Ancient Ingredients Revisited

Smriti Sinha has done B.Sc. in Home Science and M.Sc. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Allahabad in the year 2008 and 2010, respectively. She carried out research projects titled ‘Estimation of Heavy Metals in different samples of Vanaspati Ghee’ at Central Instrumentation Facility, National Botanical Research Institution, Lucknow and ‘Comparative study of varietal performance for germination, vigor parameters and nutritional value of different varieties of finger Millet under the influence of radioactive gamma radiation stress’ at ANGRAU Quality control Laboratory, Hyderabad and ministry of Food processing, Government of India. She has presented papers in national conferences. She has worked as a Dietician with Trueweight, Hyderabad, a weight management company. Her focus has had been to a systematic approach in objectively identifying the real source of a given problem and developing innovative technical concepts and methods based on laboratory researches. Her forthcoming book is food Power: Equanimity of Thoughts.

Is sophistication in every aspect of life the harbinger of diseases? This question is the core reason of my book. If we look around, we all are constantly discussing this term “corruption”. Did we ever talk about health corruption? Yes, you will be amazed to know it has so many profound effects and indeed different levels of severity. In our ancient Indian culture food had a very significant value. It has been stated that poor quality of food is related to poor mental, physical as well as psychological health. Thus quality of food has always been of prime importance. Our ancient diet which basically revolves around whole grains, fresh fruits, vegetables, milk and nuts was as per our body daily requirement.

As time passed by the refinement in our habits made our body so sophisticated that without a digestive pill we cannot enjoy our meals and consequently blame our body, without realizing that it is we who did this! Nowadays at every stage of life each of us is suffering from some or the other disease irrespective of the age. If we reminisce our childhood days we can recall our grandparents saying- “we never had headache when we were of your age, instead we were so physically fit and active”. But we didn’t pay heed to their words, rather justified by comparing with those who were sailing in the same boat. We are growing restive as our body and mind are working against us, consequently seeking help from all the sources without paying attention to our own habits. Our habits are our best mentors and any aberration in habits will have deteriorating results.

This book is a small effort to live a life free of diseases not through any crash course or by joining some weight loss centre. But by encouraging and introducing healthy eating habits since our birth.

The food has always been an integral part of our life. Moreover it is depicted in various shades in all the spheres of life. The amazing fact is that entire universe, day and night cycle, seasons, family and even through our parents we can associate food. In my journey of this book I was able to realize the incredible association we share with food in all parts of our life. Hopefully, you might also experience the same while reading the book.