‘I now have a healthy body and a healthy mind’

64 years old Sabrina Albuquerque shares how she has invested in living a healthy life and is almost free of medication

I must say that I have received the gift of good health by following SHARAN’s lifestyle. I was ailing with autoimmune disease for two and half years and my CRP levels soared high to 40 and I was put on steroids which put my weight at 81kgs from 73! One and a half year back, I joined some of SHARAN’s workshops and did the Six Weeks course twice and turned vegan from a non-vegetarian. The results have been amazing – my weight has come down to 69 kgs and my CRP levels are down to 8, which is still little high. It needs to be 5 but am sure I will get there. My blood pressure is becoming normal and my medications have reduced.

Being a non-vegetarian my entire life, I did indulge in mock meats twice, but I lost my cravings. My husband did get the feeling that he was eating real meat, so it’s good for those who have the cravings. I tried yam too, once, as fish curry. If I do yearn for my favourite curries once in a while, I make them with tofu or soya chunks or granules. In fact I love the vegan lifestyle and the different healthy recipes that I don’t miss meat or dairy at all!

I am just loving this life. I have a lot of energy and am doing yoga and meditation. Seeing me drop weight and feeling energetic, people are impressed and want to know about what I am doing. I have a healthy body and a healthy mind, and my goal is to live a life without medicines, which I am sure I will achieve soon. It’s been a wonderful journey with SHARAN. I thank the team and Dr. Nandita for her excellent work of transforming the lives of so many to create a disease free world.

Jackfruit Chicken Masala

This is an amazing meat alternative recipe that will keep you wanting for more. Plus its not fake as such as made from a natural ingredient that just happens to taste like chicken!

Ingredients:

• 200 g jackfruit (kathal), chopped into 1” pieces
• 4 tomatoes
• ⅓ cup cashew nuts, soaked for
• 4 hours
• Unrefined salt to taste
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1″ pc ginger
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp turmeric (haldi) powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ½ tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

Method:

Steam the jackfruit for 15 minutes until tender and steam 1 tomato for about 7 minutes. Keep aside.

Drain and rinse the cashew nuts. Pulse in a grinder, with a small quantity of water, to form a thick, smooth paste. Add salt to this and mix the paste well with the cooked jackfruit. Leave aside for 1 hour to marinate.

In a blender, take 3 tomatoes, 1 onion, ginger and garlic and blend well. Take 3 tbsp water in a wok/kadhai. When it heats up, add this paste to it, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Keep cooking, ensuring that it does not burn. This will take about 20 – 25 minutes. You will know it is done when the paste is thick, the bottom of the kadhai is shiny and the paste is not sticking to it.

Blend the steamed tomato to a paste and add to the cooked tomato onion gravy. Add chilli, turmeric and garam masala powders at this stage. Add the jackfruit to the gravy, mix and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. Add more water as required, to bring the gravy to the required consistency. Add kasoori methi and take it off the heat.

Serve with Indian breads – ideally naan or kulcha.

Serves 2-4

Food For The Mind

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1. SHARAN India is SHARAN’s main Facebook page which you can like and follow for getting useful daily updates and news from the plant based health world. You will also get news about the latest SHARAN events, see testimonials, and more.

2. SHARAN’s Vegan Support Group is an open support group to know more about vegan/plant-based lifestyle. Here you can ask questions and share inspiring stories, tips, recipes, etc.

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Please like the main SHARAN page and join the group(s) applicable to you.

What’s the issue with animal products?

Humans have been eating animal products for centuries. What’s wrong with them? In the past humans ate animal products when other food was unavailable. It was a way to survive. Today, due to factory farming is become a health hazard because we are eating more than ever before and because it is harmful in so many ways. Read on to find understand just some of the reasons.

1. Cholesterol  Cholesterol is only produced by animals. We are animals too, and we need cholesterol, but our body produces all that we need. All that extra cholesterol comes into our body through animal products that we don’t need.

2. Pesticides and chemicals Animals are routinely fed foods that are laden with pesticides. These pesticides concentrate in their bodies, and in their secretions. Animal products contain high levels of pesticides and chemicals that cause hormonal imbalance and cancers.

3. Hormones All animals produce hormones similar to the ones that we do. When we consume their products, we are also consuming these hormones, which cause hormonal imbalance in our bodies, eventually causing hormonal issues like diabetes, hypothyroidism, PCOD, infertility, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers etc

4. Excess proteins Believe it or not protein is good in small quantities but is harmful in excess and when we consume animal products, we are consuming far too much protein. Excess proteins cause kidney failure, gout, cancers and more.

5. Lack of fibre Fibre is essential, it fills us up without adding calories, and helps clean our digestive tract, keeps the blood thin and prevents over eating. Only plants have fibre. Animal products are devoid of it.

6. Antibiotics  Today all factory farming methods involve daily feeds of antibiotics to the animals. 80% of the antibiotics produced in the world are fed to animals in our food chain including fish. Antibiotic resistance due to this has become a big problem today.

7. Stress  Animals produce the same stress hormones that we do, and when we consume their flesh or secretions, it’s passed on to us. Stress levels today are so high due to the borrowed stress hormones in animal foods.

8. Environmental destruction Factory farming is known for its huge impact on the environment and we are seeing the effects today. Is it worth contributing to this?