Dietary Guidelines for Indians

I am a follower of the Chef at Home (CAL) blog/facebook group. I was checking out their server revamp and clicked on this link: http://www.chefatlarge.in/health/nutrition/how-should-indians-eat-64674

The page has a table (which I hope they revise soon) - (Table 1 in this blog, page 86 in the NIN Report pdf) that shows amount of calories and recommended portion sizes. Now, it is to be used in conjuction with another table.. (see Table 2 here, Page 117 in the NIN Report pdf)

Table 1: Shows portion sizes of balanced diet. There are multiplication factors to be used for adults. Typcally 4 for adult males and females. Can go up to 6x for moderate exercising folks, by 11x for heavy exercising people.  Don't starve yourseve on just 4 g of sugar per day. It it good to reduce it to that much though, if you can! :) 

Table 2: Balance diet for adults depending on activity levels (multiply the g/portion with numbers under the Men or Women). For e.g ~20 g of sugar for sedentary male, can be increased to 24 g sugar for moderately active male.

For the actual example of a guideline diet as a food  pyramid see:

I should definitely thank Sid and Sanchita for posting this at CAL. However, I thought the numbers were too low so I decided to go to the source document once these questions came up in my mind.. 1) Meat substitute: Now, did they also have an option/guidance for people on substituting the 50 g meat with anything else.. ie is it just more pulses or split half in leafy veg and pulses?

They actually discuss this as guideline with pulses first and then ask non-vegetarians to replace one serving of pulses (~30-50g with a serving of meat). Page 87 report pdf
2) Sugar and oils for daily basis are much higher in our diet so this is interesting. Sugar just 5 g per day?? See answer to Q 3 below.
3) Third.. was this for normal, office going, sedentary type person ? This is answered well in page 86 in the report pdf

For e.g ~ 15-20 g of sugar for sedentary, can be increased to 24 g sugar for moderately active ((my assumption) ie. 45 min exercise per day x 5 times a week) and 44 g for heavy exercise (athlete type people, or (my assumption) if you exercise over 75 mins X 5 times a week )

4) Any difference between male adult /female adult mentioned in guidelines? Covered in Table on page 86 in report pdf.

Ok, it is also interesting that in their detailed document they basically say "Abstain from alchohol" -- haha..no mention of moderation or anything.. Page 73.. (they actually say refrain from excessive drinking).


I might update more, but this is a quick post! http://ninindia.org/DietaryGuidelinesforNINwebsite.pdf

Colorful Food is Appetizing!

A good mix of colors in the food I eat is always very appetizing to me. Even a simple salad made out of carrots, cucumbers (and you can add spinach, cilantro, walnuts or almonds for plant protein) looks great simply due to the contrast of bright colors. That is one of the items I made today for lunch along with a lentil-rice "pie" and a stir-fry with assorted vegetables.

Carrot-cucumber salad: Washed carrots (scrub well), washed cucumbers and then peeled. Sliced both into small pieces, mixed them up in a salad bowl with some lemon juice and sprinkled salt to taste. Also added some almonds to my salad to give some crunchiness. Picture shows what is left of the salad after we ate it while waiting for the stir fry to get ready.

Stir-fried Vegetables: Will add procedure soon. This included potatoes, zuccini, red peppers with cilantro seasoning at the end. Spices used were garlic, ginger, cumin seeds and asafoetida (optional).

Lentil-rice "pie": Not really a pie, but I just shaped the rice and lentils that I had cooked to softness in a pressure cooker (with 1 tbsp butter added) into the shape of a pie. You can also make this in a crock pot but start preparing the lentils first and then add the rice in about a 1/5th into your estimated total cooking time. So if you wanted to cook lentils for 60 mins in a slow cooker, then add rinsed rice and appropriate amount water about 12 mins into cooking cycle.

A different angle

Note: usually I add 2.25 cups water per cup of dry lentils and 2 cups water per cup of brown rice. these amounts may vary with your rice/lentil type.. add less and you can add more later if needed.

For other recipes using lentils, check out: http://spicetruck.blogspot.com/search/label/lentils