Our group aims at sharing ayurveda related knowledge. Author would
like to share something he learnt in Indian kitchen.

Most recommended diet in Ayurveda is Khitchri, easier to digest being
the main reason. When this author recommends it to many patients,
they are afraid to eat or they flately refuse for interesting
reasons. Since Khitchri contains almost 70% rice and rice has more
calories, my obesity will increase or my blood sugar will increase,
or it may cause flatulence are the notions patients have. Similar
sitution was that Oil-filled nuts were like poison during the
long "fear of fat" era. But now, in the new "learning-to-love-good-
fats" era, nuts have won back their hippie-era status as health foods
and especially as heart healthy foods.
http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?
Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=10693&Section=Valley%
20Life

Similarly, people who are on the Atkins diet avoid all sugar (you bet
we do!), as well as so-called "healthful foods" which include rice.
http://www.commonvoice.com/article.asp?colid=3678

A south indian pregnant mom wrote:
"I am im my 29th week of pregnancy and i am detected with Gestational
Diabetics.The carbohydrate food diet suggested by the nutrition and Dietist are
not helping me much. I am eating less cabrohydrate and less food than before
pregnancy.Still there is little high reading .I feel i am forced to eat
fatty(nuts) food to fill my stomach I was not normal weight , was doing
regular excercise before pregnancy. But now this diet is making me less
energtic.
Can you please suggest me some good vegeterian diet for this and also any
vegetable/things that can induce more insulin to keep my Blood sugar normal.
Dietician has told me that fruits, lentils ,rice, yogurt has carbohydrates. I
dont know how to get proteins ,minerals ,vitamins if i cant eat lentils
,fruits, yogurt. Please help me here."

Author advised to eat Idlis and curd rice, what she had eaten from her own
birth. As a result, her diabetes remained in control and child birth was OK, a
sweet outcome of gestational diabetes.

This requires some discussion and author thought this as appropriate
time for such a discussion. 2006 is just round the corner and it is
better that we do some clean up of our biases.

India has hundreds of different varieties of Rice. India exports rice to
neighbour countries and every year the exports increase:
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?
id=186574&n_date=20051209&cat=India

South India, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, parts of Kashmir are states
where rice is a major part of meal. Rice has mainly carbohydrates
with negligible protein content. Fat and minerals almost nil. 100 gms
of rice will give 300 to 400 calories. The proteins in rice, when
combine with proteins in green gram, Bengal gram, mysore gram Toor
dhal, soya bean or other legumes, more nutrition results. On this
count, Khitchri is a good nutritious food. Many housewives in Gujarat
cook rice with milk to make a Payasam which is very nutritious, but
should be taken without sugar. Similarly milk products such as curd,
yoghurt, buttermilk or Gujarathi Kadhi (made from buttermilk) also
harmoniously mix with rice to increase its nutritional value. Amongst
all varieties of rice, the one polished manually is the best for
digestion and nutritional value. However, such a rice is difficult to
find in Metros. A farmer friend sends a quintal of such organic rice
to this author every year.

Rice, a major food in India, has sweet Vipaka. It converts to sweet
taste on digestion, becomes sugar. Being a cooling food, reduces
pitta vitiation. In villages, even today, women remove water from the
vessel when rice is partially cooked and serve it to children. This
is termed `Pej' in Marathi and `Osaman' in Gujrati language. Very
light for digestion and rich in nutrition, can be compared to mothers
milk. Give to children when they are suffering from fever, mumps,
measles, ring worm etc. It has natural gum inside, similar to cooked
rice. Author remembers using cooked rice as gum to make kites and its
thread during childhood. Post offices in villages keep a paste made
from rice floor to stick covers and stamps. Rice is very easy to
digest and pacifies pitta. It causes slight increase in Kapha and
Vata, but rice is also `Vrisya' meaning strengthens semen. Ayurvedic
texts recommend eating milk, rice, dates to increase and strengthen
semen.

By eating rice as a major diet, voice improves and becomes strong in
volume too. Those suffering from hyperacidity or GERD need not be
afraid of rice. It is necessary to improve digestion first. With rice
and milk, rice and curd (fermented just for 4-5 hours) will take care
of acidity as well as loose motions.

Bengalees eat much more rice along with fish curry and south Indians
will die if they are starved of rice. Many south Indian sweets cooked
on festive occasions use rice. They eat Idli, dosa and so many
different varieties of rice, that even their mention salivated this
authors mouth. Having spent one third of life in south India, author
adopted their food style too.

Despite eating so much rice with Rasam, Sambhar, Buttermilk, the
proportion of obese people is very less in these communities as
compared to North Indians and Gujratis in India! And if you compare
smartness in movements, supple bodies, proportionate muscles, South
Indians and Bengalees will outsmart North Indians.

Due to industrialization, following western culture, fast life style,
the process of removing water while cooking rice is being forgotten.
Pressure cooker does not permit this. Another food item getting
outdated is use of butter milk or whey. Ayurveda has books written on
just buttermilk alone. The number of families where Rice bread is
being eaten is also declining. Basmati rice is well known all over
world. But this rice, if taken excess in cooked form with ghee (as in
Pulao) along with Chapati, Paratha, or rice bread (Bhakri) the
digestion reduces causing gas, acidity. Pulao is maximum consumed in
Cities, where sedentary lifestyle is predominant.

While calorific value of rice and wheat is similar, their structure
differs. If one eats wheat in the same manner as rice, 72% glucose
one obtains from wheat. The phosphorus in wheat gets removed if floor
is ground in electric mill. Vitamin B1 (thiamine), a nutrient is
found in brown rice but not polished white rice:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/051217005431.htm
It is recommended that whole grains such as rice may be added to diet
to correct mineral deficiencies:
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/11839/

Those who eat rice, should remember that the true benefit can be
obtained only by chewing rice to fine paste. Mothers who see their
children swallowing rice without chewing much, they over-cook it so
that less chewing will digest. Though such rice becomes very soft,
its nutritional quality reduces. Similarly when we add Toor dhal,
spices such as chillies, tamarind, jaggery, sour items, the
nutritional value of rice reduces. Extra cooked rice may be useful
only to elderlies with most of teeth missing.

Gujaratis often mix floors of Jwar, Bajra, Maze etc in rice floor,
add curd for fermentation and make Vadas by frying next morning. Such
a ready mix sells as `Gotano Lot' in Ahmedabad. This is unhealthy.
Similarly, left over rice during night is given a sauting next
morning and given to family members so that it need not be thrown as
waste. But this type of rice induces acidity, as experienced by many.
It tastes good while eating, but burning in food pipe or stomach
after an hour is what one has to bear with. Tasty items such
as `Bhajiya', `Muthia' are popular items in Gujarat, made from left
over rice. If eaten infrequently, they may not cause problems, but
those suffering from pitta disorder, be careful if you are served
these items.

Gujarati Dhokla is well known even in U.S. and Canada where motels
run by Patels from Gujarat serve it. It is made by fermenting rice
and steaming it like Idlis. If taken freshly made along with raw
oil, ghee, it is easy to digest and nutritious. One can add a a
little turmeric, ginger, green chilli, Saindhav salt to make it
tasty and salivating. And finally a tip for boosting male fertility:
Idlis amd Meduvada, due their content of Urid dhal is a good `Vrisya'
food, as is `Adadiya' laddus, a gujarati item, right season for them
being winter, running already.

Dr Bhate