Today’s show was the Pongal Special edition of Slice of Health, with the topic revolving around the concept of “Out with the old and in with the new” and whether the new food fads have replaced the traditional cooking and Grandma’s recipes.

The special guests included a University Cordon Bleu educated home chef Shruti, her Grandmother Shantha Ramanujam and Diabetologist Dr. SP Rajesh.

Shruti says that she takes after her Grandma, Shantha, when it comes to her love for cooking. This is what inspired her to pursue it as a career. Shantha says she loves to cook healthy food rich in vitamins, but also loves to make chocolates!

Shruti interjects that her favourite dish made by her Grandma is actually Wheat Halwa. Wheat Halwa can be made very healthy by substituting water for milk and palm sugar or jaggery for refined sugar, with a small amount of ghee.

As the discussion moved towards the importance of eating healthy, Dr. Rajesh points out that Diabetes has become a global epidemic. By 2030, 1 in 5 diabetics will be Indian! Diabetes is prevalent all across India, and is quite high in the south, not just because of higher rice intake, but also the ghee drenched sweets we’re used to. The amount of calories consumed and calories burned are completely mismatched.

Shruti offers some of her expertise, giving us some healthier substitutes to sugar, such as jaggery, brown sugar and honey. While asked how she manages to be a pastry chef and still bake healthily, she says that while she was in Cordon Bleu in London, she had access to a variety of ingredients that were healthier, such as berries, and different types of chocolate. Since these are not always an option here, it does get tough to bake healthy.

Jane then poses a question to Shantha, asking if there was a concept of “healthy cooking” when she was young, to which she responds that cooking with less oil was what was considered healthy cooking. The healthiest oil to use is sesame oil, or olive oil, which is a more expensive option.

Dr. Rajesh offers us 3 tips to healthy beginnings:

1. Be physically active

2. Decrease oil intake

3. Increase fibre intake and avoid junk food

In conclusion, all 3 guest give us some words of wisdom.

Shruti, who says that she finds baking therapeutic, advices us to celebrate a festivals like pongal with our families, as that is the ultimate way to feel good.

Dr. Rajesh reiterates the health statistics and advices us to limit our sugar intake to 100cal per day and oil intake to 3 tablespoons a day per person. He also reminds us that jaggery is non refined and high in iron content, and is therefore a very good alternative to sugar.

Shantha, in all her years of wisdom only asks that we be happy, smile a lot and eat healthy to stay healthy.

Picture Courtesy: https://www.modernlifeblogs.com/