during the monsoon is easier than we think.
Rujuta suggests three easy tips to make your hot cup of tea not only calming but also healthy. She recommends adding ginger and tulsi (for digestion and immunity), lemongrass (to prevent bloating and congestion) and black pepper/cinnamon (to improve insulin sensitivity).
Sharing an insight on consuming locally grown vegetables, Rujuta shares, “The soil during the rains is not suitable for growing green leafy vegetables, and therefore we shift to creepers like bottle gourd, pumpkin, bitter gourd, ridge gourd and root vegetables like sweet potato, elephant foot yam and purple yam.”
When it comes to monsoons, Rujuta strongly recommends nachini, “You can eat it as porridge, bhakhri or even a papad.” Additionally, she urges everyone to avoid multigrain breads, attas and biscuits and suggests seasonal substitutes for them.
Rujuta sheds light on a fascinating tradition: during monsoons, Indians historically substituted meat and fish with carefully dried and stored pulses from the summer months. These became a source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and even fibre during the season.
Talking about the season’s speciality, ‘deep-fried bhajiyas’, she advices, “Use filtered groundnut, mustard or coconut oils, and don't reuse the oil for cooking afterwards. Without essential fats in the diet, vitamin D cannot be assimilated.”