I am talking at the first Indo-China Yoga summit in Guangzhou about our cultural similarities in diet. And good old rice—as old as the two ancient civilisations—is one of our biggest dietary commonalities.
The Chinese eat rice with every meal, breakfast included, and the average Chinese on the street is thin, if not skinny. In our country, however, we are getting sceptical about rice and yes, we are all getting fatter.
We either give up rice or replace it with wheat or ‘brown’ rice. Now if your rice has more fibre than you can digest, brown rice will only cause indigestion. Rice should be polished only to the extent that helps it retain its nutrients and looks brownish or reddish. Replacing rice with wheat does not help either, because it means reducing your intake of amino acids (protein’s building blocks) and Vitamin B.
Dal-chawal is a nutritious meal, possessing the entire spectrum of amino acids, vitamins and minerals. It also accelerates fat burning. Look at the number of affluent people with Vitamin B-12 deficiencies. Chances are, they won’t remember the last time they had dal-rice.
This also makes them susceptible to a slower metabolism and a lower BMR.
A humble dal-chawal meal is so satiating that it makes you eat slower and improves your chances of eating the right amount (the cornerstones of fat loss or accelerated metabolism, good digestion and health itself).
Rice is auspicious in both China and India: the dead are offered rice to wish them good health for life outside their physical selves. It’s sad then, that in India, even when we are still in our bodies, we make fads out of rice.
(Nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar’s latest book is called Women and the Weight Loss Tamasha)
