- SHARAN/The SHARAN lifestyle has benefitted our health in multiple ways
The SHARAN lifestyle has benefitted our health in multiple ways
My wife Richa was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in May 2008. She has been under allopathic treatment since then. In spite of a steady increase in medication, she would still have multiple RA attacks and therefore in 2014, we tried naturopathy. In this treatment, there were a number of restrictions on her diet and she had to take 15-20 supplements per day. I took it upon myself to ensure that she followed her diet chart. Richa’s health did improve in one year and her medicines were reduced to half.
Yet, I always had the guilt that I was enjoying all the delicious food but forcing her to control all temptations. At that point in time, good health for me was more about protein shakes, multiple vitamin pills, fish and exercise and less about a whole food plant-based diet
However, over time it became difficult to follow the restrictive regimen and Richa would still have periodic attacks of RA, though less severe.
In 2017 we attended a session by Dr Nandita Shah and then Richa did the SHARAN 6-weeks Basic Cooking Course. This is when our journey of good health started again. During the lockdown too I read and watched a lot of SHARAN talks, videos, and recipes. I thought that instead of just acting as a partner, I must walk the talk and get involved in everything. Initially, things looked difficult but gradually I left all dairy and meat and significantly reduced processed sugar and oil. This has had a profound impact on my health – my weight reduced from 80 kg to 69 kg over the last 5 years, and my cholesterol came down from over 200 to 160. Tablet Telma 40 that I used to take for controlling BP was stopped, my fatty liver became normal and pimples on my face disappeared. My energy levels have gone up and in the last 3 years, I have run 4 half marathons!
Richa has also improved significantly but there are occasional flare-ups. Her gut health has improved, and we are confident that she will get fully cured of RA with some more effort.
The best thing I like about SHARAN is that they have demystified health in a very simple way and created a strong ecosystem for day-to-day support through periodic webinars, WhatsApp groups etc. which really helps in getting the right guidance. They have removed the misconception that one needs to “stop enjoying food” if one has to be on the path to good health. Instead, they have created wonderful cookbooks and they also conduct classes on whole food plant-based cooking without processed sugar and oil. All this at almost no cost as compared to what one spends while consulting dieticians/doctors.
