What is all this "hot and cold" food about?

"Scientifically, there is no reason why foods should be classified as hot or cold — but this notion is strongly ingrained in the Indian thinking ," says Dr. Nirupa, Food and Nutrition lecturer at the Government Home Science College

.Defining a food as hot or cold has nothing to do with the immediately perceived quality of the food itself. For instance, ice is supposed to be hot. The coldness or hotness of foods is decided by their supposed effects on the system after digestion and absorption. Foods with high water content like watermelon are considered "cold" foods — that is, they are supposed to have a cooling effect on the body.

Indian food notions are not confined to what’s hot and what’s not. There is also a long list of suitable and unsuitable combinations. As per Grandma’s advice, watermelon plus water is out; milk plus curd is out, milk plus fish … poisonous! And tea plus egg will have you positively sweating. Banana shake in cold weather … no, no, no. Start probing the "why" of these categorisations and prohibitions and one finds that believers offer all sorts of "logical" explanations — like "watermelon is basically all water anyway so you don’t need more water", or "banana stimulates mucous secretion thus banana-shake is avoided in cold." None of these explanations pass scientific muster. So what about "foreign" foods — pizzas, foot-longs, noodles and the like? Many a mother grumbles about slaving in the kitchen all day only to have her tasty dishes ignored by teens who want only fries and a burger. "These are items we usually term `junk food’ but nutritionally, they’re not too bad," says Dr. Nirupa. "They containhigh-protein foods like cheese. They make a nice occasional change. After all, even the best dishes get boring if one has them too often. Just don’t overdo it because too much spicy, fatty foods isn’t healthy. If the youngsters want to eat noodles, there’s no harm … just add some vegetables so as to get ideal combination of fashion and nutrition."

Scientific nutrition also categorises food — but not into hot and cold. As per the modern view, foods are composed of carbohydrates, sugars, fats, proteins and supplementary substances such as minerals and vitamins. The modern idea is to eat everything but in the right quality and quantity. Come to think of it, the "balance" concept has been around for quite some time. Samyak ahar, samyak shram, samyak nidra (balanced food, balanced activity, balanced sleep) … that’s what it says in the Vedas and you can’t get more traditionally Indian than that.