During one of my visits to Chennai, I came across an article on child nutrition written by Rajamurugan in Ananda Vikatan magazine. On similar lines as "Aaraam thinai", I found the article interesting and insightful. Later it dawned on me that the author had been writing a series of articles titled "Nalla Soaru". I quickly rummaged through old issues of Ananda Vikatan from my in-laws place and got hold of a few older articles from the same series. I felt so excited when I noticed this title in Vikatan books online site and quickly ordered it.
Written in a simple format with total focus around food, nutrition, millets and traditional practices, this book has a lot of relevant take-aways. A few of them listed below:
1) Food decides our health, well-being, mental thinking and our lifespan. So invest time in learning about food and cooking. Don't surrender to packaged foods for the sake of convenience and taste.
2) Have bajra(kambu) in summer, ragi and foxtail millet (thinai) in winter/cool seasons.
3) Store-bought packaged wheat flour has excess added gluten which can lead to intestinal cancer in the long run.
4) Teach children about food - where is it grown? How is it grown? Who grows it?
5) Plan your meals in advance, in order to avoid food and ingredients from getting wasted.
6) Avoid eating greens in the night. Greens are rich in fibre and also possess cooling property.
The author has also given a lot of easy recipes using millets. A good eye-opener for people who are new to millets.
It is good to see many relevant books that talk about healthy eating using traditional practices. Such books need to get a nation-wide audience. Let's not succumb to the fads that Western diet and food industry backed pseudo-research keep popping up now and then.
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