From Pongal to Lohri: Celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar's guide to seasonal eating this harvest season

India is a diverse land and the harvest season is celebrated throughout the nation with different names, like Lohri and Makar Sankranti. This harvest season, celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar shares four tips to healthy eating this winter season.

CELEBRITY NUTRITIONIST RUJUTA DIWEKAR SHARES A FOOLPROOF GUIDE TO THRIVING THESE HARVEST FESTIVALS

Harevest festivals in India: All over India, the harvest festivals—Pongal, Makar Sankranti, Bihu, and Lohri—are occasions to express gratitude to the farmer, the sun, and the weather. While each state may have a different name for this holiday, the nation as a whole celebrates in the same spirit. The harvest season signals the arrival of fresh, wholesome, and ideal for consumption seasonal food as winter comes to an end and springtime begins. The bounty of this season, which includes everything from colourful fruits, grains, and legumes to verdant green vegetables, adds to the harvest festival's delectable dishes.

With Rujuta Diwekar’s audiobook 'Eating in the Age of Dieting', available on Audible.in take a trip around India with 4 tips that will help you know the significance of seasonal eating, its health advantages and take part in the harvest season with the right spirit while keeping traditions alive.

1. Make “essential fats” a part of your diet

To prepare your body and mind for the hard work that comes with the start of the harvest season, eat local produce, seasonally appropriate foods. 'Essential fat,' as it is known in modern nutrition, is the primary nutrient that these festivities celebrate. She further adds that “Coconut, til, groundnuts, milk, ghee—each one of them is loaded with fats that are unique in their molecular structure, lending them an ability to allow the body to burn fat over other available fuels like carbs or protein.” 

2. Exercise regularly so that you don’t feel guilty while indulging in your favourite delicacies

Rujuta remarks, "Technically, the body is supposed to have unlimited stores of body fat that can be burned, and if we can use what sports nutrition calls an ‘ergogenic aid’, a nutrient which teaches or manipulates the body to burn more fat, we can see an increase in ‘endurance performance’, or stamina. So if you are one of those who complains about lethargy in the winter, who makes plans to work out but doesn’t get out of bed, maybe all that you need is some therapy. And just because this therapy comes along with a celebration, is good to taste, melts in your mouth and doesn’t have the seriousness and sadness of medicine doesn’t make it any less potent." So go ahead and enjoy the chiki, gajak, laddoo, and pongal the way it was intended—with happiness, family, laughter, and lots and lots of the other treats.

3. Make  family food traditions to share with your closed ones

Sankranti Amchyashi kadhi bhandu naka, til gul ghya gaud gaud bola, and til gul sandu naka translates into, here take this sesame-jaggery ball, talk nicely, don't drop it, and never argue with me. She shares that “The hidden meaning is—don’t ever drop the food traditions passed over from generations, I welcome you to experience the nutrients in local seeds, natural sugars and relish the sweetness of meaningful traditions.” shares Rujuta in  her audiobook on Audible.

4. Til (Sesame)is the new black

“Til or sesame is great for the health of bones, brain and the heart, thanks to its naturally high levels of phytosterol, fibre and copper,” Rujuta mentions. "On my recent trip to London, I observed enormous til guls being offered in expensive cafes as seed balls," Rujuta continued. When we switch to oats to cut cholesterol and have nearly ceased preparing til gul at home, sharing them and eating them together as a community, it's heartbreaking since seeds are the newest thing in the West and til is our native produce.

May the power and sweetness of til gul flourish in our life.