Eating in the Age of Dieting

Rujuta Diwekar is amongst the most followed nutritionists globally and a leading public health advocate. Over the past decade, her writings have decisively shifted food conversations across the country away from fads and towards eating local, seasonal and traditional. Her mantra,'eat local, think global', blends the wisdom of our grandmothers with the latest advances in nutrition science for sustainable good health for all.

This is a collection of some of her most-loved writings on:

Diet trends and food myths Festival and seasonal foods Quick tips for good health Superfoods in the kitchen Foods for health problems Exercise and yoga Women's and kids' health Heritage recipes

This is how the Upanishads define food-Adyate iti cha bhootani, tasmad annam tad uchayate. That which you consume and in turn consumes you is called as anna or food. And in my twenty years of work, i have learnt that there couldn't have been a better description of the dichotomous, almost paradoxical, relationship that we share with food. The ones who keep it simple and consume it, dare i say, as and when they feel like it, seem to enjoy not just a great equation with food but also with people. They come across as happy, productive and usually enjoy great health too.

On a recent drive from Manali to Kullu airport, something about my driver caught my attention. He was drop dead gorgeous for one, but he seemed to carry a sense of calm that is not usual for people of his age. He looked very young, twenty-three, twenty-five max, but he navigated turns and shifted gears like a pro. ‘Kitne saal se gaadi chala rahe ho,’ i finally asked. “Bees saal se,” he said. “Thirty-eight ka hu.' He had heard my actual question, rare again for a man. “Wow!' i said. 'Bahut experience hai, bahut accha chalate ho.' 'Haan, lekin abhi two saal mein chodd dunga.' 'Why?' i asked. “Woh dadi kehti hai ki ab bas hogaya.'

His dadi was eight-five years old and single-handedly looked after the family farm. For as long as he could remember, she would get up by 4 a.m., milk the cows, take them to the jungle, work at the farm, collect wood, etc., and hadn't fallen sick a single day of her life. Just a few days back she had told him, ‘Ab bas ho gaya.' She was only going to work for the next two years and wanted to slow down a bit on turning eight-seven. That meant that he could drive only for the next two years and then take on the mantle passed down by dadi and look after the farm and the cattle. His dadi, like every Himachali, also drank copious amounts of tea; Himachalis drink 1 kg of tea per person per year, quite ahead of the 822 gm and 800 gm of Karnataka and Rajasthan who take the second and third positions respectively in chai consumption. 'Aap agar pila do toh dadi fifty-five cups of chai pi legi aur dakaar tak nahi legi. Mujhe to> five cups mein hi gastric ho jata hai,' he said with remorse.

Wow! i really wanted to meet this woman. Because she is not the kind of person that i usually meet. Mostly, i meet people who are at the other end of the spectrum, the ones consumed by food. But since i wrote Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight in 2009, even the pattern in which we are consumed by food has changed. If earlier it was about intellectualising it, giving it a name or a number (carb, protein, fat, calories, etc.), in the hope to understand it better or eat better or get healthier, now it is about spiritualising it too. A cultural appropriation by the diet industry,' as my partner GP calls these new-age diet trends.