Whats on the Gujarati thali?

A Gujarati saying goes that a guest hasnt been treated well unless the tea served to him is so sweet that the cup sticks to the saucer. This fondness for all things sweet,and fried,and with dollops of ghee make the average Gujaratis dietary habits a diabetologists nightmare.

But Dr Moti Talpada,internal medicine specialist at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Gandhinagar,does not believe that a vegetarian Gujarati diet is to blame for the states health problems. Gujarati food is largely vegetarian but it is a balanced diet. I would recommend it to anybody with a medical condition. It is certainly not nutritionally deficient and now that items like paneer have been added to our meals,there is more variety than before. The only problem is in the way we use sweet jaggery in dal and the layer of ghee over something as innocuous as aamras mango pulp, says Talpada.

There is little dispute among doctors about the link between Gujarati diet and diseases of plenty such as diabetes,hypertension and obesity,besides Vitamin B12 deficiency that comes with a milk-free vegetarian diet. Gujarati food and snacks like dhokla,khakra and farsan are generous with sugar,sodium bicarbonate and oiljust the recipe for lifestyle diseases, says Dr Harit Buch,consultant at Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad.

Also,Gujaratis have traditionally not thought much of vegetables on their thali. Much of Gujarat,especially the dry and arid Saurashtra,didnt grow enough vegetables and so,some of the most popular Gujarati dishes such as kadhi,moong and papad-methi nu shaak skipped vegetables entirely. But that changed with the timesincreasing affluence and better transportation meant people had easier access to vegetables.

Ahmedabad-based sociologist Professor Ghanshyam Shah says vegetables werent part of Gujarati meals 30 to 40 years ago,so that is a habit still to develop. When I was young,I remember there would be just one vegetable in the meal. Earlier,vegetables were not available. Today,they are available because they are grown and because there are more markets. At least those who can afford vegetables eat them now.

Low fruit intake remains a niggling diet problem in Gujarat. Nutritionists say that apart from her love for aam and aamras,the average Gujarati has only a fraction of the recommended daily fruit intake of four-to-five servings. It could be so because Gujarat is not a big producer of fruits,if you leave out mangoes, says Ambavadi-based endocrinologist Dr Banshi Saboo.

But Saboo doesnt agree with Modis remark that diet fads are to blame for Gujarats high malnutrition figures. If overall nutrition levels are falling,I cannot think of any other reason but the financial inability of people to buy the right kind of food. As for diet fads,there are people practising them but their percentage would be too miniscule to impact statewide data, he says.

Modi had said,If a mother tells her daughter to have milk,theyll have a fight. Shell tell her mother,I wont drink milk. Ill get fat.

Though the perception is that Gujarati food is low in protein and that this could be behind the high rates of childhood malnutrition in the state see Hunger Pangs,Dr Buch of Sterling Hospital says there is no study linking Gujarati diet to protein deficiency. Vitamin B12 deficiency is the only known issue. Vitamin B12 is largely of animal origin found in milk,eggs,meat and its deficiency can result in a fatal form of anaemia.

The average per capita calorie intake of a Gujarati middle-class household is 2,300 calories the recommended range is 2,000-2,500 but according to a study that analysed the nutritional status of middle-aged Gujarati Jains,a big portion of this calorie comes from fats that have a far higher calorific value than carbohydrates and proteins,thus making the nutritional profile lopsided. The study,published in the Journal of Hospital and Clinical Pharmacy,says the overall fat consumption of those surveyed ranged from 202-214 per cent of the recommended intake,fibre was only 40-52 per cent,and 21.9-37.4 per cent for coarse grains.

Like everywhere else,urban Gujaratis have problems associated with changing lifestyles. Sushma Saksena,dietician at Shalby Hospital in Ahmedabad,says the diet in middle-class Gujarati homes has worsened on the nutrition scale over the years. Earlier,people would have fuller meals with carbohydrates,dal,etc. But now,increasingly,that basket is shrinking, says Saksena.

But there are those who say the basket is expanding and Gujarat,largely seen as a vegetarian bloc,is slowly making space for non-vegetarians. Though its still hard to find meat shops in most neighbourhoods,outlets selling fried chicken are common in malls and shopping complexes.

Ahmedabad-based food critic and author Esther David says,Though the Old City area dominates in terms of non-vegetarian joints,there are caterers from the western part of Ahmedabad who now deliver food to your doorstep. Many new non-veg joints have sprung up and there is a whole array of fish and chicken shops where one can buy meat. These are signs that the city is slowly accepting meat lovers. The thali now has space for more.