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HomeHEALTHHEALTH: Know about Mahatma Gandhi's experiments with foods and what we can...

HEALTH: Know about Mahatma Gandhi’s experiments with foods and what we can learn

Gandhi Jayanti is a national holiday celebrated across India to mark the birthday of the great Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi, known by many Indians as the “Father of the Nation”. It is celebrated on October 2nd every year. It is one of three officially declared National Holidays of India and is observed in all its states and territories. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2nd 1869 in Gujarat, then known as Porbandar, British India. Today, we will know about the experiments done by Mahatma Gandhi and what we can learn about it.

A firm believer in fasting

Gandhiji is said to have walked 79000 kms in his lifetime which is equivalent to 18 km per day! His frequent fasts are well known, but sometimes they extended up to 21 days! A firm believer in fasting as a means to rest the digestive system, Gandhiji made it a way of life, often using it as a political weapon. 

Vegetarian

It is said that Mahatma Gandhi had promised his mother he would not touch meat in England. But it was turning out to be extremely difficult for him due to peer pressure and difficulty in availability of vegetarian options till one day when he found a vegetarian restaurant that also sold books. “I noticed books for sale exhibited under a glass window near the door. I saw Salt’s Plea for Vegetarianism. I read Salt’s book from cover to cover and was very much impressed by it. From the date of reading this book, I may claim to have become a vegetarian by choice,” writes Gandhiji in Diet and Diet Reforms.

Refined sugar, honey and gur

“I stopped taking the sweets and condiments. I gave up tea and coffee as a rule, and substituted cocoa,” says Gandhi ji in his Autobiography. He considered sugar to be a harmful sweetener and advocated the use of Gur or jaggery. “Gur consisting of cane- sugar and fruit-sugar in the proportion of 2 to 1, would be assimilated more rapidly than cane-sugar alone taken in the same quantity. Therefore, the nutritive value of gur is at least 33 percent superior to that of refined sugar,” wrote Gandhi in Harijan.

Polished vs unpolished

“There is a terrible loss of nutrition when the brand of wheat is removed. The villagers and others who eat whole-wheat flour ground in their own chakkis save their money and, more important, their health,” wrote Gandhi in Harijan. He was completely against any form of polished grain and believed that white and dehusked grains lost all their nutrition.

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