Today you will learn why it’s important to eat organic food and as much raw food as possible. You’ll also learn how prepare some delicious raw dishes including cashew and date squares.
Eat organic food
Chemicals and pesticides are commonly used in modern agriculture. They not only deplete the soil of organic nutrients, but are also very harmful to your health and contribute to diabetes and other hormonal problems like hypothyroid, polycystic ovarian disease, and even infertility and weight gain. Chemicals both in our food and environment are hormone disruptors. Large amounts of pesticides are found in animal products as the animals eat large quantities of grain. The pesticides get accumulated in the bodies of animals that are used for food.
Fruit, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds are also often conventionally grown with chemicals and pesticides, but the concentration is far less than in animal products. However, organically-grown food is free of chemicals and pesticides and is therefore healthier and more nutritious.
Watch this video by Dr. Nandita Shah to learn about the importance of eating organic food.
Key Points
- Today food doesn’t taste the way it should because of chemicals. Animals and insects avoid foods that are covered with poison, but we buy them everyday!
- Diabetes is linked to other hormonal disorders too – hypothyroid, polycystic ovarian and even infertility and impotency. Pesticides are hormone disruptors and are partially responsible for these problems.
- Animal products have more pesticides than plants because animals accumulate the pesticides found in the food they eat. The ICMR studied 50,000 samples over 7 years and found that on an average, milk in India contains 570 times the permissible levels of HCH, a residual pesticide. Conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are safer than animal products but not safe enough.
- Organic dry provisions are available all over India now, and there are many online organic stores now. Organic fruits and vegetables are found in most metros but if not yet available in your area, its worth starting a kitchen garden in your balcony or terrace.
- When you eat organic you need to eat less and the costs eventually go down. You may also avoid eating because home food tastes better. Another plus – medical bills go down. Higher nutritional values mean quicker healing. Overall it should end up being cheaper.
- Check out our city directories and list of online organic stores that deliver across India. You can also visit Happy Cow for a list of vegetarian restaurants and health food stores in India and around the world and Polka Café for a list of organic restaurants in India.
Eat more raw food
You may have noticed that many of the recipes that we’ve provided you include lots of plant-based food that is uncooked. Raw is the best food for us because that’s the way that nature gave it to us. Raw food is very rich in nutrients and enzymes. Enzymes are required for countless body processes like digestion that are vital for healing from lifestyle diseases, and important for cancer prevention. When you cook food at any heat above 40 degrees C, you are destroying vital enzymes and heat-sensitive vitamins.
Watch this video by Dr. Nandita Shah to learn about the importance of eating more raw food
Key Points
- Eat a variety of colours every day—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple—eat a rainbow!
- Start your meals with raw food as far as possible and as much as possible because they provide live enzymes and digest quicker than cooked food.
- Incorporate more raw food in your daily diet. Over time, you should aim to eat 50 percent fresh and raw food like salads and fruit.
- View today’s recipes and review and try some of the delicious raw food recipes from the programme:
- Vegetable juice
- Green smoothie
- Date, nut, and seed shake
- Plant-based milk
- Cashew cheese
- Salads
- Salad with walnuts
- Fruit parfait
- Banana ice cream
- Chocolate brownies
Frequently asked questions
Get the answers to frequently asked questions about organic and raw food.
What if I can’t find organic food in my city?
One of the problems of living in modern urban areas is that you become quite removed from where your food comes from. There are several citizen movements that are trying to bridge the gap between farmers and consumers and there is a growing trend of farmers’ markets in India. Connect with farmers in your area who are willing to grow organic food. You can also form a collaborative group with like-minded people who want to eat organic food and start a weekly farmers’ market. If starting your own local organic farmers’ market is not possible, you can order organic dry food supplies online anywhere in India. Another option is to learn how to grow your own herbs and vegetables in your backyard or balcony. You may not be able to meet all of your demand depending on how much space you have available, but it’s a start. You can join supportive Facebook groups such as the Grow your own veggies group or Kitchen Gardening (Growing organic food at home) group.
How do I know if it’s really organic?
The first step is to learn about organic growing methods. A little research online will guide you to ask the right kind of questions to judge whether the food you are buying is organic or not. Knowing your farmer, asking how they protect plants against pests and what kind of fertilizer they use, and, if possible, visiting the farm will give your enough indication of whether the food is organic or not. Once you become accustomed to eating organic, you should be able to tell whether the food is organic by its look and taste. Watch a video about how to tell if a mango is organic. Watch Toxic Food, by Satyameva Jayate to learn more about using pesticides to grow food versus organic farming in India.
In addition to choosing organic food, you want to choose food that has not been genetically modified. Genetically-modified organisms (GMO) are plants that have had the genetic code of their seed changed at the level of their DNA. For example, shooting a brinjal gene with the gene of a pig, which makes the brinjal crop grown from this GMO seed more resistant to certain pests or may stimulate the brinjal to produce its own pesticides. In the short-term, this may sound like a good solution. However, the long-term effects of consuming such food are extremely harmful for humans. Watch Poison on our Plate to learn more about GMOS. You can learn more about GMO in India from Vandana Shiva of Navdanya
Organic foods are too expensive—can I buy non-organic?
