Food Doctor

As we grow more and more aware of our body needs and upcoming healthy food products in the market, we tend to choose them without too much awareness about its truth. What you see is what you buy.  Products named "whole wheat", "oats", "high Fibre", "low fat", "zero cholesterol", "organic", "natural", "healthy" etc., have become a trend in the market. I can manufacture any product and market it the way I want and you are bund to buy them because I have caught your weak point and labelled it that way.  NO! Lets become more aware of the products.  1. Looking at the Nutritional Label:  The first thing you would at is the amount of calories. No. you may look at them but that is not the only thing you need to control or take care of! Look at more important things such as Proteins, Fibre and other micro nutrients such as vitmains, sodium, calcium, iron, etc. If they have mentioned these, means ...

"HEALTH" is the word that we see and hear everywhere today. But what I mean by this word is not dieting, eating less, or eating only boring salads while staying hungry to lose weight, etc. Health simply means to EAT what is nutritious, a wholesome balance of all the food groups (comprising of cereals, proteins - meat and milk products, fruits and vegetables, oils and fats and sugars), and eating at regular intervals. Living a healthy lifestyle is all about managing your cravings for tasty food with the cravings of your body for nutrition. Health has become the focus of alot of people today. Be it industrialists, the hotel industry, the food manufacturing industry, government, or the common people. Each and every individual is becoming aware of his health needs. But why? Why do we need to be healthy and why is it important to carefully select what we eat and what we do not eat? Here are just a few guidelines that would answer all your questions! 1. Ever increasing ...

Chikki is a very common and most loved snack consumed by each and every household in India. It is a hard crack made of peanuts / ricepuff / til (sesame seeds) / Rajgeera or anything that one can think of, and jaggery / sugar. We all Know how is it made, and like my other articles, I will not mention the recipe here since its available all over the internet. What I will do is give you the basics and give you the science behind each step so that you can never go wrong with making chikki. Like I always emphasize on, cooking right is a science. If you know it, you are a Masterchef! So let’s get started. I’ve already told you the ingredients of making chikki. Lets jump on to the science and Know – How of making chikki. 1. Caramelization of sugar:  The first step we take in making a chikki is to caramelize the sugar or jaggery. However, using jaggery i sbetter than sugar since it contains micronutrients and added benefits which i shall enlist in the next article. Right now...

How many papads do we have in the market? Plenty! Probably we don’t even know the variety of flavour and types available. But the most common ones that we consume is urad dal Papad and khichiya Papad (which is most commonly consumed by the Gujarati’s or marwaris). So here comes Bajra Papad with an all new healthy prospects and along with that rises the question, why? Why bajra Papad? Here I enlist a few of the benefits of bajra papads and why and how should they be preferred over the others!! 1. India is the  largest  producer of bajra or pearl millet in the world. So naturally it should be our privilege to be able to utilise our own produce in our day to day life and especially when millets are so nutritious. Also it forms a cheap supply of health and nutrition to our poverty stricken areas. Go Swadeshi! 2.  Nutritional   Value  of Pearl Millet: 100g of bajra contain: Proteins: 10.9g Fat: 5.4g Carbohydrates : 61.7g Energy: 347.9kcal Iron: ...

Okay so this somehow sounds boring… Bajra Papad??  Eeeuw… But no.. They taste really good.. And specially with the recipe that I’m going to provide here.  Yes, since this is a novel recipe and I myself couldn’t find the recipe online (an authentic one that worked well), I’ll be attaching the recipe without which explaining the science behind it wouldn’t be given justice.  So, bajra Papad Is made up of bajra flour and I have also added some rice flour to it for better consistency and taste.  Recipe:  Preparation Time: 5mins  Cooking Time: 5-6mins  Post cooking Time: 10-15mins  Drying Time: 4-5hrs (sun drying) Yield: 50g (No. Of Papad depends on the size)  With my size it yielded 15-20 papads.  Ingredients: 1+ 1/2cup (300ml)  water  1/2 cup (100ml/60g) bajra (pearl millet)  flour  1/2 cup (100ml/59~60g) rice flour  5g Ginger – chilli paste (3:2) 1/2tsp salt(t...

Weight loss earlier was rare and confined to only some obese people whom the doctor had recommended for a weight loss programme. But today it's like a trend. Every second person is either already following a diet plan, or is planning to do so soon. Reason? The simple reason being, more and more people are turning overweight and obese these days. And more and more of us are becoming aware of words like health, nutrition, weight loss, fitness, diet plans etc. But do we know what is right and wrong? Are we really looking forward to a healthy living on a long term basis or just short term weight loss goals for Diwali, wedding, vacation, festivals, etc? And how many of us follow the web for all of these tips? EVERYONE!! The new trend involves some random celebrity losing weight and giving you their diet plans and we, like blind, follow them. Why? Because we can see the results! It is very important to understand that short term results never last and that what is really beneficial...

Today, we consider the western foods to be great and yummy, and most preferred, but when it comes to the knowledge and science that goes behind the making of the traditional Indian foods, one might just fall for it all over again. Our grand parents and great grandparents might not have been as educated as we are, but they had way more knowledge and understanding of the foods they cooked everyday than we know of eating everyday. Today we shall discuss about khandvi, which is a native dish of Gujarat, India, where people love to eat the roasted gram flour rolls, spiced and flavoured. In Maharashtra, this dish is commonly known as suralichi vadi air patuli. Again, I would like to mention that I will not be providing any recipe as that is available on the web on numerous websites. Here we will talk about the uncommon. Khandvi is made up of a mixture of besan or roasted Bengal gram flour and buttermilk. Everyone knows that the cooking of this mixture is the most tricky and difficult part...