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Mahatma Gandhi’s experiments with food and the lessons we can learn

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Last updated on - Oct 1, 2020, 22:58 IST

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The Mahatma's mantra

There is a sense of style, a certain air of superiority in deriding the Mahatma. How can we follow a leader who was followed by the poor, the homeless, the uneducated and the un-classy masses? But although it may be difficult to digest for many, it was Mahatma Gandhi who laid the foundation of several principles and doctrines that are so diligently followed by the faddy, sophisticated and the modish generation of our times. Despite believing that they have nothing to do with the dhoti-clad bespectacled leader who looked more like a fakir, people have been following what he taught years ago. As much as he believed in ahimsa and swadeshi, he did also in diet reforms. His autobiography, “My Experiments with Truth” may be his most popular book, but Gandhiji has also written extensively on food and diet. His books “Diet and Diet Reforms, ‘‘The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism’ and ‘Key to Health” talk about his culinary beliefs and health experiments. In his books, Mahatma Gandhi talks about is food experiments and the revelations he had during the process. His vast knowledge is astonishingly ahead of his times. From intermittent fasting to palaeo diet, Gandhiji’s experiments with food and his conclusions are overwhelming.

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Fasting and walking

Despite his frail build and recurrent fasting Gandhiji never gave up walking and it gradually spearheaded a movement whose impact on our freedom struggle is historic. He is said to have walked 79000 kms in his lifetime which is equivalent to 18 km per day! His frequent fasts are well known, but sometimes they extended up to 21 days! A firm believer in fasting as a means to rest the digestive system, Gandhiji made it a way of life, often using it as a political weapon. He has been recorded as saying it to be one of the most potent methods to stay healthy.

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Vegetarianism

Mahatma Gandhi had promised his mother he would not touch meat in England. But it was turning out to be extremely difficult to him due to peer pressure and difficulty in availability of vegetarian options till one day when he found a vegetarian restaurant that also sold books. “I noticed books for sale exhibited under glass window near the door. I saw among them Salt's Plea for Vegetarianism. I read Salt's book from cover to cover and was very much impressed by it. From the date of reading this book, I may claim to have become a vegetarian by choice,” writes Gandhiji in Diet and Diet Reforms.

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Refined sugar, honey and gur

“I stopped taking the sweets and condiments.... I gave up tea and coffee as a rule, and substituted cocoa,” says Gandhi ji in his Autobiography. He considered sugar to be a harmful sweetener and advocated the use of Gur or jaggery. “Gur consisting of cane- sugar and fruit-sugar in the proportion of 2 to 1, would be assimilated more rapidly than cane-sugar alone taken in the same quantity. Therefore, the nutritive value of gur is at least 33 percent superior to that of refined sugar,” wrote Gandhiji in Harijan. He says that he doubted the veracity of the fact that honey should not be taken with hot water as claimed by most of the Ayurvedic physicians because whenever he asked for a reason they failed to give a satisfying answer.

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Polished vs unpolished

“There is a terrible loss of nutrition when the bran of wheat is removed. The villagers and others who eat whole-wheat flour ground in their own chakkis save their money and, what is more important, their health,” wrote Gandhiji in Harijan. He was completely against any form of polished grain and believed that white and dehusked grains lost all their nutrition.

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Milk and ghee

In many of his food experiments milk found no place and Gandhiji did have a certain disregard for milk, but he could not turn away from the numerous health benefits it offered. “Though my own experiment is both unfired and milkless, I am not yet in a position to recommend avoidance of milk and ghee. Though my belief in the possibility of avoiding milk and ghee without endangering health is unshakable, I cannot claim as yet to have found a combination of vegetarian foods that will invariably produce the results claimed today for milk.”, he wrote in Young India.

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Unfired food

He made several experiments eating uncooked food for days together. Although he admits that it did cause weakness sometimes, but if coupled with milk and a small amount of ghee, it is a great way to cleanse and nourish the body. It also clears the brain and makes one a bit more calm. Unfired food or uncooked food, according to him was food in its purest form, which made it healthier. Raw salads, sprouts, chutneys of several fruits and vegetables and leaves made a great meal and quite an affordable one too.

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Diet rules

Gandhiji’s experiments with food also had some other rules where he believed in the use of one grain at a time. “Chapati, rice and pulses, milk, ghee, gur and oil are used in ordinary households besides vegetables and fruit. I regard this as an unhealthy combination. An ounce or two of salads serve the purpose of eight ounces of cooked vegetables. Chapatis or bread should not be eaten with milk. To begin with, one meal may be raw vegetables and chapatis or bread, and the other cooked vegetables with milk or curds.” says the Mahatma.

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Conclusion

Gandhiji’s crusade for healthy living continued throughout his life. His disregard for polished food, sugar and Vanaspati and his support to local food, soyabean and whole grains was much ahead of his times. Just like his political philosophy that was plain, direct and unpolished, so was the food that Mahatma loved-natural and elemental. While we may be blindly looking for sassy nutritionists and health experts, Mahatma Gandhi’s nuggets of wisdom that are based on solid experiments are lying untouched in closets. It’s time we realize their worth and take control of our lives.

Top Comment

Rajinder Singh

1272 days ago

I respect his ideas, the father of our nation.

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