Because of low awareness and consequent low demand for organic food, it has not yet achieved economies of scale that are available to conventional farming. Unfortunately, organic farmers have to pay huge costs for certification while the government subsidizes pesticides and chemical fertilizers. As a result, in India organic food can cost an average of 30 percent more than food grown with pesticides and chemical fertilizers. However, the additional cost of buying organic food for a family of four is estimated to be anywhere from ₹3000–5000 per month, which is about the cost of eating out once or twice for a family of four at a mid-range restaurant.
There are several good reasons to invest in organic food:
- We tend to eat more when our body is craving nutrients. When you are eating organic food, which is more nutritious, you tend to eat less.
- Your medical costs should reduce over time because eating organic food helps make you healthier.
- You will help to keep the soil free of toxic chemicals.
- Your food will taste better.
Will I be more susceptible to infections from amoeba and worms if I eat raw food?
No, because raw food boosts your immunity which prevents infections in the long run. The human body is designed to counter bacteria and parasites, but it is not designed to process chemicals and pesticides—still, our bodies have been managing. Animals in nature do not wash their food, and yet do not get sick because their immunity is high. You could wash it well with drinking water before eating it.
Should I cook my food if I can’t get organic food in my city?
Cooking or heat does not remove chemicals and pesticides from food. Cooking food tends to reduce the quantity and nutritive value, so you tend to eat more food, which means you also tend to eat more pesticides. You can buy organic dry groceries online anywhere in India. You should also always look out for farmers’ markets in your city. If you cannot buy fresh, organic fruit and vegetables, you could learn how to garden and grow at least some of your own food like greens and herbs.
Is cooked food really bad for you?
You should balance raw and cooked food. Raw food is more nutritious, so eating more raw food—such as fruit, vegetables, sprouts, and seeds—is better. If you keep adding raw to your meals you will find the desire to eat more raw. Note that it’s rare that we over eat raw food, but over eating cooked food is not uncommon. Cooked food has an addictive element, which raw does not.
I cannot digest raw food and it gives me gas.
Adopting a whole food, plant-based diet should improve your digestion, but eating more raw food and more vegetables may cause gas initially. This will get better over time. If your body just cannot tolerate raw food, as is often the case with people who have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or other digestive problems, try all the other diet suggestions but have more cooked foods. After a few months, try eating raw food again. You may find that your digestion has improved.
The raw food world is a whole other dimension—you would not believe how many dishes can be made raw! Today you’ll learn how to prepare some delicious raw dishes.
Cooked appetizer alternative
Learn how to prepare cabbage rolls—a delicious way to add more raw food to your diet.
KEY INGREDIENTS
Cabbage Rolls:
Subtitle
- 1 large cabbage
- ½ kilogram unpeeled carrots
- ½ kilogram unpeeled beetroot
- 1 freshly-grated coconut
- Salt to taste
- Ginger chili paste to taste
Cooked meal alternative
A nice trick for eating a big raw salad that fills you up as a full meal is to add in one or two cooked ingredients like boiled potatoes or beans. Learn how to prepare a delicious salad that you can have as a complete meal.
KEY INGREDIENTS - Complete Meal Salad:
For the Salad:
- Salad greens of your choice such as lettuce or rucola
- Chopped fresh herbs of your choice such as dill, parsley, and basil
- Chopped red vegetables of your choice such as red capsicum, tomatoes, and red cabbage
- Chopped yellow and orange vegetables of your choice such as yellow capsicum and carrots
- Thinly-sliced onions (optional)
- Unpeeled, boiled, cubed potatoes
- Cooked chickpeas
For the Dressing:
- 2 tablespoons date paste
- 1–2 tablespoons freshly-grated ginger
- Juice of 3 limes
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- Water to taste
- Pepper to taste
Cooked dessert alternative
Learn how to prepare date squares—a delicious, raw, gluten-free dessert or snack.
KEY INGREDIENTS
For the Crust:
- 2 cups raw cashews
- 1 cup raw oats
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 20 large, pitted dates
For the Filling:
- 1 ½ cup pitted dates
- ½ cup freshly-squeezed orange juice (about 1 large orange)
- Zest of 1 large orange
Shaukat Lokhandwalla had not had mangoes and other fruits for years! But now he eats a lot and also realised that organic tastes much better. Despite being a non veg, he feels that with this lifestyle, he is not giving up anything, infact he is receiving a lot more.
“Organic has a completely different taste! It’s going back to Nature.”
1. Is Raw food for you?
Based on the latest scientific research, Victoria Boutenko is a proponent of the numerous benefits of choosing a diet of fresh rather than cooked foods.
2. Poison on the Platter
Bollywood filmmaker superstar Mahesh Bhatt launches a scathing attack on biotech multinational companies and compliant government regulators, showing how their dangerous genetically engineered foods and crops comprise one of the greatest dangers on earth. Released in February 2008, the hard-hitting Poison on the Platter is generating unprecedented fervor against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) throughout India.
3. Satyameva Jayate S1 I Episode 8 I Toxic Food
Actor Amir Khan’s award winning TV Serial
For decades our food and water have been contaminated by powerful, harmful pesticides which have been promoted as necessary for better agricultural output. But the reality is that we don’t need pesticides for better yield, and their use is not only deadly for health but results in expensive farming methods. The solution is to adopt organic farming, which is possible and profitable, as the state of Sikkim has shown.
4. The Great Indian Vegetable Scam
5. Trailer: GMO OMG
Buy full movie here
