Review: The Healthy Indian Diet
Houston has some amazing programming through the local library systems – most recently, many of the area libraries, book stores, schools and councils have come together to form Gulf Coast Reads. Back in August, I attended one of their events to hear one of Houston’s own desi authors read from her most recent work.
As a consequence, I ended up meeting Raj Patel, a medical resident based in Houston. Raj had a booth at Gulf Coast Reads promoting an aspect of the culture that he’s passionate about: the inherent healthiness of the traditional desi diets. Along with Anuja Balasubramanian and Hetal Janna of the internet channel “Show Me the Curry“, Raj has co-authored “The Healthy Indian Diet: How Traditional Foods of South Asia Help Prevent Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Cancer.”
If you’re a young desi and trying to convince your roomates, spouse, parents or family friends to try healthier versions of the foods they grew up enjoying, then this is an important book for you to read. If you’ve tried Indian foods in Hillcroft, and would like to learn to make your own, healthy version of dishes you’ve tried, then read this book.
Most books focusing on a regional and specialty cuisines offer up recipes based on nostalgia and taste, without necessarily taking kilos and cholesterol into account. It’s rare for traditional recipes to be curated with an attention to health – and if so, usually either taste is sacrificed.
“The Healthy Indian Diet” is different: it focuses as much on the science behind why traditional diets of all cultures are more healthy than their modernized counterparts that have substituted refined grains, flours, and fast foods in place of nourishing, traditional options. Perhaps the most compelling excerpt of the book is where Dr. Patel shifts the reader’s paradigm for the term “diet.” It’s not a distinct, fad effort to lose weight – rather, a “pattern of foods” consumed daily by a culture.
In this book – and unlike most cookbooks – the science of food and diets are backed up by figures and scientific studies, cited in endnotes. Leveraging his medical training, Dr. Patel has researched and documented the epidemic and sources of chronic disease, explains basic food science, and outlines the elements of a healthy Indian diet.
Sandwiched in between the science and supporting data is a spread of desi recipes from all over the subcontinent – some adjusted to take into account ingredients available in American markets, and many improved in their nutritional value, without sacrificing taste or texture. Dr. Patel makes the case for keeping ghee (clarified butter) in moderation in the diet, as well as for phasing out white rice in favor of brown.
It’s rare to find an Indian cookbook containing recipes from all over the subcontinent, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. This book does – and it also gives a nod to American palates by including dishes such as (spiced) asparagus subji and quinoa pulao (pilaf), as well as the very traditional doi maach (Bengali fish curry) and kumro chokka (squash with black chickpeas), two of my regional Bengali favorites. Kudos to the co-authors for their thoughtful recipe choices.
The books reads easily: Dr. Patel presents facts and figures in a voice that is matter of fact yet engaging, without preaching or lapsing solely into medical jargon. It’s accessible to readers with varying levels of experience with Indian foods: those who to whom cooking and eating their desi diets is second nature, those who eat enjoy their cuisine and want to learn how to make the recipes, as well as those who are connected to desi food and culture out of appreciation – and wish to learn how to cook various dishes.
Most importantly, this book offers those who love their traditional diets a perspective on how to keep enjoying their food, while updating their recipes’ ingredients choices. This isn’t a cookbook, or a diet guide – this is a book for health, and for life.
Top image “market life, kerala” by eenar_6
About the Author
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Kuntal Gupta
